Note to new readers: This post is part of my 30 Days of Writing Practice. I am allowing blocks of 10, 20 or 30 minutes of my day solely to putting my swirling thoughts on paper. No going back to edit which will only serve to stop the stream of consciousness. My writing buddy Chiqui and I (Wruddy for short), we call it writing from the heart. Please read my introduction for the full story.
Housekeeping:
#Wruddy – short for writing buddy.
#Wruddy Pages – the emails we write to each other every day.
30 Days of Writing – are the blog posts we ship or publish in our respective blog sites.
The contents of #Wruddy Pages and 30 Days are not the same. Meaning, we are writing two pages daily.
Visit my Wruddy Chiqui Pineda.
“30 Days of Writing” is the product of two women writing it all out. So today, I just want to celebrate a friendship that started with Instagram. A friendship so unique and magical that it is bound to last a lifetime. My fingers are crossed.
Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones’ served as the beacon that guided the WruddyShip in this writing adventure. The book launched the buddyship idea, guided us with pages of wisdom, and steered us through the maelstrom of emotions that naturally rocked our ship. Yes naturally. We had storms one day and glorious sunshiny blue skies the next. The first 35 days of our voyage was what I would call the adjustment phase. (We have been writing for 49 continuous days now.) We had to learn how to handle each other’s outpourings. Learn non-attachment and realise that the Wruddy Pages, albeit they appear like wailing walls, are merely practice writings! Therefore, we are not meant to “fix” one another. We learned to respect, appreciate and grow together. After all, we are not broken. Just perfectly imperfect.
Why do you need a writing buddy?
Partnerships, I believe is an essential ingredient in life. A buddy’s role is there to support, cheer, inspire and confirm the other. When you think you’ve given it your all in one page, your best shot and you cannot write anymore, your buddy is there to tell you this. “Alright. Have a mini break. But keep moving. Do not stop. Slow down if need be. Write something breezy or light. It could be a one liner, or one paragraph. One image. A song you love. Visit your page everyday. That is the key. Daily practice.”
I will confess. My writings for the past 30 days were all addressed to Kat. I have been writing to her. It is very difficult to write to an audience en masse. If I do that, there will be fear in my heart, I will lose connection, and I will lose my way. Because an audience is a crowd. So Kat suggested that we will write our blogs like we were simply writing to each other. That way we maintain the openness and the trust. While writing, I am thinking thus. “She is reading this. It is OK if I write crap for she will accept it for what it is. She will be nice to me.” In so doing, I succeeded in connecting with YOU, my readers. Because my writing became intimate. I opened and we bonded, did we not? I felt it. And I know you felt it too. See here. I am actually talking to Kat right now! Do you see what I mean? Hence I will often sound like I am waffling on, carefree, unhinged, a loose canon. That’s how I write to Kat. I write to her with no apologies.
So yes. Find a buddy. It’s the best source of energy. If you are stuck, your buddy’s energy will unstuck you. He/she doesn’t even have to say anything. In the act of your buddy moving, you too are compelled to keep up. That’s the best motivation you can get. Find a buddy in other aspects of your life. Running, biking, working out, reading, drawing. Just to name a few.
The importance of finding the right buddy.
Before 30 Days, my writing was a mere hobby. I post maybe between 2-4 weeks. I could go for months with nothing. I didn’t take it seriously. But with Wruddy, I learned to accept and recognize that hey, I can make a living out of this. Hey it’s a gift. And I am meant to be read. That I am worthy to be read. Validation. Kat became my key. There I was just quietly existing, then Kat came along and “discovered” me. To this day, I don’t really know exactly what she found in me. Oh there were many connections. (I’ll attempt to write about every single one of them that I know of in a separate post.) You see, Kat has the gift to “see” raw talent or skill in someone. She discovers “everyday magic”, then proceeds to find just the right key to give that person flight. She has the ability to tweak, do small adjustments, the right words of encouragement. She describes my writing as luminous, impeccable, and rich. She made me jump off the cliff and into “honest, no apologies, vulnerable” kind of writing. The past 30 Days scared me big time. That is the reason for my sleeplessness. Fear. I do swallow a lump of fear before every post, it does not go away. It keeps coming back, my fear. Kat held my hand and calmed me down every day. Her daily Wruddy Pages gave me comfort. She doesn’t really have to do anything special for me. All she did was write about the goings on of her day in our daily Wruddies and they were enough to keep me moving. Kat was and is my “gas”. A very close friend said, the one I call Khaleesi, that Kat “brought out the best writer in me”. And very rightly so. She quite simply held the key to unlock my door. Kat took very good care of me too. Of my heart. She has mentored many souls in her lifetime and continues to do so with such unconditional giving. It is her calling, to give and to unlock “closet queens and kings”!
A final note.
Find a writing buddy. It can’t be just anyone. A writing buddy must be the right fit. You see, you must love your buddy’s writings. Falling in love with each other’s writing is essential and inevitable. For how else will you look forward to reading and writing to each other without the element of love? Every single day. The exchanges are frequent and unguarded. There will be light and shade, fire and ice. It can do your head in, as it did mine. But I learned to accept the process, recognize it as necesary and embraced it completely.
Ultimately, partnerships boil down to one thing. Energy. That’s it. You feed off each other’s energy. You are each other’s energizer bunny. You inject each other with required bolts and spurts of energy. Energy is indestructible. Keep recharging!
Last day tomorrow. I have one final thing to say. Please come again.
Love Always,
Cha R-g
PS: For my friends who are Chiqui Pineda (AKA Kat) fans or to the mere curious, I’ve written about the Wruddy Connection. How it all began, so to speak.
Listen to Chiqui’s cover of “The Way I Am” (original by Ingrid Michaelson) first, then follow me to a bonus Wruddy write up.
Chiqui says
I am rendered *speechless*. I’ll come back here when I find my dropped jaw. Thank YOU kaayo!!!
myglorybox.com says
Don’t fall off your pedestal, Chiqui-Key*…