‘Writing my first book was very theraputic’
WRITING a book was always something Robyn Davies wanted to do, but didn’t always know it.
Ever since she was in school, she had been plagued with the burning question “what do I want to do in life?” – a question she’d never been able to answer, and which had been a major cause of anxiety.
It wasn’t until last January that she took the plunge and wrote her debut book, fulfilling a passion she always had but had perhaps never realised was there.
In 2010, Robyn (who writes under the name RN Davies) finished her A-levels and although she wanted to study maths, she still didn’t know what she wanted to do.
The pressure she had put on herself had made her ill during her A-levels, but having come out the other end, she thought studying would solve her doubts.
She went down different paths, and eventually self-studied to become a financial adviser.
But her restlessness over finding her real passion continued to trouble her
ne thing which Robyn from Laleston, Bridgend, found was a source of comfort was reading, and it was during therapy that she began to realise there might be a creative streak in her she hadn’t yet explored.
She said she’d always wanted to write a book but had never found the right time.
“It was always one of those things where I said ‘oh I’ll do it at some point’, you know?” she said.
Robyn started her own baking and cake decorating business from home, which she said hugely helped her anxiety.
She said being able to work alone gave her the chance to get engrossed in thinking about shapes, drawings and colours for her creations.
Despite this, she said, the niggling sense of discontentment continued.
It was when she was at her most lost, desperately applying for jobs just to stay occupied, that her mum asked her: “‘If you had all the money in the world, what would you do’?”
“To which I would respond ‘write a book’.
“To start with it was always just a goal I would want to hit one day in my life, not knowing how or when it would happen. But the more I thought about it the more I wanted it.”
Persuaded by her husband and family that there was nothing stopping her,
Robyn finally sat down last January and started writing.
Calling the process “very therapeutic”, she said: “You’re writing and ideas and words just come to you without thinking, and you think ‘oh, where did that come from?’. It’s sort of natural, you get lost in it.”
Now RN Davies has selfpublished “Somewhere in Time”, about a woman who feels very out of place and alone in the life she is leading.
The book is loosely based on the Welsh legend of Cwm Llwch, about an enchanted doorway in a lake in the Brecon Beacons, but is partly a reflection of the author herself.
Although she still struggles with her mental health, Robyn said she has come a long way from feeling too down and anxious to even concentrate on reading a book, and she said she hopes her own book will help others looking for an escape in the current coronavirus restrictions.
“It’s a good distraction from your own head, and a chance to forget about your surroundings.
“I know it has helped me, so if my book can even help one person who might be suffering then that’s enough for me.”
Somewhere in Time by RN Davies is available on Kindle and through Amazon.co.uk