Have An Affair

My husband’s been away for the last ten days and I’ve been having an affair. Now it’s not the sort of affair that you may think of when you read that word. I’ve been having an affair with my work. I’ve been sneaking off and stealing time in an attempt to finish the novel I’ve been working on for the last two years.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and in the process found myself attending The Elizabeth Gilbert School of Writing. Big Magic provides a blueprint for living the life of a writer and one chapter in particular caught my attention. Gilbert encourages creatives to have an affair. She compares the way a person might pursue an extramarital affair with the way an artist falls in love with their creativity.

Gilbert says that people in love:

don’t mind missing meals or sleep
make sacrifices and blast obstacles
take risks
bear the cost
make out like crazy, even if they only have 15 minutes
always find time to be with their lover

I’m in love with writing and this past week has been a time of passion where I’ve hidden away with my work-in-progress and lavished all my attention, time and effort on it. I’ve gone off alone to dance with my ideas in the dark. I’ve been away with my beloved.

Now my husband’s back, I’m still stealing away to take time with my work-in-progress, but it’s a different sort of space.

I had my hair cut and coloured today and spent half an hour sitting with foils in my hair. I wrote part of a chapter of my next book while my hair changed colour.

Later, my husband worked on photos he’d taken while he was away (his work) and I stole some time to read and research my next book.

Because he’s suffering from jet lag, my husband went to bed early and and I took time to visit my work-in-progress again for an hour before I too succumbed to sleep.

I thought I was stealing time, but it turns out I’m having an affair, and it’s been extremely exciting!