Lauren Aitchison
Content warning: minor references to domestic abuse
I’ll be using my funding award from Creative Scotland to finish my book Kiss with a Fist. I was in an abusive relationship for six years, followed by an 18-month court case. When it was all over, I wrote a personal essay called The Pink Dress about my experience and the reaction online was so positive that my mum started encouraging me to write a book about the whole saga. Since the only books I could really find about domestic abuse were psychology-heavy or extremely violent accounts, I saw a gap for my book on the shelves.
I entered Penguin Random House’s Write Now competition in 2018. Every year, they take on around ten unpublished writers from under-represented backgrounds and mentor them. After a process that felt a bit like the X-Factor of publishing (including attending a workshop in Liverpool), I was accepted onto the programme and assigned an editor from Penguin.
After three years of working on the book, I’ve hit a wall. Working full time and trying to find pockets of my evenings and weekends to dip in and out is taking its toll. On top of that, domestic abuse isn’t the lightest of subjects; in all honesty, it’s hard to pick it up for an hour or two and then get a good night’s sleep afterwards. This funding is allowing me to go part-time at work and will give me the mental space I need to finish the book.
