An Individual Approach to Writing by Andy Harrod
I often say I write to understand, but my writing is also an expression of who I am and my recent release Living Room Stories captures both of these. Living Room Stories were inspired by Ólafur Arnalds' Living Room Songs. I plugged into the sparse piano and sketched a moment of waiting; I proceeded to pour my hopes and experiences onto the paper and from then on I danced with the music and a life in seven moments was formed. I published Living Room Stories as a set of single cards. Each story is accompanied by photography or art, which I see as an extension of the words. Each story is a memory, the individual cards encourage interaction with these memories, there is no set order, there was the blog order, and the handmade edition order, and there is the choice for the reader to develop their own order. The stories come with a transparent print of the cover art and are housed in a 7inch record sleeve. An ep in words.
What I think has helped sell out the first run of Living Room Stories is this individual approach. I use art or photography with my writing to enhance and extend the words. I also love the idea that the cover art and packaging of a book can be an extension of the words and that the book becomes more than it is. I believe my approach created curiosity and interest in my stories, with many readers seeing it as more than a book, as a piece of art.
Much of my writing and art is formed of layers. My writing and art comes from my search to understand who I am. To find my sense of self I delved through layers of ideas, beliefs and questions. As I revealed each layer, there wasn’t an answer, but a clue, a hint. Perhaps there is no answer, no end point. But that it is the journey, the here and now where we reside, which is important, but that importance is so often clouded and masked. We have to delve through layers to reach meaning, to experience a life that is authentic. How books are traditionally published creates layer before the reader can get to the writing. Many books do have cover art that is representative of the writing, but not always and why only this extension of the meaning of the words? How I released Living Room Stories allows for interaction with the words and their meaning, it doesn’t cloud thought, but encourages it.
As writers we give so much of ourselves in our words, so why stop with the presentation? Why not play with this layer? I encourage other writers to be curious with how they present their words and am very interested in seeing what happens when the boundaries are pushed.
A second edition of Living Room Stories will be released in mid January 2012.
If you would like to read more about my writing you can at Decoding Static, where you will also find out more about Living Room Stories.
