Moleskines and Red

Whether it be with academic essays, poems, fiction, comprehensive medical reports or strategy matrices or other documents for work, I have always felt more adept drafting and writing by hand, as opposed to on the keyboard. When I can concentrate on the physical maneuvers and coordination required to write, I can think and draft without distraction; the visceral act becomes synchronized with the neural processes. Since university, I have carried around with me a blank sketchpad, in which I occasionally draw, but mostly scribble down poems, thoughts, captured and stolen moments of overheard conversations or bizarre imagery. I have carried the exact same sketchpad, for years now, slowly filling in the pages; within the next week or so, it will be full, sated, complete.

Part of my resolution for this year is to spend more time writing, something that, to date, I have been marginally competent at accomplishing; the year, though, is young, so, I persevere. Recently, one of my poems was accepted for publication at an online magazine, adjunct to a literary press; I look forward to seeing my piece there, and to the potential of some of my work being read by a broader audience, beyond myself and a handful of close loved ones. When I purchase my new moleskine, or sketchpad, or whatever it may be, I hope that it does not take nearly so long to fill with my words.

(Plum Pretty Sugar Loungerie)