I don’t know about you but my brain struggles to switch off. It always has done. It jumps about like a demented cricket, starting projects, coming up with new ideas, trying to work – and then staring at a blank screen for hours at a time. Oh, and don’t get me onto the topic of doom scrolling – that is something I really need to tackle. But not just now.
So, what does my brain activity have to do with Elderwitch?
A lot, it seems!
When I was writing my novel, I could write like crazy over long periods of time and then, for whatever reason, mainly lack of confidence to be honest, I would put my manuscript away and would have what I call ‘brain collapse.’ that sometimes was so bad, I found it difficult to function. This ‘brain collapse’ was often so much more than just the writing of a book, but I am not going to talk about those difficult times here, I only want to give an indication of how my brain functions – it really is all or nothing – and what I try to do to counter them.
There have been long periods of time where I couldn’t write, which I’m sure many other writers and creatives will identify with. I was still wanting to do something around Elderwitch or my other projects, I just didn’t know what. I’m not a great one for hobbies but I do have a love of art and, if you know anything about me, you’ll know I’ve been collecting affordable art, often from European street painters, for years. I’m not a natural artist but I love collage, colour and patterns and, at first, I started making brightly coloured quilts, although these would take forever, and then I started scrapbooking. That’s what I started doing with Elderwitch. I could work on her even during the times I was unable to write.
After finding my elderwitch, over the following years, I began creating my world of treewitches, the ideas for which were originally influenced by the poet Robert Graves’ Celtic Tree Calendar but that is yet another thing entirely and deserving of its own blog post! Basically, I had files of stuff, poems, descriptions, which I began tearing up and sticking them together with scrapbooking paper and loads and loads of washi tape. When I scrapbook, I never really plan – I just tear and stick and see what happens. Sometimes, the page will look like a pile of multicoloured vomit but most of the time, it turns out pretty well. At least I think so. And it feels so therapeutic doing it. Scrapbooking, for me, seems to bypass the inner critic that resides deep inside of me and that, in of itself, is liberating. I have scrapbook my unfinished dystopian novel ‘Colour Me Grey’ and have also started scrapbooking for my YA gothic dystopian - ‘All That Lies Beneath. The work I’m most proud of, though, was the little scrapbook, created with some of my autobiographical poetry and photos of my family. If you look back through my Instagram and TikTok posts, you can see some of these.
I suppose to sum up, what I want to say is that scrapbooking can bring great joy. It’s something I don’t have to do but can if I feel like it. There’s no pressure to create which, ultimately, gives me space to be at my most creative.
