It’s the dead of night here in Northern Ireland and I can’t sleep. It happens from time to time. I wake up and, try as I might, I can’t get back over again. There’s no real reason why, I’m not overly worrying about anything and I’ve got nowhere to be. I’m just awake. So I do what I know best, I retreat into my world of words. I write a blog post, bury myself in a book, chip away at my latest novel. Words are my escape, my sanctuary.
It’s always been this way, but more so as I’ve grown older. You know where you are with words, well at least I do. I can weave them as I wish, creating new worlds and characters as quickly as the ideas drop softly into my head. A steady conveyor belt of sentences, paragraphs and pages until…poof…there’s a 120,000 word manuscript staring you in the eye. I’ve no idea how that happened but congratulations to all concerned.
Sometimes I need a break, but I always return, like an old dog gnawing at its favourite bone. I’ve written three books now, with a fourth in the pipeline. They are my past, present and future, my innermost thoughts and feelings laid bare for all to see. I pour my heart and soul into them, sacrifice a little piece of myself every time to breathe new life into letters and words spoken a trillion times before. My books are me, my legacy, my raisin d’etre.
I have found sanctuary so many times before in a book, when battered by the storms of life. They have been my calm harbour, my safe haven. There I have healed and taken stock before returning to the fray. I hope that my stories may offer similar comfort to those who read them. If I have, then my work is largely done and I can rest easy again. Maybe that’s why I woke up this morning and wrote these words. Somebody, somewhere needed to hear them. Maybe it was you.
Black Thoughts 
❤ Maybe.
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It was a fascinating. 😃
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I think you’re right to get up and put your ideas down on paper, sorry, hard drive, or whatever it is these days – to put the ghost to rest as it were. I occasionally wake and concoct the most beautiful prose in my head for my blog, then in the morning it’s gone, never to be remembered again.
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I’m the same. Unless I get it down there and then, then it’s out of my head an hour later 😂
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☺️🦋
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Thank you Ellie 🙂
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I’m the same way.
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I totally understand.
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So true, words connect us to the souls of others and often have helped me feel a little less alone in this big world.
I’m glad to hear that you’re writing another book, I was wondering if you’d continue after your trilogy was done!
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Thank you Heather. If you enjoyed ‘Skelly’s Square’ then I hope you will love ‘A New Jerusalem.’ 😊
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I just started it this week 😁
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Thank you. I hope you enjoy it 🙂
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Nothing helps me get back to sleep better than getting up and writing my thoughts out – it gets them out of my mind and frees my soul so I can rest. I am so grateful for words. Words can express and heal when they come from a loving place.
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Most definitely. Reading helps me get back to sleep 🙂
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I cannot go to bed without a book in hand, been that way ever since I learned to read, and probably even before that. LOL
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I go through the same process. Can’t sleep. I just have to write or read.
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I’m much the same.
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Yes most definitely! Thank you for sharing your words. 😊
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You’re welcome. Thank you 😊
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😊
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I generally compose long emails, tweets, blog posts and other random things in my head all night long, but if I tried to write them down it would be disastrous; it’s this mental loop and also a writer’s block. All just part of my disability and my mental illness conspiring against me. 🤷 I do read all day long, and generally it helps me sleep. It can get interesting when I dream about what I read, especially as I read mostly nonfiction. I am a wordsmith, and I miss the release that words bring me.
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Are you not publishing anything at the minute?
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Not generally 😢
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