How you need NOT prepare for a 3 month book- writing sabbatical abroad

My book is real and screaming to be written. Now, it will be written, in three months!

It's a book I've had in me for years; a thrilling story set in thrilling times, in a thrilling place. An untold story. After a life time of writer's block, of black parrots sitting on my shoulder squawking 'you can't do that', of procrastinations various real and imaginary, this is it.

This is the coming into the clear, believing. This is the chance I will not lose to achieve my goal.

It is all a question of timing, of determination, focusing, of doing 'the next right thing', (of love and support too) and of catching that wing to fly on.

Time to begin.

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The plan, conceived in the spring of 2011, was to write a book in three months in Los Angeles, California, USA this very winter between January 6 - April 2, 2012.

It was an enthusiastic promise to myself, to my friends, to all the air around me (and all the spirits in the air) to leave my farmhouse in Tuscany to go to LA to write the book.

The idea for the book blew into my mental sky, like a fabulous kite on a bright day; colored, billowing, beautiful. A very personal, crystal clear, real idea.

Using credit cards:

1. I bought the airline tickets with Air New Zealand, my favorite airline company, (really laid back, happy-vibe flights)

2 I booked a rental car at my favorite car rental near LAX the other day - (Super Cheaper!)

Leaning heavily on friendship:

3. I have a home to hang my hat in. (It's a garden studio annex in my friend's back yard .The bed is made. "You have a desk", my friend assures me.)

I can't afford to back out now. The commitment is frighteningly, firmly in place.

But I am not prepared, haven't written a single word of the book. Not one.

There are some great excuses, real life important ones. Is 'being very busy taking care of the practical side of living' a good enough excuse?. Money doesn't grow on trees does it? Time can't be carved out of one's life and plopped in another on the other side of the world just like that, with no planning or considerations. What about all the bills, the pets, health, partner, home maintenance ad infinitem?

It all takes time and it takes cunning and it takes resourcefulness. It takes everything you've got. And what you haven't got, I have found.

Here follow a short list of practical preparations. Too short I'm convinced. But what more can I do? Time has run out.

"Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing", said Wayne Dyer. Now this is a consolation

Financing:

In Virginia Wolf's short novel "A room of one's own" she said that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write...." (here a link to an ebook of the book http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91r/).

I don't have the first of those two commodities. But, phew, I know someone who can help.

1) I've got a creative bank manager (of the MPS bank, the oldest bank in the world). He helped organize a small loan. It got sneaked through and past the higher-up banking folk, the ones with the rubber 'approved' stamps. The money, ostensibly, was financing to pay for 'kitchen improvements'. I'd never have gotten it for my book, for sure!

2) HubPages! Yes. The plan here has been to make some money out of the them in the future (in case the book doesn't go the way we all dream). This is my 13th Hub and must say, I'm only now beginning to get a handle on the SEO side of things, and linking and all that internet know-how that doesn't come easy. I am SLOW to learn technical facts, even without four and a half children to take care of, church flowers to cut, a full time job on the other side of my region to go to.

"Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action", advised Napoleon Hill.

Here. Here!.

Researching

Notes should be taken, thoughts captured, nailed to the book tree. Files opened, snippets here and there copied and pasted, a tapestry of paragraphs of striking lines and pages and so forth being put together in my Book File.

I haven't done the Book File! I'd need a ton more vitamins to do that, a centrally heated house and more light for the paraffin lamp I burned writing Hubs into the night. Excuses I realize, but there's a modicum of truth in there somewhere.

1) It takes time and it takes money. I did go to London to the British Library to photocopy pages from a series of magazines published many years ago that I need.

2) I read many books (most of them second hand from Amazon since I live in a rural area in Italy and English books are impossible to come across) by authors who shine a light on the style and the ''how" of writing the book I want to write - and although I won't be able to fly with these books in my luggage, I do have a library card for the Los Angeles Public Library. It will have to do.

3) note: Must start making the list of those books and then photocopy that list. (as soon as the stores open after New Year).

4) Call it 'thinking' research. I'm sure I sleep with my book rippling along a stream in my sub conscious; I never forget it, I live with it quietly. (Oh dream on!). But I do.

Miscellaneous personal business

"The secret of success in life is for a man (woman too!) to be ready for his (her) opportunity when it comes" assures Charles Caleb Colton.

I am ready for my opportunity. I'm just hurrying to get the preparations done Mr Colton.

1 - 100. The last personal details, like my relationship with my companion, my pets and their well being, the house, (its leaks and creaks and the surrounding growing grass and rutted roadways and so on), all that is personal, that has to go on and be Okay while i am not at home, is squashed into these lines, here, like my luggage is going to be squashed into a bag.

Lists have been made of when to take medicines, when the cat's have their vet appointments, when the rubbish tax has to be paid, what my USA numbers are, where the supermarket coupons are, how to make vegetable soup (because scrambled eggs twice a day for 90 days is not going to be good for them), where the second set of car keys are, what the bailiffs number is for cutting the grass in the field in March, which airport I'll be landing at when I return.....

Kisses. Done.

Food cupboard. Stored up.

Bed linens. Ironed.

Flowers everywhere. Tick that box.

Here is a short list of famous authors who wrote best selling books in a short time, as consolation and as encouragement that a book can get written in three months, (when it has to), even under the desperate circumstances its been subjected to.

- It took Edna O'Brien three weeks to write "The Country Girls", the first book of her classic Trilogy (of the same name.)

- Barbara Cartland wrote 623 best sellers in her life, selling millions of books.

- Dr. Richard Carlson wrote "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" during a 12 hour transatlantic flight. It sold 25 million copies.

- John Grisham stated in an interview that he usually takes only six months to write a book.

- Jodi Piccoult, who is 44 and has three children has written 18 books. She writes a book in about 9 months, but she is often working on more than one book at once and who may also be touring for yet another book.

- Francis Ford Coppola the film director and screenplay writer wrote the film script for The Great Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel of the same name in less than 6 weeks. (Jack Clayton directed the movie).

Virginia Wolf said it took her four days to write "A room of one's own"

It is a mind set.

The kite was in my sky. My kite.

My book is real and screaming to be written. Now, it will be written, in three months!

It's a book I've had in me for years; a thrilling story set in thrilling times, in a thrilling place. An untold story. After a life time of writer's block, of black parrots sitting on my shoulder squawking 'you can't do that', of procrastinations various real and imaginary, this is it.

This is the coming into the clear, believing. This is the chance I will not lose.

It is all a question of timing, of determination, focusing, of doing 'the next right thing', (of love and support too) and of catching that wing to fly on.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!! I'm off to write that book. No matter what.

THE BEGINNING.