Just write.........and be alive

I heard Jeffrey Archer interviewed once discussing his approach to writing. He doesn’t plan out what he is going to write, he just sits down and lets the pen - he still writes out his work long hand - go wherever it wants. As a fairly obsessive (read very obsessive) planner, I find this idea a little unsettling. I like to know what I am doing each day - I like to think about what I am going to write before I put pen to paper (fingers to MacBook!) - I like to plan dinner as I am having my breakfast! Perhaps it is my obsession - that word again - for audience, message and method but I like to take a few moments to think about these things before I start writing. However, today I have taken a leaf out of Archer’s book - just this one I hasten to add - and just started writing.I am penning this post in the cafe in Marks in Southport. I was here yesterday - in the shop, not the cafe - picking up some fruit and other stuff for Miss J but forgot some mini chocolate ice creams - a special treat - which she loves. As readers of this blog will know, I have been on something of a journey - cliche alert - since the days of working full time in full-on jobs in London at the GMC and PwC. The prospect of spending my days as I do now - working but on my terms at my time of choosing etc - would have been unthinkable. By that I mean I wouldn’t have even considered it, as it was something I could never dream of doing. A great day for me was being able to work at home - this was great because it meant I didn’t have to leave the house but I ended up doing more work than an office-based day.Yesterday and today I was able to spend time doing some domestic jobs in advance of moving house; buying food; cooking (I’m doing a pan of Scouse today - the weather here has inspired me); writing; prepping some teaching for the next few weeks (I am lecturing on social media and focus groups at LJMU before the end of the month); doing some AMJ Comms admin; thinking about some business development work for Lexington North - I have a few ideas to put on paper; and most importantly going to and from pre-school with our special little person. Yesterday was so lovely as Aoife has been given the class pet - Patch - a toy dog - to look after for a few days. We are off to Ireland this weekend to see family and so he will be coming with us - alongside his rucksack which he travels in and his blanket - and his journal. We have to take some photos and write up what he got up to - so, so cute. Aoife is very excited.With my cuppa and scone demolished - you can always rely on Marks - I am heading home to continue my day at home. I still pinch myself at these days - sometimes feeling a fraud or guilty for how I am working and living - then I remember. I remember all the years of hard work - all the sacrifices - all the pain - all the tears. I remember all these things, take the last sip of my tea and catch myself on. There is nothing to be guilty about - just proud, relieved, happy, contented, lucky and most of all, alive. I feel alive.How did I find the ‘Archer-style just writing’ experiment; as scary as it was invigorating but that’s not to say I won’t try it again. Archer may be many things - as Michael Crick would testify - but he has certainty sold a few books. I will continue to test myself with his approach - all part of being alive.#ben2b40