Crossing off the list

So when I last wrote this blog, I finished the post with four goals:

• I will enter a writing competition in any genre at least once a month.

• I will gain actual experience in the writing industry within this year.

• I will grow my social media presence.

• I will apply for freelance writing jobs

Now, nearly two months later, I am happy to say that I've made a lot of progress!

Step 1: I have entered a writing competition every month since the last post. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything yet - but there's been no results posted on any of the competition pages yet... so I haven't lost hope. And, even in the highly likely chance that I haven't placed, it's forced me to write and put myself out there.

Step 2: I've gained experience in the writing industries! After applying to god-knows how many publishers, I heard back from Catchfire Press in Wallsend. An independent publishing house who have very kindly let me gain work experience with them on Tuesdays. I have been writing notes whilst in the meetings, and will upload them on here soon, but it's interesting to find out that the problems faced us when publishing our Nottingham anthologies really are universal. There's a growing disinterest in books. A 'fatigue' of a sort.

I was also a volunteer at the 'National Young Writers Festival' (part of the This Is Not Art festival) that took place in Newcastle this year. A really interactive festival in buildings across the city centre. One of my favourite parts was the 'Confession Booth' where writers had to start behind a microphone and admit secrets they'd never told anyone.

And last weekend, most importantly, I got a job. As a creative writing tutor. (!!!!!) I'm so excited to start. It's with the Sydney Story Factory, and entails me sitting down with a group of disadvantaged children and giving them the one-on-one literary help they so desperately need. As a tutor, I am also welcome to various courses and talks. In two weeks I'll be attending one about tutoring aboriginal children, and hope to take part in a 'leadership' course in January.

Step 3: Not much change here yet. I've considered starting a new twitter page, or even a facebook page, but don't feel like I have enough of a following for it to make an impact on my CV.

However, I have recently made plans to start a proper website. 

A travel website.

Where the screen would be a world map, and you could click on countries and see 'stars' of the places I've been. If you were to click on the 'star', then a screen would pop up with details like where I stayed, what I did, the highlights, lowlights, weather, recommendations etc. 

I'm certainly travelling enough - and you never know where it might take me.

Step 4: Freelance writing jobs. Yeah. This is on my to do list. Okay, I'm pretending it doesn't exist. I'm still nervous that I won't be good enough. I know, silliness. But also, I've been studying fairly hard and writing all my assignments that are due in.. so I haven't really had the time. But I will. I made it a goal. And I intend to stick to it.

Also, I've decided to take part in NaNoWriMo this month. 

Lets write a novel in exam month, why ever not?

So, I'm keeping busy. Crossing things of the list.. and hopefully taking steps to make me employable one day.

Until next time.

Keira

The Writer's Resume

When you start applying for jobs in the writing industry, it will quickly become apparent that the CV you've been pushing over counters and under people's doors will no longer cut it.

You know the CV I'm talking about, the one that lists the amount of GCSEs you received how ever many years ago, states how long you managed to keep at the chicken shop job and how far in your Duke of Edinburgh Award you really got (or didn't, they're not likely to check anyway).

If you want to be taken seriously in the writing industry, you've got to prove that you're serious about joining it. 

So get rid of the waitress job from six years ago, and focus on what you've actually achieved within the industry.

This is the basis for my dissertation:

Becoming an Employable Writer

I'm not going to lie, at nineteen twenty years old, I was pretty proud of everything I'd achieved in the writing industry so far. It seemed that the last three years had been fully focused on 'writing' and I was bound to get a related job straight out of my 'Creative and Professional Writing' degree.

And then I wrote my writer's resume.

And I got a little shock.

I am so unprepared for the real world.

But that's what this year is about, right? Finding out what I enjoy, gaining experience in as many fields and forums as possible, and -my god please- finally mustering the courage to write one of those novels that have been lounging about my head for goodness knows how long.

I'm going to be blunt, but here is my current writer's CV:

Publications

·      Fiction

o   ‘Changing Seasons’ short story: The ‘Art of Nottingham (2013)

o   ‘Eyeland’ short story, excerpt from children’s novel, and ‘Servant’ flash fiction: EnDearing Minds Anthology (2014)

·      Non-Fiction

o   James Blunt music review: Mic Magazine (2013) 

·      Poetry

o   ‘Oh, Nan’ Spoken Word Poetry: The ‘Art of Nottingham (2013)

o   ‘Traveller’ Poetry: EnDearing Minds Anthology (2014) 

·      Scriptwriting

o     

·      Copywriting

o    

Work History

o   Personal Assistant to Head Organiser of ‘Newcastle Writers Festival’.

