I decided that I would start something new at Lighthouse Arts. It is such a spectacular site that I wanted to be able to let it affect me, rather than losing myself in the details of editing the novel I brought with me. But I had an idea for a new novel and I felt that this unusual space would let me explore it.

So, each day I walked from where I was staying to the lighthouse headland, letting the walk prepare me for my day. I only took pen and paper, no laptop, to reduce my writing to basics.

I was able to release into my writing and wrote the first drafts of many of the sections for my new novel, as well as doing some structuring, which I hadn’t expected to be able to do. I also did a lot of journaling, giving myself the time to work at describing what I was seeing and hearing. Like this: ‘A magpie outside the window is singing, its beak slightly open, its throat making miniscule undulations. A magpie on the other side of the courtyard stops and looks over. When one moves, hurried little steps, so does the other. When one stops, so does the other. Beautiful warbling rises over the steady sea, the rattling window.’

I loved meeting all the other people who were there. I learnt that we all had very similar processes of creativity and development, whether we were writers or poets or sculptors or painters. Many thanks for such a great week where I was able to immerse myself in my writing as well as making connections with other artists.