If I had to sum up my Rabbit Hole experience in just one word, it’d be intense.

For anyone who signs up to write 30,000+ words in 22 hours is quite simply a glutton for punishment. But gladly, I’m one of them. It has been a writing experience like no other.

It’s not often that you get the chance to spend your weekend with up to twenty people from around Australia that you’ve never met (and could possibly never meet), and share your unique passion for the written word. Some of us have laughed, some of us have cried, but amusingly, most of us have appeared to kill someone off at some point over the weekend. Just quietly, I hope that some of these murders that have taken place over the weekend have been solely metaphorical, but when deep in the imaginative thought, sometimes, you just can’t help but wonder.

My quickly collated mass of words has varied. I spent the majority of my Saturday writing a first draft for a book on a subject that’s close to my heart, the struggle of having a mental illness. Having seen so many of those around me have such an experience, it was an emotional rollercoaster placing myself in their shoes, reflecting on those experiences from my perspectives, and reflect on it all as if I was watching it from the sideline. It’s something that I hope to keep writing over the next few months, or who knows, I may be racing to a conclusion at next year’s Rabbit Hole.

My Sunday has consisted primarily of blog writing, which albeit practical, has allowed me to mark off a few things from my ‘to do list’ at the same time. I can’t wait to share what’s come out of them over the next few weeks/months.

Right now, I’ve got two hours left, and just under 3,000 words to write. Severely lacking on both sugar and caffeine, definitely due for a top up! I’ll end on this note; if you get the chance to do the Rabbit Hole next year, do it. I certainly feel like I’ve learnt a bit about myself over the weekend, and it has been great to get back to my true passion of creative writing, as opposed to those darn university essays that keep popping all over the place.

‘We are all apprentices in a craft where no one becomes a master’ –  Ernest Hemingway

- Chris (@chrispytweets)