When I was at Summer in the City this year I decided to spend a lot of my time at panels, instead of trying to find and meet my favourite creators I would sit and listen to them speak about things they were so immensely passionate about. My favourite panel to sit in on was the 'women that write' panel, I found it so fascinating how so many different people have their own ways of writing, editing and sharing their work with the world. I thought I would take the time to sit down and work out what exactly it is that I do when I write and how it helps me, and then share it with you all. It's kind of fun to share my creative process with you.

I used to be the worst for having a process, this is something that I have definitely worked on developing recently and I feel as though my work has improved vastly because of this. I picked up a heap of tips from other writers, played around and found what works for me - so please don't take my word as some holy grail. It's just what I do. Anyway, without further ado I will take you through what my laptop screen tends looks like while I'm writing. (Also this is for prose and poetry as this is currently what I write the most of, incase you didn't know)




I will start with a rough draft, some ideas and the basic idea of where each line ends and a general structure, as you can see on the far left of the screen shot that I've put in for reference above this. This is what I call my word vomit, the roughest draft where I am getting everything down, giving myself things to work with. I tend to keep the basic premise of my writing throughout all my steps, however I do also change full lines and scrap other ideas until I am fully happy.

Then, I go on to edit it a bit. I open another document because that way when I am re-writing I am forced to decide whether I actually like  what I have put into the first document. It really leads me to think and forces me to remove anything I am not fully happy with/edit it into something I am a bit happier with. This tends to see the prose getting shorter, with longer lines instead.

The third one is me playing with words, looking for the ones that I feel work best for the piece and also slightly changing the placement of each line (this is such an awkward sentence, I'm aware, but I'm not fully sure how to word it). I also begin to think a bit more about punctuation at this point, things like where the commas and full stops should go etc. It is worth noting that I do mainly only use commas and full stops in my prose, no other punctuation seems to be used but I like it that way, same goes for my lack of capital letters. I personally feel as though they give a lack of fluidity and so I avoid them.

Lastly, I go through and finalise things. This piece took four re-drafts while some may take ten and others may take two or three, it really depends on how I feel about the piece and what work it needs doing to it. I also tend to thesaurus at this point, to ensure that all my vocabulary is cohesive and also that I feel I have used the right words in the right place, I use an online one for this as I'm still waiting for the day someone loves me enough to buy me a fat ass thesaurus.

Then, I decide what I'm going to do with the work. Where I'm going to share it, if I'm going to share it, or whether it is going to stay as mine (or maybe even go towards a project).




(Credit to Keaton Henson for the title illustration)

Most of my Twitter followers are fully aware of the huge infatuation that I have towards poetry over the past few weeks I have been posting several of my favourite pieces so that other people can appreciate them as much as I do. When I was about ten years old my uncle got me a poetry book and me being the child that I was I didn't much care for it and placed it aside for the Hannah Montana dolls that I had been preoccupied by previously. It was around the age of thirteen that I decided to pick it up and read it properly , there were some of the poems that I decided I really wanted to learn to be able to recite. I think this is when I began to grow and develop the passion that I have for poetry.

Five years later and I have read more poems than I can count, there isn't a single day that goes by when I don’t read a poem or write something myself. Poetry has become such a huge part of who I am as a person, I feel as though without it I would see the world in quite a different perspective the way that I do. Because of my love for writing and poetry I have the mindset in which whenever I go through something that is particularly hard that I can turn it into something, whether it is a poem or a piece of art. Having an outlet is so important and I feel as though this is why I love poetry so much.

There are a huge amount of poets and creators that I look up to and admire for the work that they create and I feel as though it is only right to share some of them with you in the hopes that perhaps you will look into their work and fall in love with it as much as I have.

The first is Lang Leav, she has such a way with words in which it makes you feel as though you are at home while reading her work. She has a collection of books, my favourite being Love and Misadventure which, in my opinion, is one of the most magical and captivating books I have ever come across. The poem that I am going to share with you from this is one that really struck me, I have shared it on Twitter before as I feel it resembles Lang as a poet so wonderfully. This piece is called Lost Things.



Next I really want to share with you one of my biggest inspirations, not only does she write poetry and is currently working on her own book but she also writes a monthly column for one of my favourite magazines (Local Wolves). This is Orion Carloto, everything she writes is like gold dust, it screams Orion. There is no way describe her style, it is hers and she owns it, one of my favourite pieces that she has shared with the internet comes from her tumblr page and is from her 4AM thoughts section.