Literary compost

Starting Literary Compost now doesn’t feel brave, it’s a necessity. People who are out here still successfully selling feet pics after the celebrities took over OnlyFans — they are brave.

Why literary compost, you ask?

In his Masterclass, Neil Gaiman talks about learning how to make your own compost heap of inspiration. You take bits and pieces from your real-world experiences, from your favourite authors, from your joy and unimaginable pain, and you keep them somewhere in your mind (or your soul) — and you let them decompose and create something new. Sometimes they can turn into something beautiful — a line or two in a new story, the foundation of a new novel, an inspiration for something totally different. And sometimes, they have served their purpose — they have existed and ceased to exist. Not all stories need to be heard by others.

So when I get asked next, “What are you working on? What are you writing about?” I will say, “Well, sometimes I am busy composting, and sometimes I am writing.”

About what? Well, that is perhaps the topic of the next blog.

Soul lubricants:

In my struggle for writing, here is a short list of things (stories, talks, classes and people) that have helped me through it (sometimes to write and sometimes to make peace with not writing).

• Subscribe to online learning tools and do writing courses that are not so expensive. I’ve done Neil Gaimen’s “ The art of storytelling” on MasterClass like 4 times. Other platforms I’ve used include CreativeLive, Audiobook, Spotify, Medium.
• Follow people whose art you like and subscribe to them. I know we are overstimulated and our inboxes are overflowing, but subscribe to 1 or 2 artists whose work brings you joy and learn from them. I follow Remy’s blog religiously.
• Keep a notebook and pen at the ready and write whenever the Muse takes you, and even when She doesn’t. Physically writing accesses your brain in a way that typing just doesn’t. It connects you. I have close to 50 notebooks I’ve scribbled in since my childhood and revisit them often with updates and edits or use them for inspiration.
• Going for long walks — frees the brain to think through scenarios, calms you down, and releases endorphins. I couldn’t write if I didn’t take myself out for walks in beautiful places.
• Make time and get into a routine. It’s not true that creatives are easygoing and all their chakras are aligned. The creatives I know, after that second whiskey, will tell you that they’re as messed up as the rest of us. There’s nothing more you need to be, or say or do or learn to write today — except, of course, to write.
• Additional resources that help me write: Creative Calling, War of Art, Brené Brown (all of everything!), Joyce Carol Oates (especially on finishing short stories).

If you enjoyed reading this, want some more inspiration for writing, check out my other article on the struggles of writing (and not writing well).