Writing Awards

o   Holland House Books: Halloween Flash Fiction Competition

Writing Activities and Memberships

·      Arvon Writing Courses;

o   Writing Non-Fiction

o   Fiction

o   Writing for Children

Specialisations

·      Travel:

o   ‘Backpacked’ through Australasia, United Kingdom and South East Asia.

o   Group/Family traveled in America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Education

·      University of Nottingham, UK

o   BA Hons Creative and Professional Writing

·      University of Newcastle, Australia

o   Screenwriting

o   Public Relations Writing

o   Public Relations Campaigning

o   Myth and Fairytales

Author’s Platform/Social Media Presence

·      Blog on the writing process, tips and exercises; ‘The Keyboard’s Creak’

·      Twitter page with fifty followers.

Now, admittedly, if I pushed myself to find more examples I probably could. But that isn't the point. The point is that it doesn't matter how many false starts, novel ideas, completed stories or scripts waiting to be edited are on my computer - they're not out there and therefore are irrelevant.

It's almost humiliating to look at this resume after nearly completing a three-year-degree with very little to show for it.

This is where it starts to change.

Temporary goals:

• I will enter a writing competition in any genre at least once a month.
• I will gain actual experience in the writing industry within this year.
• I will grow my social media presence.
• I will apply for freelance writing jobs.

I'll keep you updated.

Until next time,

Keira

That Dissertation Problem

I know it's been a while, but there's good reason. I swear.

The simplest explanation? 

I'm currently writing this post in my room overlooking the car park, listening to people walk by with their Australian twangs and making plans to go to the beach later on. 

I'm not, however, writing this post in my red-and-white bedroom in my Yorkshire home, listening to horse hooves clop down the street and my mother yelling for me to go hoover. 

Quite simply, my plans to return to the UK became redundant when I deferred my last year at University.

Which might seem that my dissertation is rather redundant too. This is simply not the case.

The main reason for taking a gap year (and staying in Australia) was because of my dissertation. I found a topic, and the best way to fully throw myself at it was to give myself the time to achieve.

My topic?

Becoming An Employable Writer.

Simple.

I found that I loved everything I did with writing - I couldn't decide between poetry and scripts, copy-writing or short stories, advertising or publishing. There was no distinction between loving the writing, and loving the work. 

Yet, my writing CV is ashamedly bare.

If I want to make a living out of my passion, shouldn't I have something to represent that?

Other than a course I applied for at the age of seventeen?

So meet my gap year.

Now, I may be a little down on myself here.

Sure, I've been published in two anthologies, been on three Arvon courses, attended numerous writing festivals, entered competitions and have this occasional blog.

But, really, it's not enough.

I shall go into detail in my next post of my plans, but my three goals are basic:

1) To gain actual work experience in a publishing house, agency, and writing studio.

2) To enter a writing competition every month, with new material and different genres.

3) To start writing my novel, with the intention to start sending it to agencies a year today.

My current writer's CV, SMART goals and a yearly plan will be covered soon.

Until then, bare with me.

It's going to get interesting.

The Booktrust's Best Books

The Booktrust Best Book Awards have just released their shortlisted selections for 2014. The Awards will be held in central London, during the Children's Book Week of June 30th to July 4th, and will be a 'star-studded' event.

"...home-grown UK talent, such as David Walliams, Jonathan Stroud and Lucy Cousins taking on American superstars such as John Green and Jeff Kinney"

More information can be found here: Telegraph

That Dreaded Word: Dissertation.

For those that haven't yet found their way to my 'About Me' page, I currently study 'Creative and Professional Writing' at the University of Nottingham. (Though, admittedly, you may be confused over my posts on my travel blog about being in Australia - I'm currently on exchange... but that's another story). I'm roughly 3/4 way through my second year, and am now starting to turn my attention onto the dreaded third year dissertation. We have to hand in a final project proposal by the 12th May - so it's about time I start narrowing down my ideas!

What is a final project?

Well, look at it this way:

First Year: 120 credits. Worth 0% of final grade.

Second Year: 120 credits. Worth 30% of final grade.

Third Year. 120 credits. Worth 70% of final grade.

My final project is 60 credits of third year. 60. 

This works out to mean that this ONE project is worth 35% of my three-year degree. 

Which brings me to the first step in this momentous project… what on earth should I do?

It’s the idea that I can literally do anything I choose that makes the decision so hard. 

