Wednesday 26 April 2017

A Day Off! by Eloise Williams


Sometimes life is so full of Twitters and Twotters, and bings and bongs, and Skypes, emails, Facebook notifications, website updates, emojis, Gifs, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The sun goes down and I haven’t managed to do anything but online business all day.

 

 
Today I decided to have a day off. Shock! Horror!

Of course, I didn’t have a whole day off! I’m an author. I’m self-employed. My world would collapse if I wasn’t constantly available. Right?

 

 

After a good few hours of twitting, twotting and general online catching up, I went outside.

YES! The real outside! You know it? It’s still there! Hurrah!

As a writer, I’m largely influenced by place and atmosphere. I’m certain some people can, and probably have, written fabulous novels where the main protagonist sits in front of a computer all day, but it’s not for me.

‘Gaslight’, my second novel, was influenced by Cardiff, the city where I spent a lot of my childhood.

The Victorian architecture, the history on every street, the hustle and bustle and shove and pull of the place. I took a few people on a mini-tour of Victorian Cardiff last weekend to tell them a bit about why I wrote the book.

Yes – I’ve now been outside twice.

 

 

 

And today I went out to be influenced by where I live again. Partly for story writing purposes and partly because I am starting to look like some kind of wan, pasty-faced, undead creature.

 

And it was so worth it! I love writing about Pembrokeshire and it has been a while.  I can feel myself returning to it and I think you can probably see why!


 
 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the online stuff too. But there’s a balance to be struck isn’t there?

I need to prioritise what I like to call 'real' life sometimes and tear myself away from the endless wonders of the internet.
So, in future, when I say ‘I left my phone at home’, it isn’t an excuse…. I really did! Honestly!
 
 
 

7 comments:

Penny Dolan said...

Thanks for these glimpses of beautiful Pembrokeshire - and the reminder about going outside.

Lari Don said...

Lovely pictures, and lovely sentiments too. Taking a day off from 'online' is probably one of the most valuable things any of us can do these days! Thanks!

Rowena House said...

Love the pictures! Like you say, getting out is so important for mind & body. Maybe there's some clever app that could cut us off after a certain number of daily visits to FB or Twitter. And a maximum time spent on both. Alternatively: more WILLPOWER. Argh!

Hilary Hawkes said...

Beautiful photos. I love 'outside' too.

sara gethin said...

Great blog post, Eloise - gorgeous photos too, you lucky thing!

kqbd said...

Thank for sharing

Ellie said...

Thanks all.

Rowena - I've done it again. I'm TRYING to use willpower. It isn't easy! :)