5 Steps to Embody the Writer Aesthetic

Living the writer aesthetic means getting in touch with your inner poetry. It's about accepting the chaos of the process. It's early mornings and late evenings with another cup of coffee as you pour over your manuscript.

But it can be hard to always be the aesthetic girl writing. Sometimes, writing no longer feels like a verb. It's a stuck mess of confusion where not even the moonlight can guide your way.

This is a guide to getting your writing sparkle back. To commit to confusion and chaos. To writing again.

Here are my favorite aesthetic writer pictures from my own Pinterest.

1.Create your dream writing space

Every writer needs a dreamy aesthetic place to pen their latest work. You don't have to go over the top, simply arrange and organize your space so that when you sit down, you're completely focused on the work at hand.

I really love adding unique, personal touches from flea markets or second-hand stores to my space to make it feel special. Add a vase, some hand-picked wildflowers, and a nice candle to create a ritual of imagination for yourself.

If you like to write in the hustle and bustle of it all, take yourself to a cute vintage cafe and feel the writers down the ages imparting their knowledge to you. Write where they have written. Let the well-worn path carry you to a completed piece of writing.

2. Display an array of aesthetic books

Authors throughout the ages have tackled the same problems as you and succeeded. Remind yourself that you are one in a lineage of many when you sit down to write your masterpiece.

Surrounding yourself with books that speak to your soul will help guide your practice. Re-read paragraphs where writers before you have captured chaotic emotion, or perfectly written the slaying-the-dragon scene.

I particularly love collecting vintage books. The smell of their ancient pages and the feeling of well-worn paper between my fingers speak to my soul. Line them up on your shelf. Surround yourself with hundreds of well-written scenes.

3. Write handwritten notes and poems

Words penned by hand are beautiful. They are the purest form of writing. Writing directly from your mind to the paper awakens something in us. It allows us to be completely present and consider our words carefully before we write them.

Litter your favorite notebooks with carefully crafted words. Practice writing in different styles. Use a calligraphy pen. Print with a felt tip. Collect pressed flowers and write poems about love. Go to the locations of your novel and absorb the atmosphere.

Record your process and reflect on the world you have created. Draw your main characters. Writing everything down in a paper book makes it feel real, and will be a time capsule in years to come. 

4. Surround yourself with writing quotes

The road you travel to writing a piece of fiction is paved by those that have come before you. The ancestors of your craft worked tirelessly for centuries before you to build the fabric of the world we now live in. Go with this flow.

Remind yourself of the triumphs and struggles of Bukowski or Dickens. You'll feel all the more in good company when the harsh nights come. When the way forward seems rocky and unsure. These old greats will coax you out of your shell, and help you write again.

5. Write in creative places

To be a writer, to be an author is a verb. It's an action. Writing itself can be done in solitude with the sound of rain falling onto petals, or it can be done in the flurry of the city.

Remind yourself that the best writing is done whenever you have time. Writing is not always done on a nice desk with a cup of coffee. Sometimes it is done on the train between home and afar. Or after class at the back of a busy library. Or even on a park bench. 

Don't resist it, make it part of your journey. Make the chaos comfortable.

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