The big leap

A week today, I will leave work for good, after just over four years with the company. You see, I resigned at what I feel is a natural break point in my career. I am taking three months off to write my third novel - to get as much of an outline or even a rough first draft finished before I return to advertising. It's summer, it feels like the perfect time :-)

My first two novels - written when I was at university - were unpublished. But they must have been of reasonable quality because those novels won me an agent and a publisher (Random House). Then I got ill and re-drafting those novels for publication and writing in general went on the backburner. Then I got a job, and then a career. Then I got married, and had a child. You know how life moves on at speed with little energy left over for working on our deep-seated passions.

But after four years in advertising, I was ready to move on. I started chatting to recruiters whilst still employed; I started talking to people. There are interesting, exciting jobs out there for me. And then I thought, began to feel, that I was ready to move on now, yes. But ready to move on to writing again.

Just for a while. Just to get started. Just to get something out there - if only a rough draft or an outline - that I can continue to work on whilst back at work. Just for the summer.

So I handed in my notice a month ago and I will not start looking for work until the Autumn. We have savings; Mr Planet will support me; Little Planet will remain in fulltime daycare; and I will dream and write, dream and write.

I won't write about my writing here. Blog posts may (or may not) be sporadic. Weekends will be family time so hopefully I'll still have many activities to blog about.

My big leap feels so good.

And, it's just for three months.