There and back again

This was a first for me. I've been writing professionally for 20+ years now and have, since then, never taking a time-out to focus on just the story for an extended period of time ... It was pure writer's bliss.

The past few years were tough with my dad's passing, then my mom's dementia, then my brother's suicide. With every bit of strain on the heart and the mind, it wasn't easy to step into that creative room we writers need, that mental place where we roam free with our characters, where we live and die and love and hate as we try out a million and one "what ifs".

This year a few things came together that opened the possibility to step out for a whole month. My mom's settled and happy in a home, my kids are grown - and my wonderful employer?Swiss Re?gave me the gift of an extra four weeks (!) vacation for my twenty years with them ... and?yet I wouldn't have done it if not for my amazing wife who said, "Take this time, it is yours." ... it has been, without a doubt, one of the greatest gifts anyone's ever given me. What did I do? I rented a cottage in Ireland, in remote and rugged Connemara. I was there for four weeks and barely talked to anyone. I arrived without characters and without a plot. Basically, I had nothing but an idea of what I?wanted the novel to be about ... when I left the cottage a month later, I had a finished novel in my bag.

I've always had a day job?and it's always worked out well for me (here's why). I can write anytime, anywhere. It's a muscle I've trained for a long, long time. Because of multiple responsibilities, writing's always been early mornings, late nights, parts of weekends ... and in all the years I've never neglected a deadline. I learned to make the most of the time I had and was always as fast (and faster) in delivering as my full-time writer colleagues.

In Connemara, I would wake up and start writing. I would walk and drive (without the distraction of radio) and always have characters and story flowing across my mind. I would take breaks when it felt right and I would just go on writing if that's what I wanted to do. Some days I wrote half a day, others I didn't leave the cottage once for fresh air. I'd look at progress before hitting the sack and I'd voice-record ideas if they hit me while in bed. I'd wake in the middle of the night, record something, mostly asleep - then use it first thing the next morning. That singular focus turned out to be, for me, insanely creative.

My way has worked wonderfully well these past two decades - and the gift of that one month out there on my own will always remain with me as an out-of-this-world incredibly rewarding and deeply fulfilling experience. If you've done this yourself, you'll know exactly how I've felt ... and if you haven't, then my wish for you is that you'll be able to take such an opportunity at some point. Key then is to go into it with no attachment to outcome. Just go ... and allow things to happen.