My childish self screams ‘everything!’, whilst my academic self studies ‘what would get the best grade’… all whilst my creative self is arguing for ‘pretty colours and made-up words’.

Which brings me here.

The first logical step was to create a brainstorm (or mind map, if you prefer) to help me narrow down my ideas. This was really useful, as in my ideological dreamer’s world I would see myself creating a writing festival and documenting it for my dissertation – however, in the realistic world, I highly doubt I would be able to do this single-handedly… let alone whilst at the other side of the world.

I felt like I needed to ask myself two questions:

What have I enjoyed throughout the course?

and

What do I want to achieve through this project?

These questions led to a rather compact brainstorm, as you can see below, and helped me to form several ideas that I could continue with.

I’ve also got to keep in mind that this project will last over a year, so it’s got to keep me interested. I’m really trying my hardest to gain a First – so it’s got to be interesting, appealing and preferably unique. 

Additionally, I want to achieve something from it – I want to be able to finish the year and be able to see how this project has/will impact my writing career.

I’d love to write a summary, first three chapters of a novel and a list of agencies I’ve sent the manuscript to… but I’m not sure if that will be good enough to gain a First.

I’d love to write a screenplay, and enter it into competitions – but is it worth anything to my final project if I don’t hear anything back? Would my final project be seen as a wasted year in something that, eventually, failed?

Part of me feels that Australia should play a huge part in the disseration: I'm the first one on my course to make the move. It would definitely be unique and might give my work an edge. But where do I go with that? A 'How To' book for exchange students? Stories inspired by the outback? How the writing industry is different?

One idea, which I really love and ticks all the boxes of things I hope to achieve, is to create a collection of short stories. However, the occupants of children’s hospital wards would create these short stories – and I’d write them down and edit. This would mean that I would have short one-on-one creative plotting with the children/interested adults and this would bring in my experience with working with children. 

The book could have illustrations by those in the hospital who are bed-bound, doodles from nurses, or family members who have time on their hands. 

If I could get an agency/publishing house interested, then the proceeds could help fundraise for the children’s ward/creative program for people in hospital. If not, then I could look at ebooks and self-publishing and the ways in which we could sell the books, such as kindle.

Additionally, I could make the most of living near hospitals in both Nottingham and Newcastle, by running this writing scheme in my local Australian hospital as well as my Nottingham one when I return home. The proceeds could be split between the two hospitals.

Doing that for my dissertation would show creative writing teaching skills, editing, writing, managing a project and looking into publishing. I’d think that something like that would be challenging, entertaining, a valued experience and would hopefully gain a good grade.

Perhaps I’m being too idealistic: I really like that idea, but I’m just not sure how feasible it is.

But, that’s what this process is all about, right? It’s about sifting through all your ideas – from the mundane to the impossible – and finding one that strikes a cord with you.

Harry Potter Returns

J. K. Rowling has announced that Harry Potter will be making a grand return into our lives... through the forum of theatre.

The play will be co-produced by the infamous author who is collaborating with the playwright, and will focus on Harry's childhood as an orphan living with the Dursleys. So far, a theatre has yet to be decided on - but we know it will take place in the West End.

Read more here: Daily Mail

Kickstart Your Writing: 'Lollipops' and 'Shop-Lifting Grannies'.

There are those great moments where a plot will unveil itself to you when you're looking for a bus ticket, or a character will hop into your head whilst you're browsing at the supermarket. Hopefully, you've got your notebook to hand, and within a couple minutes there's a brief sketch of an idea that makes you want to run home and explore it further.

But those moments don't always come, and for some, they rarely make an appearance. That's completely normal - and please don't suddenly decide that you are obviously not destined to be a writer. Sometimes, ideas just need that little bit of encouragement.

So here's the tip, and exercise in one:

Observe.

We create world with people in. We tell stories of everyday life. We explore relationships. We investigate careers. We study how far a person can emotionally go.

And all that is right outside your front door. In every single minute, there's a new story to be told - and you just need to find it.

So, to start you off. Pick a colour.

Just one.

And now take a twenty minute walk.

When you return, write down every single thing you saw whilst walking that was that colour. Right in detail. Was there a blue lollipop in that little girl's hand? Where did she get it? Did she drop it? Were her parents threatening to take it away? Was the blue anorak on that crippled Grannie at the bus-stop needed in the heat? Why was she wearing it? Was it baggy enough to hide things under? Are we now writing about a shop-lifting Grannie in a blue anaorak?

See where you go... and post below!

Good Luck! :)