Hello everybody! It’s been… almost three years? Seriously? I haven’t updated this blog in THREE YEARS?
Oops!
So where the hell have I been? Long story short: having difficulties. Since the last update, I got a Distinction for my MA (which was nice) and had a bit of a breakdown (which was less so). I’m now diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and ADHD on top of being autistic, which has been helpful and stressful in equal measures, and my writing has been on the back burner.
But no more! New decade, new me! Or rather, new decade, returning to the old me who actually wrote things from time to time!
I don’t have a dedicated update schedule for this blog – or, indeed, any idea of what I want to use it for other than promoting stuff I’ve written – but I will definitely be trying to create more interesting content for you in the future.
Thank you for your support! It’s great to be back!
At the beginning of the year, I had a goal. I wanted to write a book review for my blog once a week for all of 2017. And to my credit, I’ve gotten over a quarter of the way.
Unfortunately, I’m not going to finish.
When I made this goal, I thought that I’d be able to scrape through the first part of the year and, by the time uni ended, I’d be free to read as much as I want and get this done. That’s not the case.
Instead, three things have come together to drastically devour my spare time.
1) I’ve started writing for a second wrestling company, which reduces the amount of time I have for reading, which makes reviewing books difficult.
2) I’ve had a lot more assignment work than I expected. My four thousand word essay took a lot of time and attention and I also have a 15k submission to finish. Spending time reading when I could be doing that is self-indulgent.
3) I’m trying to find a day job. I had an interview last week and, if successful, that will also take up a good chunk of my life at present.
I will still try to write a piece of content for this blog to post on Thursdays from now until the end of the year, but until further notice, it won’t be The Thursday Review.
Thank you for all the time you’ve spent on my reviews so far. I love you all.
Plus I’m going to try every single month to interview a writer friend so that you can find out a little bit more about the network of writers I’m part of, what they write and where you can find it!
Well it’s been rather quiet and empty here for a while, hasn’t it? I meant to update weeks ago, but what can I say? Life’s been incredibly busy for me recently. I graduated from university with a First, I moved into a new bedroom, and I’ve started a Master’s Degree. But that’s no excuse for going completely silent here, and for that I apologise. On the plus side, though, I’ve got three big bits of news to share with you. So let’s get going!
First of all, I shared on my Facebook recently that I’d written three articles for International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom (IPW:UK), a Kent-based wrestling company, to use in their show programmes. I’m happy to announce that this has now become a regular thing and in all likelihood, I will be contributing to their programmes for the foreseeable future!
This includes: event reviews (like the one of Future 8 in the second 11YA programme); match previews (like the one for Sammy Smooth versus Tommaso Ciampa in the Just Too Good programme); and focus pieces (like the one about the GZRS in the Supershow 2015 programme).
IPW:UK do programmes at most of their main shows and they’re available free with a VIP ticket purchase or for a small fee at the event. If you’re interested in reading some of the stuff I write about wrestling these days, check it out!
Zillion Press bought a piece of flash fiction from me for their anthology “Polychrome Ink: Volume II”. It’s a little piece inspired by my own struggles with writer’s block and depression called “That Dreamy Girl”.
The entire anthology can be bought online from the publisher’s website or from various other places including Amazon and Createspace. To find all the purchasing options, click this link to Zillion Press’s Store page and give it a look.
And finally, the big news I’ve been taunting you with for quite a while.
You may remember that for my Final Year Independent Study for my BA, I created a playlist of ten poetry videos. If you enjoyed those, celebrate: I have poems written for five more.
Yes, you read that correctly: I have five more poetry videos ready to be made. But these won’t be going on YouTube! Instead, I’ll be putting the these five new videos, plus the ten from YouTube and some “Making Of” type features, onto a DVD!
Right now, I still have to undergo the filming process for the new videos, so this probably won’t be happening until somewhere around the summer of 2016. I’ll keep you updated on the progress as I start filming and let you know how everything goes.
Oh, and here’s the playlist for the old videos in case you never got around to watching them!
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I post a lot of selfies. And those selfies tend to be tagged with things like #IAmVeryPretty or #IAmCuteToday.
It occurred to me that if you don’t know me, you might assume I’m conceited or big-headed.
I’m not. There’s another reason I tag my photos that way.
I’ve been posting on Readwave for almost a year now. I’ve submitted articles, poems and stories. And they’ve all found a good number of readers.
But none of my articles have been on the homepage before.
I’ve written about bullying. I’ve written about annoying television adverts. And I’ve written about comparing myself with other people.
But if I could only have one article go the distance, I’m so glad that it’s #FakeItTilYouMakeIt.
I believe that everyone deserves to feel happy about the way they look. Good self-esteem and body positivity are vital in a world that tells us we’re ugly so they can then sell us things.
And the thought that my journey towards self-acceptance is helping others is so heartwarming to me.
Plus I may not have as much time to write for pleasure this term as I did last term.
My tutor’s going to set writing tasks for me every Thursday. And part of my grade is dependent on me completing them in a satisfactory manner. That takes priority over writing for fun.
So making a note of how much I’m writing for university homework will remind me that I am making progress and I am still creating.
As I said in my last post, life has become pretty stressful for me recently. I’ve got a lot going on and that’s tough to manage.
But things like Word Count Wednesday work as little reminders that for all that life is difficult, I’m still getting things done. I’m still accomplishing things.
It doesn’t matter how slowly you move as long as you don’t stop. And it doesn’t matter if somebody else is getting to their destination faster than you’re getting to yours.
And you might think that’s not true for a writer. After all, we have it easy, don’t we?
Don’t we spend all day sitting around, making up fantasies in our heads? Aren’t we lucky to do what we love for a living? Shouldn’t we be grateful for what we have?
Yes and no.
Most writers don’t spend all their time writing. I know I don’t.
