Writers can sometimes be seen through a glamorous lens. People think that we are mysterious, enigmatic, inspired and sometimes a bit melancholic. And yes, there is a connection between creativity and madness, as you can read about in Evilibrium by Simon Kyaga and Jonas Matsson, but I think one of the reasons people think that is because we see the world in a slightly different way than normal people.
I have always loved writing, but when I studied Professional Writing at the University of Gävle I started seeing the world differently. I learned that the better I became at observing, the better I could describe and recreate moments when I wrote.
I firmly believe that we writers tend to see, smell, feel and notice things a little bit more than others. When I wrote articles for the school magazine I made sure to open my senses when ever I visited a site or interviewed someone. Have you ever thought about what other people are talk about on the bus? Or what it like sounds when excited students have buy wine and they are super exited on their way out of the liquor store?
Things that writers do:
- We eavesdrop on people.
- We will stop and think about how to describe the smell of the sea without explicitly writing that it smells “like the sea”.
- We write down details from moments that may seem insignificant.
