I'm currently reading Peter Mortimer's wonderful book '100 Days on Holy Island - A writer's exile.' This is about the fourth time I've read it but it really is a must for any writer and not just those who long to escape.
This time while reading it, I've realised that not only is it a diary and and an amazing diary of those days but it's also a journey and exploration of Peter Mortimer. He takes on tasks that he wouldn't normally do to find out what it's like. He writes poetry on stone and bathroom walls. He takes time to think and to discover that much more about himself.
This got me thinking - what does go into making a writer? Not what makes us tick but what actually makes up to be the people we are.
Okay I haven't done much writing in years - literally life got in the way but now it's my time and besides doing other writing I want to explore what makes me write and write the way I do.
I don't know what will become of my findings or this part of my writing. Maybe in some ways it will self indulgent but I do know that we are the product of our past and maybe for some, that past goes much further back that we can ever imagine - long before our birth.
In my case that is exactly what happened.
