I love asking other writers the question: “What keeps you writing?” And do you know what one of my favorite answers is?
“Because I can’t imagine any other way.”
Have you ever felt that way? Like maybe writing is what keeps you going? As if maybe you just had to understand yourself and explore your own corner of the world this way?
This post is part of a series: What keeps you writing?
I’m asking writers in our creative writing community this question.
I hope we’ll start a conversation around the simple and profound things that keep us showing up to the page.
Today we’ll hear from fellow Vagabond, polyglot, and writer: Anca.
Anca has a poetry blog and podcast Floating Plushie. And she recently finished an incredible flip book of her artwork and writing: Marks.
I felt very lucky to get to watch as she created and shared some of these within our writing community. And, of course, when she shared her final project, I wanted to share it here.
What follows are my questions to Anca--her answers and a couple of her own suggestions for inspiration.
Artwork and photo printed with permission by the author/painter: Anca.
Who are you today? Where do you live, where are you from? What kind of work/creative work are you interested in doing?
I’ve grabbed my cuppa and am starting to write about myself, an activity I don’t always enjoy much since my poems/writing and art are usually the ones that speak for me, but maybe the cuppa will help a little. Haha. My birth name is Ana-Maria, but I grew up being called Ancuța, pronounced as Ancutza, or Anca. I also like Ana and Anuca, my other name derivatives.
I like the question about who I am today, which reminds me of a short animation (I’ll post the link when I’m done writing about myself) so I think I can only be someone in relation to other people, things, feelings, thoughts, expression of some kind.
That’s why any work or art I do stands for who I am, not in terms of identity, but in the sense of purpose and relation. Otherwise, I see myself as a curious, creative, happy and trying-to-stay-happy kind of person, who sometimes thinks that the greatest thing about who we are, in general, is the life itself, the life we have been given.
I was born and raised in Romania, in a small, mountainous town in the central-western part of the country, which maybe has inspired me the love of and respect for nature and beauty has taught me horizons (seen from up the hills and peaks), both literally and figuratively.
I have basically spent my whole life in this beautiful country many of my fellow nationals tend to leave behind (I write about this is a few of my poems) for various reasons, many of which economic and financial, and many others around the world don’t know it exists - this might be associated with an aura of mystery and the primary quality of unknown lands - or that’s what I’d like to believe, at least.
So, maybe, my country and my language have also given me the proper space to dream, analyse, but transgress reality, as my most favourite forms of self-expression are poetry and art. Oh, look, my tea has got cold as I’ve started to digress.
Although I’ve mentioned I’m a curious person, I don’t consider myself someone who journeys with questions, but mostly someone who knows when they’ve found the right answer (I know it sounds like a sophism, but, no, it’s not). So, my open-mindedness, curiosity, analysis would best translate into a constant wonder of the world, people and things.
Why do you write?
I write because I cannot otherwise.
It’s the way I process the world and reality at times. With work and life in the way, I wish I’d do it more often as I’ve written less poetry lately; however, when it ‘comes to’ me, it’s amazing –
I feel I’m part of something bigger than myself, and I love words and how they can connect on ‘paper’, almost always in a poem [as they get their ethereal, otherwor(l)dly vibe] and in a foreign language, as I mostly write in English, finding it as exclusive play, a game I can play more freely, I wouldn’t like to say with less responsibility, but maybe that’s what it is, as I can feel I can break the rules or I don’t have to play by the rules since it’s “a foreign language”.
It’s like having a different persona, but multilingual people can understand what I mean by it –, and it’s as amazing with art where I try to discipline myself into more time for myself and my art (I am now a bit more focus on it than on writing), and it seems to work just fine having those 5-10 minutes a day for these creative outlet(s).
We’ve had a back-and-forth conversation about how these are challenging times to be living in. How do you keep writing in challenging times--and still bring so many creative projects full circle?
Challenging times could lead to better self-expression, if you ask me. It’s like thriving in the face of adversity, especially challenges we face internally (feelings, thoughts, rough circumstances we need to process). That, plus the 5-10 minutes a day of self-discipline for the sake of self-expression. (giggle)
What other creative interests do you have besides writing? Crafts, languages, topics that fascinate you, travel….
Art (sketching, drawing, painting in different media, my favourite being the loose watercolour style; I’d like to do painting on big canvases as I haven’t done that enough, and try collage), foreign languages have overtaken the juicy right-brain away from maths, in my adult years, I mean – I studied French in school, Dutch, German at university, and Japanese in my post-uni years.
As a Romanian, I can also understand Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese (less), as Romanian is a Latin language with Slavic influences (extra letters and sounds). I like travelling, off the beaten path, if possible, and my mind feels like a good place to travel so that sometimes I could find myself daydreaming, or if a friend challenges me with a theory or a piece of writing, I might be all in, dissecting everything, and getting back to him/her with some thoughts on it.
Topics can vary largely as I’m a curious person, as you’ll have known by now, but I prefer literature, philosophy, religion, science and theories, besides, poetry and art, which go without saying, of course.
What is your history with writing? When did you start writing for creative expression? Do you write for ‘work?’
I’ve always been a creative person, but more scientifically inclined as a child: I would soak up knowledge like a sponge, although subjects where I had to learn dry information by heart were so draining. I wanted something that could challenge my mind, and even though I didn’t read that much in my younger days, having been surrounded by a huge bookcase (my father’s), I kept an open mind for reading and would skim through books gladly, an activity that brings satisfaction to the day, especially since I don’t have time to read as much as I’d want it. By doing so, I get the feeling I have almost read the book as I know what it is about and when it happens that I come across a passage that ‘resumes’ the book, that’s so, so pleasing.
That being said, I don’t know how writing came along. Perhaps, it was the natural order of things. I suppose it’s been an intrinsic urge I have had to release, an outlet for turmoil, a way to process strong, difficult feelings, but also something that would not be about myself alone.
I’ve always looked for transcendence of some sort in my writing, even if my poetry can seem a bit cryptic, hard to get if you’re not a poet yourself. Too brainy, maybe, but I hope it can still strike out a balance between the rational and the emotional, and stir people’s imagination, mind and heart altogether.
I have never written for ‘work’, but a fun fact - it happened the other way around, work that turned into writing, not writing that turned into work, as, once, when I was working in the corporate field, I was the one in charge with the minutes of the meeting, and I took this as an opportunity to write the minutes as stories, only highlighting the main ideas. (smile)
What about you? What keeps you writing in challenging times?
I want to thank Anca—and everyone in our community who has joined this conversation. And I want to ask you something too.
Is there something special that keeps you going—no matter what time you find yourself in? Or is it the exciting time and space we inhabit that keeps you creating?
I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Looking for a community that knows what it’s like when you just need to write?
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