As this show was about real people, I also experimented with going back along a timeline to put the songs into the real people's mouths, to hear if they 'rang, and sang, true'. So perhaps you can now understand why I was disconcerted - an apt word in this context! -on that Sunday, modelling, to discover all this; and why multi - schizophrenia, if such a term exists, sprang to mind....or should I say minds!

Values and beliefs are obviously at work all through the writing process for me; WHY do I write, what is important to me about writing, about what I write? I can only describe it as "I write because I simply have to, because I believe it 's what I was created to do." I have never written something just for the money, or as a clever career move....if it's not going to stretch me as a writer, if it compromises my standards or integrity, I don't do it.

As for Identity, well, which one? Seriously though...I used to believe "I am what I do":- NLP has made me aware that I was uneasy every time I'd say that because it seemed to imply no choice. As an options person, and very towards, I now say "I do what I am". Modelling 'how I do it' made me so intrigued by the whole subject, I am now writing a book about how the top writers, in a variety of fields, do it; the book is for aspiring writers, and everyone who's interested in the processes of creativity. It's called "Write Up There With The Best". After all, NLP is about modelling excellence, isn't it?

Time for another cup of tea.......

Dee Shipman, who is an NLP Master Practitioner and co-trainer, is a writer and renowned lyricist. She is co-founder of The Rainbow Journey and editor of the Rainbow Journal. She has written West End and Broadway musicals, including one with Petula Clark and another with Charles Aznavour, and among other things writes all Aznavour's English lyrics. Dee can be contacted on tel: 01462 442955 or email: [email protected]