Marvel the ordinary: The Writing Redemption
You must have seen those movies or read the books where extraordinary things happen.
A girl and a boy suddenly decide to go to a new city and jump on a train. People dive into the deep parts of the ocean to find the meaning of life. Heartbreak feels like dropping an antique glassware from the 10th floor of a building and piercing the 1000 broken shards into the heart. One day the protagonist wakes up to the news of his work going viral. People go from rags to riches. These extraordinary experiences are where stories thrive. These are the lives that have ideas to explore, thoughts to share, and the inspiration to write and create.
But for most of us, our lives are inside the four walls of our room, particularly during the pandemic. When the same day repeats day after day. The only traveling is to the washroom. All the fats from the food we ate become flabs on our bodies. All recipes are tried, all games played, all questions exhausted, all curiosity stripped down to nothing. Anything that was exciting happened way back in the past or is there in the future that seems unattainable now. This begets a question:
How do we write when nothing extraordinary is happening in our lives?
Legitimate question, worries, and concerns.
But while we look for extra-ordinariness in our lives to get the inspiration to write, we miss out on the two extraordinary things that make up writing:
1. We need not necessarily write about what has happened or is reality.
It can be what didn’t or doesn’t happen. It can be what has happened but we don’t know yet. It can be improbable in reality, but the most plausible when written. It can be a butterfly that lands on a red leaf and finds out not all things are flowers, but can be leaves too. It can be the Harry Potter in your backyard. It can be your backyard in Buckingham Palace.
2. Writing is a way to make the ordinary extraordinary.
Aurora, solo trips, and concerts are beautiful. In fact, essential. Beauty, experiences, and connection are essential. They must happen. For them to happen to our lives, most times we need to take deliberate steps. Plan and execute. Celebrate when things go right and stare into the void when they don’t.
Also there are things that happen without us having to plan it. The Sun rises in small towns too. There are streets in your neighborhood that you haven’t set your feet on. There is always a neighbor who plays music to wake you up. Relationships develop, understanding strengthens, and life happens. In many small and significant yet overlooked ways.
And when things happen, writing can too, if we go beyond all our indiscipline and notions of un-creativity and allow writing to happen.
There is always something in the ordinary that we can marvel and write about. In fact, there are stories in your room as well. As BTS, the Korean boy band’s song goes, “Fly to my room”; your ordinary room is home to innumerable stories. It needs you to fly to it, not just coil into the blanket. Zoom in and think of the memories. See your belongings with awe.
Please remember writing is the activity of getting unstuck from what is holding us back. It is a rope that gets untangled when we touch it. It is not always a medicine we take in, we can produce it within ourselves too and share with others. It is magic that makes the ordinary extraordinary.
Let us fly to our rooms.
Come, join The Folded Paper Writing Community to marvel at how the ordinary become extraordinary in the Writing and Creativity Jam meetings.
