Bending Technology to Serve Our Creative Purpose
Embracing modern tools for writing our books and body of work
“I don’t know if I can write a book but I could tell you what I know if we sat together and talked for a few hours.”
I hear this sentiment time and again from talented, magical, wisdom keepers. They’re filled with information and hard-won knowledge and they want to share it. Not out of self-importance, but emerging from a desire to leave a legacy that shines a light for whoever will walk the same path after them.
You and I must pass our storylines back and forth, across time and space like the warp and weft of a cosmic tapestry. This isn’t easy work, but I believe in its value. I believe that if you have a feeling that you might want to write a book, you should say yes to that invitation.
I have a vision that never leaves me, of each bright spirit in this world writing a book about the magic they’ve gathered in their lifetime. And yet, too many creatives, visionaries, and artists will start these books without bringing them all the way to publication.
Selfishly, I want these books on my shelf. Yes, those shelves are already sagging with the words of witches, herbalists, and somatic healers, but there is always room for more. My appetite, the world’s appetite, for new perspectives never ends.
This is at the heart of my work as a book coach. I heard a call to steward, midwife, and hold space for books to be brought to life. And I answered. In that answering, I’ve dedicated myself to finding tools, methods, and practices to nourish the creative process and remove those obstacles that block us from writing our work.
While I generally eschew unnecessary technology, I’ve also softened over the years and decided to see what these modern tools could offer to make writing easier. Rather than fight technological advances, I’ve opted to bend them to my will and purpose.
Letting the tools serve the writing
This is where voice to text tools have become a beautiful way to bridge that space between speaking and writing. I was hesitant to translate my voice this way, not sure if it would be worth it to try dictating my thoughts. But I tried, again and again, and eventually found a way to bend this tool to meet my needs. If you haven’t already experienced voice dictation, I believe it may help you, too.
Right now I’m walking in a gorgeous park, soaking in the Fall sunlight and writing this article. I’m also watching my boys build an obstacle course in an empty horse arena so they can tire themselves out by leaping over the cavaletti and barrels.
I’ve got a Google doc open and am talking into the phone to dictate my thoughts. Yes, I’ll have to go back and edit this, but it’s incredible to be generating work, or making progress on my book manuscript, while being out in the world, far away from my desk.
This accessibility and convenience allows me to pick up my work just about anywhere. I always have my phone (again, for better or worse) so I’m not relying on paper and pen being at my fingertips.
Yet there’s another reason I think this has worked well for me, and it’s related to the ability to capture the energy of my speaking voice on the page. How I think when I’m talking is different from how I think when I’m sitting down. Particularly when I’m working on something that feels important and precious, like a book, I find myself pushing and forcing things out. This never leads to my best work.
Walk, write, breathe, repeat
When I’m voice typing, I’m often walking at the same time. This is a particularly potent combination, as it accesses a whole range of benefits that show our thinking is enhanced by walking and mild exercise.
I love what Ferris Jabr shared when researching this connection between walking and writing in The New Yorker:
“When we stroll, the pace of our feet naturally vacillates with our moods and the cadence of our inner speech; at the same time, we can actively change the pace of our thoughts by deliberately walking more briskly or by slowing down.”
I noticed myself doing this intuitively: slowing down or speeding up as I walked and talked about whatever topic I was exploring in a given moment.
Getting away from paper and pen, being able to write while moving my hands or moving my body, helps me ground and anchor into that multi-dimensional world and translate it onto the page more easily than writing by hand or typing on keyboards.
It feels incongruous to recommend using a smartphone or artificial intelligence transcription services to translate our wild embodied wisdom into sentences and paragraphs. But I’ve decided to take advantage of these tools if they serve my deeper desire to share ideas and knowledge about what it really means to be a human and a woman in this world.
I’m quite willing to take advantage of just about anything if it will give me time, space, or freedom. If dictating my book opens up time for making flower essences, gardening, or a few extra moments of rest, I will be very glad to oblige.
All this to say, I hope you try it. Try talking your ideas out and using technology to serve your higher purpose of living and breathing your wild wisdom. Let’s use technology with intention to build meaning and remembering in a world that too often feels like it’s drifting away from the human touch.
Go forth, my beautiful friend, my beloved kindred spirit, and make your work. What really matters is that you share what you know and stitch your magic into the fabric of our shared body of wisdom.
Have you already tried these tools to support your writing? Are there others you love, or have questions about? I’d love to exchange ideas and insights in the comments…
Footnote: For those of us who are sensitive souls, I highly recommend working with Pink Yarrow flower essence when doing this voice to text work. Pink Yarrow is a vibrational remedy that supports healthy boundaries, and is a potent way to stay centered in your own voice, energy, and ideas. I shared a full article on Pink Yarrow as a creative ally for your writing work.
Leah Kent is a green witch and flower essence practitioner who drums before writing. Officially a book coach and author who helps wisdom keepers and visionaries write and publish transformational books about their work in the world.
Order your copy of Awakening the Visionary Voice.