*WARNING: CONTAINS HOLIDAY SNAPS*
So I was mulling over what I could write about for this feature, seeing as I haven't been to any writing or reading-related events recently. And then it dawned on me that I have been
somewhere. Somewhere that involved going a bit further than a few stops on the tube (this a rare occasion these days).
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| Pebble tossing: it never gets old |
Yes, you may have already guessed that this post is about a land north of the border. But it's not going to be just me waffling on about what we got up to on our jollies (eating fish and chips for the most part, in case you actually are interested). No, I'm going to attempt to link this into my writing a bit and and also a few things I've been thinking about recently. I don't think I've talked much about my WIP before, only because I live in fear of sounding like a right twonk if I start, but here goes....
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| Nice chest |
My story is set in west London. I live in west London and I love living in west London, but it does have it's downsides, the main one being the cost. And most of my family live in Scotland, relatively near to a very beautiful part of Scotland. So you can imagine that thoughts have turned to the possibility of moving there. However, whenever I travel to places that I love, or that I imagine I will love, it always gets me thinking about where I consider to be home and why I consider it to be home.
In my WIP, I'm trying to explore this - trying to explore a teenager's ties with her home and why these bonds can't always be put into words and no matter how much we desire to go see the world, certain things that we can't always put our fingers on will always draw us back or maybe even prevent us from leaving in the first place.
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| WHEN THE SKY FAAAALLLLLLLSSSS..... |
I've lived in this part of London on and off for the last ten years and we've tried moving away.
As far away as possible, in fact, but we're are always drawn back. Personally, I don't consider the town where I grew up as home at all. I barely even give it a second thought and I certainly don't miss it (it's not in Scotland by the way). But I can understand the idea of a place getting under someone's skin and leaving it's mark. Hopefully I'll be able to convey this in my writing, and my recent visit to Scotland emphasised this even more - no matter how beautiful and breath-taking a place is, no matter how strong your ties are with the people who live there, home is home is home.
So London is where we shall remain....
I was talking to another blogger awhile back and she said there's a Welsh word that means something like a person is called towards living/loving Wales. She put it much better than me. It sort of sounds like what you're talking about?
ReplyDeleteI grew up all over the place. I was born in Washington but lived in Alaska, California, Texas and Oregon. Obviously I've moved very far away from all of those places and I don't think I'd ever seriously consider moving back. But still all these years later and I can still feel the pull of the Pacific Ocean. It had such an impact on me growing up that missing it feels like an actual physical pain sometimes.
When we were living in Australia, the homesickness crept up on me very unexpectedly and sometimes it felt like I was almost grieving for a place. It's sounds so strange writing it down, but felt very real at the time.
DeleteI can imagine it must be so difficult living so far away from somewhere you consider home. Thanks for the comment Michelle :)
I love the idea of the ties to home and how they affect your life! Hope the writing is going well too :)
ReplyDeleteScotland looks so beautiful. I really need to go one day..
I think I would miss the area I live in very much if I were to live overseas, but I am sure there are places similar to it.
ReplyDeleteYour WIP sounds fantastic, I love that you're looking at the idea of home :)