My parents noticed early on that I like scribbling on unused bits of paper. It might have seemed that I was less creative than my brother, who had marked many of the house's walls with his crayons. I just liked to keep my scribbles to myself and not really display them in plain sight... So when I was sent to Germany in the autumn of 1990, a brand new diary was handed to me by my mother as she softly told me to write down whatever I would think, feel, or imagine. I was 12 and venturing into a new culture. Being far away from my family and not being able to contact them often was tough. Every few weeks, my father would manage to call me from the call center and the line was not always clear. Mom, being very emotional, would be with dad to listen to me but wouldn't be able to speak... And so I wrote. And I wrote. In tiny, minuscule letters. It was a relief and a joy to I didn't share any of my compositions with anyone. But one day, a piece of paper fell off my journal and my maternal grandma picked it up. Next thing I know, she has proudly hung it with some dough on the kitchen wall tiling. And she requested more! I turned red and mumbled something and left. I had to figure out a way to take that paper off the wall. As it didn't quite work out, and since grandma kept asking for new material, I finally gave her a drawing I was somehow proud of and I had my peace for some time...
Decades later, I finally launched my blog, i.e. this website you are currently browsing through. It took me years to have it developed and customized to my liking. I persevered and kept trying because writing is sheer bliss. True, sometimes, it takes me a lot of research and thought to start drafting. But most of the time, once I have decided what I would like to share with the world, the words simply flow, many times faster in my mind than on paper. Yes. I am old-fashioned that way. I still use paper notebooks, preferably made of recycled material. When on the road, I either jot down ideas in my Moleskine or use my digital notebook. The Rocketbook is made of special paper that can be wiped with a damp cloth to be reused. It is very convenient to organize, scan, and send my handwritten texts and ideas directly to the cloud or my computer. But the feel and smell of paper remain a different experience. And once the image starts being defined in my head, my mind transforms it into words that either look inspiring and motivate me to continue in the same strain of thinking or drops the whole concept and shifts towards something else. Once launched, the writing process has my undivided attention and I am transported in a different dimension, one of words, illuminating the pathway of the narrative...
Some quotes about writing:
Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words - Mark Twain
Writing is the painting of the voice - Voltaire
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers - Isaac Asimov
There is no such thing as perfect writing, just like there is no such thing as perfect despair - Haruki Murakami
A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave - Oscar Wilde
The role of a writer is not to say what we call can say, but what we are unable to say - Anais Nin
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you - Maya Angelou
I have been told repeatedly that my way of writing things is captivating and entertaining. I am glad because I am looking forward to publishing some works. And your support as well as your constructive feedback matter!
