Genius Writing

In my earlier years of life I yearned to be a writer, but was certain that I was not, despite the fact that Miss Kingston (my grade 3 teacher) most definitely thought I was great at it. But even this empowerment from an adult at a very young age made no difference to me. Every word I wrote was smothered in my judgement of its lack of brilliance.

In my mid-twenties I took a college writing course and felt so humiliated at my failings that I vowed to never write again. So I put my head down and trundled on to an ordinary pathway, thinking that I might never surface from that again.

It took some decades and an escape from the life I thought I was supposed to live before the floodgates unleashed and the force of genius began to flow through me. I had moved countries twice (from Canada to the US to the UK) and there I experienced an epiphany that changed everything for me ... and I began to write again.

This time, in a tent on a rented computer, in a campground at the back of the Glastonbury Tor, words took me over completely and gushed through me like never before, building sonnets to the beauty of wordsmithing as they flowed. I remember that first writing in that magical place. How the beginning of it rounded perfectly with the ending of it and I was amazed. Something had touched me and moved through me that knew exactly what it was before it had begun. Was that book waiting for someone like me to birth it from the genius realms? Was it me at some level of myself that already knew all these things, denying it while living small?

And so I began to study genius. Not the prodigy kind of genius or the disciplined learning kind of genius. No I wanted to get to the nub of where genius came from and how we might unleash the genius that I knew was lying dormant in the deep core of every single person on this planet. I interviewed genius photographers and artists and they all pretty much told me that it was their alignment with something invisible, some sort of magic that dwelt in the landscapes of their cameras and canvases. I collaborated with other creators to see what wonders we could co-create if we let go and let genius stream through us all. I called that collaborative genius fusion.

Now, all these years later, this flow is still there for me, captivating me in its thrall every time I put my fingers to the keyboard. It's my relationship with the invisible, my partnership with the universe, my enthrallment with genius that calls the magic of it through me.

I have self-published 10 books, currently writing my 11th. My husband, Santari Green, a word wizard extraordinaire, is currently creating his 5th. Writing has become the thrill of our lives, as the words rush through us, escaping the genius playground where unformed ideas wait for us to merge with them to actualise them into life.

It makes me ponder the wonder of an intelligently designed universe that holds unformed ideas and limitless possibilities that can enrich our lives one hundred fold. For me, it is my willingness to surrender my thinking mind, to let go of who I think I am and what I believe I am capable of and allow this intelligent design to have its way with me. I become entranced. I emerge into new worlds of wonder. I create beyond what I ever thought I could create. I allow genius to have its way with me. And perhaps that is the secret to it all, to allow something greater than ourselves to captivate us and lead us to new horizons of awe and wonder both for the writer and the reader.

For now I believe that genius is the free flowing power of the universe, pulsing through our fingertips, our lips, our being, to tell stories that enchant and enrich us, calling us to be greater, to live legendary, to go into the magic lands where an unimaginable future awaits our creation.