Niamh Holohan tells us: I found writing and it saved me. Writing is a powerful, magical, an elixir and an art.
When people ask me why I write it is because it is a medicine, the air that I desperately need. I found writing and it saved me. Writing is a powerful, magical, an elixir and an art.
The passion it ignites cannot be matched. It transports one to a different world where they can sojourn and construct a place of reverie from the mind’s eye.
Long ago I read fairytales and created stories that they inspired, my imagination was pregnant with concepts and imagery. I read and wrote by the decree of spontaneity; this was raw and unstructured.
Writing has always offered its catharsis. When I etch words upon a page and the ink spills like a velvet fountain as the fine nib drowns the page there is no art so exquisite as this. I have been influenced by many iconic writers. There is nothing more fascinating than a story which leaves an irreplaceable mark upon the mind and heart.
A Writing Career
Studying journalism and humanities is when I began structuring my work, it is my fervent desire to have a writing career but I will persevere with this art regardless because I am enamored by all that it is.
I want my writing to speak to others and move people with the beating heart of my work.
Having being diagnosed with a mental health condition that led to several admissions my journal was key to recovery. Even now it is fundamental in my ongoing journey of wellness. Every day I write something, anything to penetrate my mind.
A Cleansing Ritual
It is a sort of cleansing ritual and a true medicine that helps to heal and divert from the self which is the distraction that many require.
Sometimes my practice produces a stream of consciousness, other times I write memoirs short stories and prose. I started to collect journals at twelve and received my first diary as a birthday gift for my thirteenth birthday from my mother. Consequentially I get the most ornate journals as gifts.
I have accumulated a wealth of material from writing in these confessionals that is dense and will need strong revision and rigorous editing and dissecting.
Material that I once thought was good makes me realise that it was immature. But I am focused on reaching my fullest potential.
To make it as a writer is bordering on impossible I just want to write for its own sake but success is admittedly an ambition.
Where my Imagination Leads
Writing speaks and I respond. My recent publications generated jubilation. I enjoy destroying the blank page and seeing where my imagination leads.
Yes, the rejection letters are disappointing the work that remains unread or ignored is naturally disheartening. But with writing there is always a light. Words will live eternally.
A writer is defined as ‘any person who uses written words to communicate ideas, tell stories or convey information’. The purpose of a writer is to create a world for the reader where they are safe yet curious and challenged but are so enthralled by where they are that they desire to remain there.
Engaging in writing is a sacred act. I love to write in the darkness of winter in front of the fire with a dimed light or when the dawn chorus is chiming in the Summer with its cuckoo clock and the sky is like candy floss tinged with topaz.
Writing is something you learn from through vital research and it is a great investment bank that acquires interest with the wealth of imagery, technique, knowledge, healing and a love which is what you acquire through the written word.
Writing: a Timeless Friend
It is a timeless friend that will heal, watch and listen. It is a silent inanimate listener that we bombard with ideas, words, energy, frustration, glee it is a fine councilor and a great confident as it never shares details or gossips to anyone else about your stories, your thoughts or your words.
It’s always waiting to pick up where you left off. You can write anywhere any time and you receive its gifts. Writing always waits patiently to hear the words that your mind speaks . You can go on so many journeys with writing. I hope that it will be my companion for life.
Writing casts out what is not of you and you get to know yourself by opening up the blind and letting a light come in until there is a Pentecostal fire ablaze in the mind.
It is a spiritual practice. the psyche is fueled with ideas and dreams and words and images that all take shape. Every writer will have their Season Essentially it is the perennial gift that never ceases to bloom. The greatest gift of writing for me is that it saved my life. If it has the power to save a life how much more will it not do? This is just the beginning.
Writing has always been and will always be my greatest passion. I tend to gravitate to the arts particularly to literature, music and philosophy. My writing companions and friends from the writers groups and publications I have been involved with have offered me unwavering support and encouragement and inspiration.I have so much gratitude for them. my mother, son and my partner and all of my extended family and friends have given me their unconditional love and devotion patience and time and they are my world.
(c) Niamh Holohan
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