For the past week, I’ve been spending most of my time sleeping in bed or laid up on the couch binge watching Netflix. Don’t get me wrong, it was great timing seeing as Stranger Things 2 was out, but it was because I’ve had vertigo. For those of you don’t know, vertigo makes you feel dizzy and nauseous all of the time, and everything I did made me feel exhausted and tired. It also meant I couldn’t spend much time at my computer as it made my symptoms worse. Which in turn means I’ve hardly written a word.

So this week, while my characters and storylines were chasing each other around in my mind, I really missed writing. Missed zoning out and disappearing into another world for a few hours every day. And it’s made me realise not only how much I love writing, but also why I love it.

From a young age, I remember having very vivid dreams, the kind where you wake up exhausted and aching as though you weren’t dreaming but running around in an alternate world. As I got older, dreams turned into nightmares, and I would’ve given anything to never dream again. I’d stay up until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and pass out into a dreamless sleep. But when I started writing again as an adult I found a purpose in my dreams. They were my imagination, the stories, and characters in my mind, and my dreams became my muse in a way. The Dreamer Trilogy began with a dream, as did a lot of the ideas in the Secrets of Aurora series. So finally, after years of avoiding my vivid dreams, I understood their purpose. Although sometimes they can be scary, they inspire me, kick start my imagination, and have sparked many story ideas.

Writing is also my escape. The days when I just need to get away from it all, I know I can retreat into a story I’m writing and forget about everything else happening around me. In a way, it’s like having therapy every day or meditating. I get to exercise my crazy imagination without any judgment.

Of course, there are many reasons I love to write, but these are two of the ones that really stood out to me the past week while I was unwell. What is your passion? Why do you love it? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.