Hey guys, I hope the week is going well for you guys, if it’s
not then it’s just one more day till the weekend. So..I have been living back at my Dad’s house
for exactly a week now and I have to say that I am still adjusting to
things. For me it is not just a change
in home and town but a change in my working environment too. As I have told you guys before, I have been
lucky enough for the last 2 years to be able to afford to write and create full
time from the flat that I lived in, which meant that I could be very flexible
about how I worked. I tended to be more
laid back in the mornings and take the time to do things like catch up on TV
shows and YouTube, read, journal and run errands and then work from the
afternoon till about 8.30pm, and then I would usually do bits of work at the
weekends as and when I could fit it around seeing friends and family. Generally I preferred having the mornings as
my ‘me’ time.
Now that I am living with my Dad and he works at home, I am
having to work away from the house as I know that I don’t feel particularly
creative when other people’s routines are disturbing or distracting me, so I
guess that I am moving into more of a 9 to 5 work style for now. While I don’t think that it is the ideal way
for working a creative job, there are definitely some pro’s to it, like the
fact that there is a clear time that you switch off from work and also that
sense of coming home from work that you don’t get really when you work from
home.
After having so much independence for the last 2 years I am
finding it strange having to discuss meal plans and bathroom routines with
somebody else, and I am still feeling quite unsettled. I realised earlier this week that I feel very
uncomfortable at the moment, and then it struck me that in some ways maybe that’s
a good thing. Being uncomfortable with
where you are, means that you will push yourself a bit more to be where you
would like to be. I know that not having
my own space and not wanting to be stuck in with my Dad will push me to get out
and see friends more and do more things out of the house and that can’t be a
bad thing. We all get into a comfort
zone every now and then and it’s good to get forced out of it. I know that this living situation is just
temporary and that will things will improve financially for me soon and I will
be able to move into my own place again.
Up until I moved last week I hadn’t really been working
properly on projects for about two months.
Mainly because I went on holiday at the beginning of September and then
when I returned I had to get my flat sorted out to be viewed by letting agents
and potential tenants. After that I
suddenly came down with a nasty virus that it took me two weeks to get over and
by the time I was better it was time to start the mammoth task of getting my
whole flat packed up ready to move.
Since I have worked for myself in a creative role I tend to go through
phases like that, where everything seems to conspire against me being able to
focus on work, and that can be a downside of not having a lot of definition
between your work and home life. Prior
to all of that chaos I had been working on a project that I was very excited
about, and I have recommenced work on it this week and I have found myself
reconnecting with it and feeling that buzz from it again. I even decided on the perfect title for it
this week, which made me super excited to carry on working on it.
Other than readjusting to a new life, I managed to finish
Landline by Rainbow Rowell this week. I didn’t
love it as much as I wanted to, but the story held me and I really liked the
ending. That was my second Rainbow
Rowell book, and I am still not really a full convert to her writing style yet,
but I do think she had the best book cover of 2014, no doubt about it. Up next on my reading list is ‘Beauty’ by
Louise Mensch. I am going to try and use
this whole working away from home thing to up my reading game a bit. I set my goodreads challenge at 50 books, but
there is absolutely no way I will manage that, but I think I can make 25 books
if I push myself for these two months.
Although that is only 50% of my target, when you think about the fact
that some people never read anything at all, then 25 books in a year is pretty
good going.
It was national stress awareness day yesterday which kind of
leads me to a good opportunity to say thank you to people that have been buying
and reading my book ‘a safe place’ this week.
Even though I wrote the book two and a half years ago and it’s been out
for almost eight months, I still honestly feel touched every time I see that somebody
bought a copy or borrowed it on Amazon.
Stress awareness day made me reflect a lot on the time of my life that I
wrote about in ‘a safe place’ I remember how hellish real stress was, so I just
want to say that if any of you are going through that right now please take
some steps to start changing behaviours and looking after yourself in the best
possible way, because you and your health are so important.
Thanks for reading, I will write again at some point this
weekend. Xxx
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