Flora coming through the soil

Something that happened from the first session with Sharon Olds and Tom Keneally on Thursday night all the way through to the former’s closing event on Sunday morning was a kind of flourishing of fertile ground – I was not only spurred on to write material for my blog, as well as consider ideas for my Research Project, but I was inspired to write sections for my own novel, the body of work that’s slowly coming together independent of all school and social commitments I have.

In fact, it’s been adding to a newfound confidence that’s been developing over the past year in response to the ubiquitous fear I’ve had in the past of being inadequate in my writing, and which has often prevented progress with what I’ve been trying to achieve through language. Of course, I don’t wish things had gone any differently for otherwise I wouldn’t be at this point in my writing, but it’s really lovely to finally have enough faith in myself to do what I really want to do, and I’m happy with where my story has been, is at and is going.

There were two particular points in time during the festival where I could consciously feel what the writers were saying kind of watering the parts of my being that produce creative written material. The first occurred as Sharon Olds was speaking about her experiences writing and growing up, followed by her recital of the poem she penned whilst on the plane from the United States to Australia.

Then, as Alexis was reading The Swan Book on Saturday morning, I was suddenly possessed by an idea for a passage that would fit perfectly in the story I’m writing, and jotted a note which I’d then use to start a writing session when I got home that night.

I think our experiences, at least on some level, feed into whatever it is we’re creating, and I do believe that it was being at the festival, being in the presence of so many writers and readers and lovers of words, that spun these ideas into being. I don’t know that these passages would have come about in any other way.

I am yet to discover what else will come through, either consciously or subconsciously, from the festival onto the page… but I’m excited to see what comes of this.