So, I write supernatural fiction. There are witches and spooky evildoers, and so on. The question I have received more than any other is how long I have practiced Wicca as my religion.
I haven’t.
When I tell people this, it leads to the (I now think of it as inevitable) follow up: “Where did you learn all those spells?”
Poetry. It’s just purely invented poetry. I didn’t consult any gurus, or Wiccans for that matter – although I have quite a few friends who do practice Wicca – I just made it up. I guess this is a caveat for anyone who may want to treat my novels as a guidebook. The spells aren’t actual spells, I made them up. Although, if they work, please let me know immediately, because there needs to be a different caveat thrown in there. 😉
When I was in University, I read “The World According to Garp” for the first time. In addition to saying that he was “intolerant of intolerance,” T.S. Garp liked to write from what he thought of as pure imagination.
I don’t know how possible it is to separate ourselves from our own histories as living people, but as much as possible, writing is that exploration of imagination for me. It is a creation that comes from life experience, yes, but takes it to a place unrecognizable from my daily landscape.
I spend time each day chasing imagination, allowing it to flow through my fingers and onto the page. Sometimes more poetically than not.
I write poems, not spells. Words are their own mysterious magic, and the transformation of the mind with imagination is the perfect transmutation.
Happy writing, and blessings to you all…
Also, here’s a little something from a group that writes one thing and not the other…
Spells are poetry. As a witch and poet, I write poems and I write spells, I write spells that are poems and poems that are spells. Witches use whatever works, lyrics, poems, whispers from the heart, in the end it is intention that matters the most.
Thank you for sharing! My writing took me in the right direction, then, although I didn’t have formal research to back me up on that. 🙂 Also, thank you for reading.
Formal research only gets you half the story, a fuller picture comes from the heart and the act of putting pen to paper. Write on!