Guest Post by Abi Yardimci

I’m so excited to be welcoming Abi Yardimci to the blog today with a fabulous guest post!

Abi is an amazing writer of heartfelt, mindful fiction and a link to her website can be found at the bottom of the post, but for now, here’s Abi…

5 Reasons Why Writing Gets Me Out of Bed In The Mornings

Anybody of the ‘creative’ persuasion will tell you that their relationship with creativity is erratic at best.

One minute you’re over-committed to making things work and there are flowers and soft lighting and slow music – the works. There’s dynamism, there’s inspiration, there are long, lingering, lust-fuelled looks and everything just, well, flows.

The next minute you’re slamming the door on each other, screaming swear words at competitor level and grappling for the nearest tub of Ben & Jerry’s so you can escape into a dark, fuzzy hole of sweet, sweet calorie overload, self-pity and, of course, Netflix.

Sound familiar?

Chuck a global pandemic in the mix and your relationship with creativity is under a new kind of duress. Suddenly there is a new pressure to perform. No matter that you have children to constantly feed, clothe, blackmail out of the door for one effing walk every effing day as well as take on the role of an actual educational establishment / digital overload supervisor every waking hour. No matter that your partner might need you on a whole new level that neither of you completely understand but that’s okay, because there’s a freshly burned banana bread coming out of the oven in fifteen minutes right after you comb through the family bank statements just one more time in an attempt to find magic pennies.

Social media pounds the idea into your head that NOW is the time for creativity! NOW is the time to write that novel, paint that canvas, choreograph that dance, join that (virtual) choir! Now, now, NOW! After all, if not now, when? Pandemics don’t last forever you know (contrary to popular belief).

I don’t have time right now to indulge you in all the ways my relationship with creativity has been challenged since the pandemic began. What I do know though – that I have learned over the delightful years that have been my initiation to becoming a middle-aged woman – is that I need it.

I really need creativity.

And let’s face it, it needs me too. How else will it manifest itself into those lovely burnished banana breads? Or paintings my kids laugh at? Or questionable outfit ensembles joyfully exhibited on the one effing walk a day?

I’m really glad we have each other. And, although I love wielding a paintbrush from time to time, writing is my chosen medium. Or maybe it chose me. Who knows? If I think back to the seven-year-old girl merrily typing away on her mother’s typewriter I don’t think she’d give a tiny little shit who chose who. It just was as it was.

And it still is as it is. Here are five reasons why writing – above many other things – gets me out of bed in the morning:

Emotional Release – Basically, with writing, I get to vomit onto a page instead of into a loved one’s face. Whether it’s on a scrap of paper, half a journal page, or the back of an envelope – if I give myself five minutes each morning to write down a stream of consciousness load of crap, then I emerge from said task feeling like a new woman. It doesn’t solve my dilemmas or wave any magic wands but it breathes new, sparkling life into these tangled shoulders, this over-worked mind in a way that Ben and Jerry’s just can’t. Believe me, I’ve tried.

2. Giving Birth – Okay, so that sounds a bit dramatic (occupational hazard), but I kind of mean it. If I’m lucky enough for creativity to bless me with an idea, then once I get round to typing it out on my laptop it actually feels like giving birth to something important (minus the blood and the screaming and the ripped private places, so, you know, bonus!). You’d think, with two published novels under my belt, that I’d be used to it by now, but honestly, it’s amazing to think that what was just some clever synapses making interesting chemistry in my brain only hours or days before is now solid, tangible, real and may even, one day, appeal to somebody else’s clever synapses. Magic, right? Just like giving birth.

3. Wake-Up Call – I find that writing literally wakes me up to life. It would be oh so easy to coast through life never noticing the pink glow of sun beams on lazy clouds, the joyful squish of sand beneath your toes, the smile a shopkeeper casts your way, the chubby fold of your duvet across your belly as you ponder getting out of bed. There is SO MUCH to notice and, as a writer, there ain’t no way I’m getting away with not noticing. I have found there is even, dare I say it, a beauty in the less pleasant aspects of life too. Anybody who has read chapter 14 of my first novel, Life Is Yours, The Diamond In The Tear, will tell you that.

4. Bottling Things Up – Whilst I’m all into the giving birth and the emotional vomiting (how did I manage to make writing sound so nasty?) I’m also into bottling up whatever I can. If you’ve read my books, you’ll know that a lot of my stories are based on lived experience and have a fair share of heart and soul poured into them. By writing about such things, I feel like I’m bottling up something a bit like treasure so I can unscrew the lid later on – even years into the future – and drink up that beautiful sorcery. Those things we have to notice about life if we want to be writers that I mentioned above? Well by writing them down we’re also bottling them up for future use. It’s just good sense, really.

5. Fun Fest – Let’s face it, what is the point of embarking on any kind of relationship if we’re not in it for the fun? There’s this stereotypical image of the tortured artist which is hard to shake off considering the erratic, but absolutely definite, appearance of deeply felt frustrations, prize-winning swearing, intense self-doubt and gallons of Ben and Jerry’s. But it’s not all like that you know. Sometimes I make myself laugh out loud at the laptop. Sometimes I chat to my characters. Sometimes I attend their parties and go on their travels live out their ambitions and – yes – kiss their love interests. What’s not fun about that? What’s not entertaining about that? And entertainment, as we all know (because Simon Cowell told us), is good for our health. And if you can make your own entertainment then there’s no need to involve Cowell at all. If that’s not a reason to get out of bed, then I don’t know what is.

Thank you for reading this blog post, and thank you Katie for inviting me to write for you. This post wasn’t, believe it or not, sponsored by Ben and Jerry’s (but hey, I’m open to suggestions!). It was, however, written from my bed which I think ticks the box for my entire quota of writer’s irony for the year.

Wasn’t that fabulous? Abi is just lovely and so inspiring! Here’s her bio:

Abigail’s first two novels, Life Is Yours and Destiny Is Yours, which are part of the #LifeIsYoursTrilogy are available NOW on Amazon. You can also sign up to be on her Readers List AND bag yourself a FREE hidden prologue to the Life Is Yours Trilogy at www.abigailyardimci.com