“… the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and widely been regarded as a bad move.” – Douglas Adams.
The Writers Sigil was born, templates and styles still drying, articles prepped and ideas abound, I wrote an ‘About TWS’ page and rolled up my sleeves to start on the first item that excited me, I stared at an empty page, an open canvas.
I, like many others, have always found writing the first line the most difficult, how to convey the myriad of intricacies, politics, intrigue and practicality in a single line, a first word – and so, I cheat. I skip the first word, the first sentence, the first chapter even and begin at a scene that excites me and write backwards. The rigging behind the curtain is kept hidden, and nobody is any the wiser as the performer is lowered onto stage in a cloud of smoke.
The truth is all journeys begin with intent, (whether realised or not), and the Writers Sigil is no different. On the home page I wrote of finding magic in the mundane, a writers flourish on an adage I have put a considerable deal of meaning into – memento mori, remember you must die. My intent is to put value on those things that I enjoy, or that hold meaning to me, to seek out interests, invest myself into them and never miss an opportunity to enjoy the little things.
The Writers Sigil is one part of that, to enjoy the act of writing again, something I once held dear and let slip.
“Almost none of us commit suicide, whereas almost all of us self-destruct” – Jeff VanderMeer.
Nobody escapes this life without some humbling lessons, often laced in some unbelievable irony. Embedded into the back of my leg are my initials, on a tombstone, dated from my birth to 2022. The end of a chapter. And each word an intentional step in a new direction.
So here we are, in a galaxy far, far away, as ash fell from the sky, whilst the wheel of time turns and as a man in black fled across a desert…