Writing is it a practice or something you practise? Answer: Yes.

As a proud Canadian, I consistently check my spelling habits and given the choice, will choose to uphold Canadian conventions. You know — humour; colour; flavour — words where we hang on to the “u” as part of my family’s cultural inheritance and British roots.

Practice, when written with the seventh letter as a “c” describes the thing. Practice is a noun. “I truly enjoy my writing practice.”

Practise, when written with the seventh letter as an “s” describes the action. Practise can also be a verb. “I practise writing every day.”

When it comes to spelling and being a good Canadian and honouring the memory of Great Aunt Olive with our family’s long roots of British Correctness, bordering on “ostentatious”, I would need to pull out my red pen and carefully edit all of the ways I am using the word “practice”. For the next 90 days, I am committing to describe my writing practise as a verb, describes the act of writing. Practice, with a “c” is a noun is the thing I produce.

Which brings me to the topic of journal and journaling and the erudite advice: just do it. Write notes to yourself as grocery lists, as memory tools for what the doctor said, for unpacking a conversation that has triggered some big emotions, positive or negative, as a way to focus all of the thoughts swirling in your head or simply as a way to ask yourself: What is going on? Writing is a process. Writing, when you know it’s to be shared with someone else? That’s a different exercise.

“Writing in a journal is an editor-free zone.” While you are writing in the privacy of your pages, it is a good idea to ask the pundits, the critics, the voices in your head, including our dear Great Aunt Olives (ca 1890 – 1982) — to sit quietly in the hallway. It is also a good idea to write with paper and pen so that Auto Correct and Co-Pilot tools of help are not distracting you.

Sidebar and True story: my friend is planning a celebration of life and was writing a text to me related to her plan. The Spell Check function on her device made a correction. Celebration was “auto-corrected” to read Celery and my friend is now planning a “Celery of Life”.

When I work with others, I have one rule: Date the page and then write whatever comes. You can go deep into the dusty boxes sitting in the archives of your mind, and poke around in the corners of your head, heart, soul and you write about whatever is bubbling.

Writing is a full body-heart-mind-soul sensational process. And ultimately? You will be describing something that can be seen or felt or steeping in your body somewhere, it may be “invisible to the eye” and without words, until you coax the small furry blob of inarticulate form to show up on the page.

Sometimes, in moments of confusion, puzzlement or dismay, I start by writing the words: There are no words…

Honestly? When there are no words and I am at a loss to describe whatever, I feel like a wet fur ball. Then, like a wrinkly chick just emerging from its shell, something appears on on the page all crumpled and wet and tangled up in the process of becoming. I can cross out the words, tear out the page or keep writing until I see the ugly chick as the lovely swan it is trying to be.

Writing it down is a start.  There are days when your silly, wild, unbelievably crazy ideas arrive as half-baked, disorganized, contradictory and incoherent. Lucky you! Writing in the privacy of your journal is simply a chance for you to become your own best confidante, jokester and wait until the words sound like they came from the mouth of a wiser and older friend.

If your writing is to become a piece for sharing, it will need some revising, pruning and polishing. Writing as a practice is the start. Getting to the true heart of the matter and writing in a more credible voice, comes later.

I am a staunch advocate for the art of writing (an action word, a verb) with a pen, on a piece of paper. But it takes practise (also a verb).

Writing is a habit that connects the thoughts in your mind, to the blood in your veins, to the nerves and muscles in your hand, no matter which way the pendulum or hormones are swirling in the soup of your soul. If you are interested in working with me, please get in touch.