Finding Joy in Writing

Like many other writers, I’ve been scribbling down my thoughts and imaginings most of my life. My real start didn’t really happen until I was 27 years old, however. By that point, I’d been a mother for seven years and an English high school teacher for almost two.

Although I’d always believed I was a writer, my creative efforts were often stymied by perfectionism. I was, essentially, a writer who didn’t write.

That changed in 1991, when I attended a workshop that transformed my relationship with writing. After just one hour, I went from being someone who often sat paralyzed by anxiety at the sight of a blank page, to one who wrote easily, naturally, and with full abandon.

To say I was thrilled is an understatement. After that workshop, I could barely contain my joy. I was in a constant state of joie d’écrire.

And once I started writing—I mean really, really writing—I couldn’t stop. If I wasn’t writing short stories and poetry, I was journaling. Or writing for a community newsletter. Or a regional Arts magazine.

Emboldened by my newfound sense of self as a writer, I also began sharing this revolutionary approach to writing with others. I shared it with my students. I shared it with my friends. I even shared it with fellow classmates I met two years later when I returned to university to complete further studies.

In 1992, that writing approach became the foundation upon which I built the Creative Writing Club at the high school where I taught. So effective was this basis, the club ran for more than 22 years. It was also a core component of a senior level Creative Writing course I began teaching in 1996.

Around the same time, I also founded an adult community writing group called The Underground Writers’ Circle, which encouraged the same principles I’d learned in 1991.

Even after I left teaching and began life as a business owner in 2015, I continued to write regularly, although my main focus turned from poetry and fiction to marketing and wellness articles. By 2018, however, I was back to journaling regularly, and I began penning an eco-fiction novel in 2020.

Throughout this period, I also continued to share my love of writing with my clients and close friends. In 2018 and 2019, I ran community writing workshops for adults and teens at the local library, and even hosted two regional writers’ retreats.

In my today life as a full-time writer in Peterborough, Ontario, I still start each day with morning pages. I’ve also drafted a second novel and am working on a third. As well, after almost 20 years, I’ve returned to my poetry roots, and have submitted some poems for publication.

In the past year, I’ve joined local writing groups and participated in several workshops. In May, I started doing live readings at the 3RD SPACE POETRY Open Mic. On August 18, I facilitated my first in-person writing workshop since before the pandemic.

As you can see, in the 30+ years since I embraced the mantle of writer, I’ve never lost my love of writing, nor my wish to share my passion for it with others.

If you are a writer, I hope our paths someday meet. If not, may whatever brings you joy continue to do so for years and years to come.

Yours in writing,

Monique

P.S. I’ll be talking about the workshop that turned me into a lifelong writer in an upcoming post.

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Looking for accountability, community, inspiration and fun? Take a look at Finding Joy in Writing w/Monique, a paid writing group that offers it all.

Not ready to invest? That’s okay! Here are two free options: Shut Up & Write! and the Writers Collective of Canada. Please check them out. I’ve participated in both, and they’re great.