"Would you like to do some modelling for us?" That question was my introduction to NLP.... And because I knew absolutely nothing about it, my reactions to the question were, in order..."Wow! I must look okay after all", and then "What will they want me to wear?"

Luckily they put me straight pretty quickly. This was nothing to do with fashion writhing, but with writing!

I'd met Paul Jacobs of New Oceans while visiting my friends Ian and Brigit Wilson at the beautiful Dower House in Hexton where Paul holds his Practitioner and Master Practitioner trainings, and we'd had many friendly chats in the kitchen. One day, while discussing my latest writing project (the musical "Lautrec" at the Shaftesbury Theatre) I was telling Paul about Charles Aznavour and I having to write a brand new song just days before the start of the previews, and Paul said "How do you do that?"

These words should have warned me that they were destined to change my life! Because it was soon afterwards that Paul invited me to model 'how I do it' for his Master Practitioners. And that's when I had to ask myself "Do I really want to know how I do it? If I analyse it maybe I'll lose it".

However my curiosity won the day, and I agreed. On a Sunday afternoon some weeks later I entered ' the big room ' and met the Master Practitioner group. They were so friendly and relaxed, and the first thing that made an impression on me was the lovely atmosphere created by Paul and his attitude "This is too important to be taken seriously!".....everyone was actually having fun! And even though they appeared to be talking a different language, or at least, using language in a very different way, they all really seemed to know what they were talking ABOUT!

And gradually they teased out of me, first by using logical levels (as I later discovered - Identity, Values & Beliefs, Capabilities, Behaviour, Environment), how I actually write. I was absolutely fascinated by the questions...and also by my answers! I truly didn't know what I was going to reply at some points, and then I heard myself saying something, and I listened and thought "That's true, I hadn't realised it before", and "Gosh, that's amazing; does it mean I'm schizophrenic?". This particular reaction came when I was telling them about the different perceptual positions I take when writing.

Now that I am myself a Master Practitioner (yes, I really got into NLP in a major way, and subsequently did the New Oceans Diploma, Practitioner, and Master Practitioner trainings...hence the 'changing my life' I referred to earlier!) I can describe in NLP terms what I had been doing, and how I'd been doing it; how I continue to do it in fact, only now I can consciously access the unconscious processes I use.

Although I didn't take willingly to computers, I have always referred, in a writing context, to "putting things into my computer" and letting the "program" form the piece, which I would access when I received a signal (usually words - I'm auditory) to tell me I was ready to continue.

So first, environment....where and when do I write? Well, in general terms, anywhere and any time.When I get an idea, wherever I am, whenever it is, I'll write it down on the nearest piece of paper.I've got a pile of scraps of business cards, paper napkins, even tissues, with jottings I didn't want to lose. I'm writing this article on a sunny Friday afternoon on the balcony of my house, on a cream canvas Ikea deckchair, an A4 student pad on my lap, and a yellow and white pen in my left hand. More often I'm at my desk in my top-floor studio. At a later stage I will type it into my lap-top (it's now twenty past eleven Friday evening and here I am) at the kitchen table....kitchens feature large in my life! I also frequently write at night in bed.