writing

IS WRITING A HOBBY?

/ Edwina Shaw / 10 Comments

If I don't write I go mad

The other day a well-meaning relative set my blood boiling by referring to writing as my “hobby”.

So, is my writing a hobby?

NO. It’s a full-time job I’ve been working at since 2002 and hold a masters degree in. It’s not something I do in my spare moments like crotchet, it’s something I do every day, that fills my thoughts and propels me through life.

It’s a calling, something I am compelled to do even against my better judgement on how best to earn a living. It is a passion to make sense of the world and life itself through words, a yearning to create something of beauty from the chaos of experience.

As I tell my students, writing is not something you choose, it chooses you. You know you’re inescapably a writer when something dreadful happens in your life, and instead of just living it, being there in the moment and grieving or crying or whatever it is normal people do in a crisis, you are thinking of how to write it. How to wrap words around it and make it better. What title it should have.

I don’t know if this is a blessing. Sometimes it feels like more of a curse. If I could turn the switch off, I would. Even just for a moment. But then I’d turn it back on again, because for better or worse, I love it.

So, no, dear cousin, writing is not a hobby. It’s who I am.

What about you? Is writing your hobby or something much more than that?

WRITING THE BODY COURSE

/ Edwina Shaw / 4 Comments
Happy Yogi

Happy Yogi

On the 31st of January, I am running a half-day WRITING THE BODY workshop through the fabulous Queensland Writers Centre, combining my twin passions, yoga and writing.

I have enjoyed a regular daily practice of yoga since 1993, and currently teach professional dancers at a local university. I’ve been doing yoga longer than most of my young students have been alive! It’s certainly the only thing that makes it possible for me to keep up with them, if only for a couple of hours.

However, yoga is much more than a physical discipline.  It is the perfect remedy for healing a multitude of woes, working on the emotional and spiritual planes alongside the physical in every pose.

Writing is a sedentary profession. Like most people these days, I spend far too long sitting down in front of a screen. A daily yoga practice helps keep my body pain-free and my mind clear. It also helps to build that discipline which is so necessary for those of us on creative paths –self discipline. Otherwise known as bum glue!

happy writer

happy writer

In the WRITING THE BODY workshop I lead participants through gentle yoga exercises to help relieve common postural problems writers encounter, such as sore necks, shoulders and lower backs. But more than that, we will discover how to express the sensations of the body through writing and use yogic techniques to go deep within ourselves to unearth the stories held there.

It’s going to be lots of fun. I hope you can join me. Click here for more info and to sign up.

Free mini-massages for every participant!

You can combine my course with another session on journaling which looks wonderful. I guarantee you’ll come away feeling more relaxed than you have in years, with a renewed enthusiasm for writing.