Fully Awake Dreamer – Peta Hawker

I’ve been saving this beautiful lady for when the time is right. She is the main reason I feel like all of my weirdness works. I can’t pinpoint the first moment when we were friends but I just knew that I had to have her as a friend and together with Megan, I call this beautiful one of my best friends. Without her I don’t know how I would have been able to cope with the array of things that have happened in the three years that I have known her. After this you’ll see just why she is amazing too.

1. Tell us a little about yourself and what you write.

Hi there, I’m Peta. I’m a multi-faceted kinda girl with interests in writing, yoga, health and wellness, amazing raw and vegan food, writing, hanging out with my cat, reading, writing, music, spirituality, oh, and did I mention writing? I write a bit of everything. Fantasy, magic realism, literary fiction, short stories, blog posts, poems, anything that takes my fancy.

 

2. What is your burning writing desire about?

The burning desire to fill a page with hastily scribbled, breathless words is what drives me. Sometimes that looks like writing thousands of words of my novel, other times it is crafting meaningful sentences for my blog. The moments that grab my attention, the ones that start novels and stories seem to be characters in crisis. I like to watch their reactions reveal who they are.

 

3. Are you working on anything right now? Can you give us a little bit of a sneak peak?

My main focus at the moment swings between the blog and the drafting process of a novel I have been writing for 12 years. You can find the blog here. As for the novel…nope, you can’t have a sneak peek yet!

 

4. What nourishes your dreams besides writing?

The delicious vulnerability that comes with a regular yoga practice. Experimenting in the kitchen. Weeding the garden. Coaching my loved ones. Creating vision boards. Dancing to loud music. Drinking tea. Lots of tea. Walking in the forest. Meditation.

 

5. What inspires you?

The above list! Both yoga and music are my biggest sources of inspiration. Practicing yoga keeps me centred and allows me to connect to source. Music floods my mind and keeps it quiet, allowing everything else in. Writing itself inspires me. There are a many authors that inspire my story writing; Sara Douglass, Stephen King, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez are just a few of my favourites.

 

6. What’s the biggest ting you’ve learned from writing?

The biggest thing I have learnt from writing is the practice of being honest and authentic. This applies to both writing and life. Bringing honesty to my words really lifts a story and makes it accessible to people. And so too with my life!

 

7. What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to overcome when it comes to your writing?

Overcoming the internal editor. When I was 13 I started writing a novel. For close to ten years I continued to rewrite the 10, 000 or so words I had written, only adding new scenes on two or three occasions. When I learnt that I had to just write, write, write to push it forward, I was able to finish the first draft in the space of about 8 months. Ignore the editor, do the work.

 

8. What advice can you give to buddying writers?

I already gave it! Ignore the editor, do the work. You just have to sit down and write, or you’ll wither away under the editor’s glare. Having a writing buddy or a coach is ridiculously helpful with this. Mandi has been my writing buddy/coach for a long time, and I can honestly say that I would not be in the middle of my second draft by now without her encouragement. I’d probably still be floating around with an unfinished first draft. Thank you Mandi!

 

9. Are you dreaming fully awake and how did you get there?

What a question! There are so many ways I could answer, so many aspects of my life that this applies to. So in an attempt to answer…yes, I am dreaming fully awake. I am creating a life I love, one that inspires me, nourishes me and is centred around the desires of my heart. Those desires, those dreams are fully present in my life; I am aware of each and every one of them and am now weaving them into my daily life.

How did I get there? That, my friend, is a long story…but if you head over to my blog you might find the threads of that story. You won’t have to look hard, I promise.