Writing For My Inner Child

After taking a break away from this blog, I have decided to reinvent my brand and use this as a platform to showcase my works of short fiction, as well as the articles, reviews, and meditations previously published.

Writing short stories was where I first found my love for words. It was one of my main creative outlets throughout my childhood. Since completing my MA in Creative Writing last year, I feel I have done my inner child a disservice, by neglecting my tendencies to write the weird and wonderful.

Perhaps through writing for work and constantly looking for ways to monopolise my writing, I forgot why it was that I started to write in the first place. I let the joy of writing become overwhelmed by the practicalities.

Money was the last thing on my mind when I first declared myself a writer. I became a writer because I liked making things up and imagining myself into different worlds. I became a writer because I loved drama – the more dramatic and unbelievable the better.

To me, writing was never about being sensible. I didn’t care about the rules of grammar or punctuation. I didn’t care whether my characters seemed realistic, or whether the plot made sense. All I cared about was that it was fun.

After taking some time away from my usual life (sidenote: I just got back from Japan), I can see that my attitude towards writing needs to shift. I need to stay connected with my inner child and write without censoring myself.

One of my creative writing tutors once told me I had a great skill for ‘making things strange’. Maybe I need to give myself free-reign to make things strange once again. To write without restriction or fear. I feel I, like so many others, fear mediocrity. But life is too short for that. I didn’t start writing because I thought I was the next Shakespeare. I started writing because I enjoyed it.