So, I was asked to do The Writing Process Blog Tour by Lorna Holland on Twitter (@themaxdog)- thank you! You can find her responses on her blog here.
If I'm honest, when Lorna asked me, I had no idea what she was talking about and had to turn to good old Google to enlighten myself. Once I'd done this however, I was pleased to have been asked but replied with a questioning, "I don't really write books though?". Apparently that doesn't matter, so I'm just going to answer the questions in relation to the random stuff that I happen to be writing at this moment in time. Here goes!
What am I currently working on?
Hmm, what am I currently working on? That is a very good question. Several months ago I could have told you that I'm attempting to write a book (when I say book, I actually mean a fairly pathetic story), but I seem to have run out of inspiration. I've written as much of the plot as I've managed to plan in my head and now my imagination has failed me. Obviously, if I were to be serious about it, I would persevere nonetheless. But unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I'm just a girl who loves to write as a hobby, so can afford to pick up and drop my projects whenever I feel like it. However, I have taken on several semi-commitments, which include writing for a few online magazines/websites. These are Kettle Mag, MyStudentStyle and Eat More Cake. After enthusiastically signing up to get involved with all these things, I suddenly realised that this meant that I had to write at least three articles per week, plus regularly updating my two blogs. This is fine at the moment, but I've just got a job (yay, at last!), which starts in the next few weeks, so I decided to make myself a 'Writing Schedule'. Don't judge; I just REALLY need organisation in my life, otherwise EVERYTHING goes wrong. So, the answer to the question now depends on which day you ask me. If it's Monday, then I'll be working on a post for this blog. If it's Tuesday, I'll be writing an article for Eat More Cake. On a Wednesday I'll be updating my Student Survival Kit blog. Thursday is Kettle Mag's slot, followed by MyStudentStyle on Friday. Then on Saturday, I will be finishing off Friday's article, which leaves Sunday as a day of rest! (Or most likely, I'll get bored and will start writing on a random whim of sudden inspiration). I've only been following this timetable for a couple of weeks, so I have no idea whether it will stick, but it's the thought that counts, right?
How does my work differ from others of it's genre?
Seeing as I don't have a particular genre, this is a little tricky. Therefore, I shall do as I've been conditioned never to do in exams and will attempt to manipulate the question to suit my answer. So essentially, I'm going to try and tell you why my articles and blog posts are different from those of any other aspiring journalist or student blogger. I think this mainly lies in the fact that I myself am different. Most of the other young writers I've come across on Twitter and Google+, are currently students, who are often at university. Many of them are doing Journalism degrees, or perhaps English Literature. While I do hope to go to uni in 2015 to study English, at the moment I'm just living at home with my mum, my dad, my brother and my cat. As I said above, I have just managed to get a full-time job at a shop in town, which will be my first ever employment! So, as you can see, I'm not the most experienced or street-savvy 18 year-old out there. But, I do think that my own personal experiences (such as my five traumatic weeks at university), have allowed me to discover a lot about myself and to develop my own style of writing. In fact, although I enjoyed and did well at my English A Level, I didn't really do much writing outside of school until a few months after I returned home from my short stay at uni in October this year. Does this mean that as soon as I become a student, I'll no longer be 'different'? No, of course not. My style will hopefully just improve, thanks to all the reading and writing that comes hand-in-hand with an English degree!
Why do I write what I do?
This is probably the same for most of you, but I find writing incredibly therapeutic. My first two blog posts (here and here) really helped me to figure out what was going on in my confused little brain. Things that I find hard to say out-loud, seem to come flowing out of my fingers and onto the page without the slightest hesitation. As well as that very selfish motive, I also write what I do in order to help other people who are going through something similar. If I can stop just one person being boxed-up and conveyor-belted away to university just because they don't know what else to do, then that will be mission accomplished. Or even if one of my posts brightens the day of just one sufferer of depression, then that will make it worth the effort (not that I'm finding this particularly strenuous, yet!). Oh, and one more selfish reason- I think I want to be a journalist one day, so I need to get as much writing experience as possible while I still have the time!
How does my writing process work?
I'd love to tell you that I have a very structured and effective 'writing process', but unfortunately, I just sort of dive in and see what happens. Once I've got an idea for an opinion or commentary piece, I tend to sit at my laptop and just let the words flow, which unsurprisingly has a fairly unreliable success rate. Doing things like this means that I have to spend quite a long time editing and changing things around, but I don't really mind. To be honest, when I start writing something fairly creative or opinionated, I only have a vague idea of where it's going when I start. I find that whatever it is, seems to take shape almost of its own accord, meaning that I'm often pretty surprised by the outcome. When I read over it, I often wonder where on earth all the ideas came from! However, if I'm writing a news article or something that requires a bit of research, I usually make some notes by hand, as I find it easier to just use the laptop as a tool, rather than having to constantly flick between Word and the internet, or wherever. Then all I have to do is type the piece up, which is the easy part. When I write essays, which I did a lot at school, I am slightly more conventional, in that I make a plan before I start. This just helps me not to go off on a tangent or start rambling about some unrelated topic. So basically, my writing process isn't particularly unique or exciting. In fact, it wasn't really something I'd thought about until I was asked if I'd like to take part in this blog tour; this has been informative for both of us!
And that's me done! I hope you've enjoyed reading my answers. I know I'm not really a 'proper' writer, but I think this is a great opportunity for anyone who writes in some shape or form to tell others about their passion.
I'm now passing the baton on to the lovely and very talented Sian Elvin! You should be able to find her answers here in a week's time :)
Harriet x
