These and other questions

Keep the scripture that comes through your door

Morning folks

A shorter than usual letter this week. It’s been a bit of a boring one as my daughter was ill Saturday through to Friday, and I find the endless fetching of meals, administering of Nurofen and watching of TV a bit suffocating. Since lockdowns, I don’t cope with these sorts of weeks well. My imagination tends to spiral a little and I end up catastrophising every bug and virus. Not particularly conducive to much creative work, but that is just how some weeks go.

So, less front-end waffle from me and more just a suggestion for something to try this week!

One of the things I have most enjoyed learning is how to just play around with words and not take writing so seriously. I used to spend so long agonising over the exact right line to fit into something, but- as with most things- it’s just a lot more fun when you get over yourself and play around a little.

Sometimes I’ll keep the random leaflets that are shoved through my door or into my hand as writing fodder when I don’t have much to say for myself.

Here’s a biblical leaflet that was thrust into my hand whilst I was wandering around town. I forgot to take a picture before I defaced it, but you can probably imagine the sort of hellfire that it was promising for my sins.

Here’s the odd little poem I ended up with as a result. Not really sure what to do with it, but it’s completely different to anything I would have written starting from a white page. Sometimes its fun to reverse things- start with a page full of ink and delete it into a new form. I recommend him a lot, but

Austin Kleon

is the absolute master of this. It takes the pressure off.

Invitation to write/play…

Could you have a go at this? Use anything at your disposal. If you fancy going analogue, any menus, leaflets, newspapers, school slips will do.

Sometimes I prefer to do it digitally, starting with a block of text and using the black highlighter to block words out. Try anything; song lyrics, passages form scientific journals, wikipedia articles- whatever. This way is handy because you can keep various versions of the same thing and see where you end up.

I’d love to see how you get on with this! You can reply in the comments, email me or you can find me on instagram @emily_c_cooke.

Have fun!

Em x

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I am most definitely on the hunt for good things to watch/listen to at the moment. What have you been enjoying? Mine…

• Really enjoyed this documentary about PJ Harvey and the making of the Hope Six Demolition Project.

• After listening to a lot of LCD Soundsystem whilst running this week, “Shut up and Play the Hits” is now on my watch list.

• Got some great book recommendations via instagram. Been enjoying “Childhood, Youth, Dependency” by Tove Ditlevsen.