Read an excerpt from Andrew Anderson's The Ritual of Writing

Andrew Anderson is an OBOD student whose book, The Ritual of Writing brings creativity and spirituality together. Focusing upon practical tasks, it begins by helping readers create a piece of writing connected to the Wheel of the Year and honouring a seasonal festival, taking them step by step through the process. There is a key element of working with the spirit of place, wherever the reader is in the world. The book also considers other ways in which writing can inform spiritual practice, discussing elements such as poetry, non-fiction and ritual work. Practical throughout, with developmental tasks at each stage, The Ritual of Writing helps the reader build skill and confidence and to find their own writing voice.

Here's an excerpt:

One of the most important considerations when starting to write is to know who you are writing for.

Many of the people I have worked with write for themselves. They love to write poems or stories but, when it comes to sharing their work with anyone else, they become incredibly nervous. This is understandable. When we share our work, we invite judgement and criticism. Although people may be responding to our writing, what we write can be so personal that it feels as though they are judging us. Because of this, I have found many people who have written pages, volumes, which they have never shared with anyone else.

I think it is good that we have writing which is only for our self; I mentioned earlier that I keep a daily diary which I would never dream of sharing with anyone else. Writing for ourselves can be incredibly therapeutic. It is an excellent and well documented form of therapy which can help us contextualise problems more easily by getting them down on paper. However, writing exclusively for ourselves can become somewhat self-indulgent and insular. We can end up writing just what we want to write because that is just what we want to read. We can end up cutting corners or not expanding our technique fully because our only audience is our self. For writing to be truly spiritual we have to move beyond this.

Writing for other people is, generally, more productive than writing for ourselves, although it can lead to much greater anxiety. When I have asked students to share work with others, some have left the class rather than let someone else see their writing. The first time I introduce students to the group workshop, where one person’s writing is critiqued by a number of people in the room, every single student has been nervous, despite my reassurances that everything will be okay. As a rule, students end up finding this an incredibly useful process.

Sharing our written work with others helps us to detach ourselves from the piece, to view it more objectively. Once we have that objectivity, it is easier for us to evaluate our own successes and areas we want to develop in subsequent pieces. However, the process of sharing can sometimes remove the element of spirituality from our writing and focus instead on developing technical skill, such as grammar and punctuation. We may also find that some people approach our work with a negative agenda, so we need to make sure we give our work to people who will be constructive and supportive in their comments, those who will focus on helping us develop our writing.

Buy the book:

• Amazon UK
• Barnes & Noble
• Hive
• Indiebound
• Amazon UK

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