In allowing his creative writing to evolve from a guilty pleasure, practiced in secret, to something he needed to do, Shaky Shergill discovered that he had a gift, one that could serve the world.
—
… creative writing became an indulgence, something to be put away as I was no longer a boy who had fun writing but was becoming a man with a job and responsibilities, a man who didn’t have time for such silliness.
|
My writing includes poetry, short stories, submissions to publications such as this one and somewhere in there is at least one novel waiting to come out. I’m still growing into my gift and honing it. So, the reasons why I do or don’t write will vary depending on when you ask me, how I’m feeling at the time and the type of writing.
◊♦◊
At first writing stories for English classes was fun. As I progressed through school and university writing was something that had to be done. I endured; writing essays, reports and dissertations.
After that contributing to newsletters and magazine for various voluntary agencies meant writing was an act of service.
As I grew up, writing, specifically creative writing became an indulgence, something to be put away as I was no longer a boy who had fun writing but was becoming a man with a job and responsibilities, a man who didn’t have time for such silliness.
However there was a part of me that wasn’t ready to give up on writing regardless of how much I felt I had to dismiss it and the pleasure it gave me. Looking back there are poems and stories I’ve written in notebooks or scribbled on scraps of paper. I know there are even more that I threw away because I’d accepted the story that writing wasn’t something that grown men did. So writing was a guilty pleasure, something furtive, almost.
◊♦◊
It was only when I was introduced to the act of journaling that my relationship with writing changed and grew. Writing changed from being a guilty pleasure to being something needful. Only on the pages of my journals could I speak my truth, name my fears and detail my hopes with myself and after a while with certain others.
Reaching inside to a part of me I’d tried to ignore felt good and charting my journey through life in my journals I discovered my own writing style (my voice). I judge that this had a positive affect on my life and my writing, especially my poetry. I feel as if the practise of writing in my journal and the need to be more expressive and creative about my challenges and successes has given me a great gift which has impacted on other parts of my life too.
Encouraged by friends I realized that it was time for me to share my gifts with the rest of the world. At first there was the initial fear of what people would think of me and my writing. This was followed by the excitement of knowing that it was time to set something I had kept special and personal free and perhaps more important than the fear of judgement was the joy of releasing something that was important to me into the universe.
◊♦◊
Each time is a challenge as there’s the fear that what I write won’t be good enough …
|
I’ve written and shared for the past few years; on my website, on social media sites, newsletters and other publications. Each time is a challenge as there’s the fear that what I write won’t be good enough, it will be rejected and by inference I’ll be rejected, but the journey continues with each poem, article or story.
I’m coming to the realisation that the core reason I write is because I must. Now that I’m writing (for me) regularly it’s becoming harder and harder to not do so (even though there is a part of me that would rather hide). The creative urge will have it’s way and if I try to resist it life seems to get more difficult and then stop until I have set free what is within me, so that’s why I write.
Photo: Flickr/Brianna Hager