Inspiration from trees?

I had a weird and draining week last week. My husband was posted to another city for a week and so I had a week living in a hotel – and for the first time, it wasn’t because I had to work or speak so I knew without a project I was going to have a lot of time on my hands.


I got some strange inspiration – but thought, hey, if it’s inspiration who cares about the source. That inspiration came in the form of a television show, “Men in Trees” to be exact where a woman is in a tiny town in Alaska (translate to a tiny hotel room in Hobart) writing her next book.


I took the inspiration and decided that I was going to lock myself in this room last week and write my second book and I made a commitment to myself that I wasn’t leaving that room without a draft manuscript.


It was terrible to start with! I got writers block before I’d even written a word, I made excuse after excuse to leave the room (the local gym saw a lot of me!) But then, Wednesday came around – coming up to Friday’s crunch time and voila – under pressure I came through and 10,000 words poured onto my keyboard.


If you work well under pressure (think back to whether you could cram at high school) what imagined pressure can you put yourself under this next week to achieve something you otherwise thought you couldn’t?


I don’t want you to care about where the inspiration comes from – as long as you have some and don’t let yourself make any excuses!

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment