retreat

image by my husband :) 

Today I am going away for the best part of a week......to finish my book!

Over the past few years there have been many moments where I know I've needed to show the universe how serious I am about the life I want to live.  Last year, I went on an Arvon course to try and finish another writing project and came away with something else, which turned into the book I have been working on ever since.  Over the past year I have given this book everything I've had - wedding madness aside! - and now it is nearly finished. Originally I had hoped to have the first draft completed by my 30th birthday, but then I had the marathon and a trip to India (excuses, excuses!) so that didn't end up happening.....with the weeks and months of 2011 melting away like ice in a defrosting freezer, I decided to take another leap of faith, before my life descends into moving madness, and take a week off to get the first draft finished.

There have been many hard things about writing this book, not least revisiting some of the difficult times in my life that  inspired it.  I've had to push through some awful moments when I've thought it was the most terrible story in the world, and that I'm a terrible person for wanting to write it.  I'm told this is normal :) Despite everything I have never wanted to throw it aside and give up.  In my heart of hearts I know this is a story I was meant to write.  I also know I am never going to write a book that is to everyone's satisfaction.  That's something I learned at Arvon.  People might love your writing, or hate it. It doesn't matter.  At the end of the day it's just you there, tinkering away, writing alone.  It's a solitary act, a journey you can only make by yourself.

So today I'm off.....no internet, no Twitter, no Facebook, no blog...and no husband :( ..... nothing to distract me!

I'll be back next week and hopefully I'll be able to show you all a page with THE END written on it.

Or maybe it will say THE BEGINNING.

See you all next week! xx