Taking my writing seriously
It’s not a special story. As a kid, I loved to draw and write and sing and play, and slowly that all dropped away. By the time I was 25, I was tired, stressed, and would struggle to describe what I did for fun.
I was studying at university and struggling to enjoy the process of learning - it felt like all I really needed to do was churn out work that would get me through to graduation. In 2021 I enrolled in a couple of night classes so that I could learn for the sake of it, instead of because I needed to meet someone else’s expectations.
I chose art and New Zealand sign language. The art class cycled through different mediums and reminded me that I can do something for the joy of it, not because I need to b good at it. Sign language lessons were a very different way of learning - our teacher had us work in an immersion environment from the outset and I came to acutely appreciate the role of body language and facial expression in communication.
The following year, I studied te reo Māori | Māori language at a full-time, immersion course for eight months. I learned a lot about myself, made new connections, and came out with renewed confidence and sense of self.
As I came to the end of 2022, I decided that I would start writing again, aside from in my journal. I joined a writers’ group with the intention of starting a manuscript. I got as far as drafting an opening scene and mapping some plot points before I started my first “professional” job and real life happened.
Instead, I spent most of the year writing poetry. I didn’t even sit down with the intention off writing the first one. I’d been journaling and felt like how I’d described my day wasn’t quite enough, like I still had more to say. I wrote “Kōrero mai” (speak) at the top of a new page and underlined it. I took a breath and what followed was everything I wish I could’ve said to a person. It turned out to be a bilingual poem, feelings laid bare on the page and when I finished and sat upright again, I felt as though I was emerging from underwater. My next breath felt freer than the one I took when I started.
I continued writing all year with feedback from people around me and by the end of the year I felt brave enough to start submitting my work. In 2024, Tarot published Shielded and Look at her now in Issue 8, and Landfall published Asks in the Spring Issue.
I also continued to dabble in other creative hobbies - reading, knitting, painting, and a little graphic design. I’ve realised how much I enjoy creating and how much I want to keep doing it.
Looking ahead, I want to keep writing, keep making, starting with dusting off that opening scene and start writing that manuscript in earnest.
Looking around, I haven’t seen a lot of examples of people sharing their journey of writing a manuscript to publishing in the Aoteroa New Zealand context, so I’ve decided to document that process as I go.
Ultimately, I’m doing it for the small(er) me who never would’ve dreamed of giving up play and fun and joy. If another writer can learn from it, all the better.
Noho ora mai | Be well