A moment reflecting

The process of writing a book. Well… what can I say? At this stage I can safely say… that it’s something I’ve done before… and am willing to do again. So much so… But it takes some reflecting on how the first book came to be a book, before I can actually accept that the second book can’t simply be created over night…

It’s almost a year ago since I left India and headed to Rome before slowly but reluctantly making my way to Ireland, where I actually only wanted to stay for a few weeks. However, things planned out differently… I left India with this URGENCY almost to write my first book about anorexia. I had to do it… I didn’t know where it would happen or how… I didn’t know the process that was involved and so it was hard to determine how long it would take. I knew I wanted to write but didn’t want it to interfere with my travels.

Anyhow… to keep this ‘short’… I set out in search for a place to write and in August I landed myself in Ireland thinking I could write the book within a month. I wanted to be on the road by… well… asap! But it didn’t plan out like that at all. I actually see now that, from the middle of August up until the middle of October, I spent diving into that part of me again and reliving my first blog (nfightinga.blogspot.com). As well I had to get into the proper flow of continuous writing… as everyday I would sit and journal about absolutely everything and anything. It wasn’t until the middle of October came and I’d found a place to write, I’d found the words I wanted to write and the flow was almost unstoppable. For 2 solid months I sat at the desk in my little brothers Seans room, every morning from 08.30am till around 3pm… tapping on the keyboard. And the story unfolded.

By Christmas my book was complete. I then had 2 months of contacting agencies… I let the actual story sit for a while… and distanced myself but still put out the word in Ireland (and often further afield) as much as possible, that this book was in search of a home. I wanted to establish myself as being ‘some sort of a writer’ before leaving to travel again. And 2 months later (February), I set off… to China… Again, 2 months I let the book sit tight. I needed to feel settled in my flying excitement as this part of the world was bringing up many different sides of me. Without having grounded myself, I couldn’t even consider going into that part of my past once again, even though I knew that it needed my attention. By the end of April… it happened… by finding this apartment, a new environment was created so the editing could begin… and 2 months later, after reliving my past all over again, in between staying focused on the job here at hand, I did it… The book is now complete…

So… that just about sums up HOW a book can be written… even BEFORE the publishing starts… Why am I going over this process? Because, to see so clearly how the story FIRST needs to grow in it’s concept and how I need to feel I’m totally in the RIGHT PLACE for the actual words to be fit for a book, gives me acceptance of the fact that, in my current situation, it’s impossible for me to wake-up from one day to the next and say I ACTUALLY WILL START WRITING ANOTHER BOOK TODAY!