What type of writer am I?

Writing has always been in my heart.

From a young age I was writing constantly in diaries, creating short stories, entering writing contests and also interviewing my family members to create newspaper reports. I loved putting pen to paper and it was whilst I was doing this that I found I was more honest with myself and I could be whoever I wanted to be….this especially was the case I reached my teenage years; you know the ones, the angsty-i-don’t-love-myself years.

I look back at those early entries in my diaries that I have kept, and read back over those short stories and I find the innocent workings of a young girl who was eager to be seen and desperate to understand the world around her. I wrote of love and anger, I wrote about death and what came after. I now realise that this was all a way for me to understand all of the things I had been ‘protected’ from as a child. Things such as death of a loved one, what happens when someone passes away, and how short life seemed. I went through a stage when I was 14/15 years old when I seriously could never see the point in anything. I was stood in my friends bedroom and I was thinking how I could be killed at any moment and suddenly I was aware of my own mortality. I was aware of how close death was and I got depressed by it. I spent days and weeks feeling like I was outside of my body. I was doing the motions and the movements but I couldn’t get past the realisation I had had about life and death. All of those thoughts and fears were written into my diary and I now look back and see how powerful the words were. Over time I came to accept that life was for living and I chose to pursue a career in journalism.

As most will know, my path took a different path for some time – I studied and completed a GNVQ Media course which ran over 2 years. And I came away more confident in where I wanted my career to head. I wanted to be a writer (I wanted to include photography as-well, possibly be a photo-journalist as photography is also a big love of mine) but I wanted to create pieces that people would love to read.

For the past 15 years I have worked in a job which has been far removed from the one I wanted. It paid the bills, it gave me a ton of transferable skills and it helped to grow me as a person. I recently had the opportunity to work a few days at the Express and Star and I really do think that my experience of working at the council helped to give me confidence in the work experience – I wasn’t nervous, I asked questions, I introduced myself with a good handshake and without being asked to, I answered the phone calls. I showed that I didn’t need babysitting, I showed that I wanted to learn but that I didn’t need someone to hold my hand the entire time. I came away with a few articles with my name to them which was amazing.

I digress a little – sorry – I have been writing almost continuously since I left college. Short stories, blog posts, reviews; you name it and I can show you my portfolio. I started this blog in 2017, after losing my baby. I have had possibly the worst 3 years of my life with a lot of trauma, tragedy and grief – and it made me sit up and look at my life. Yes, I was comfortable in my job and I was cosy with the money it provided but I wasn’t satisfied. I want to do something that excites me, I want to travel with my job and I want to be my own boss; maybe working from home and seeing my babies grow up. So I made the decision recently to give up my job; the day I handed in my notice was scary….but I did it. I have a course lined up for September which I am signing up for tomorrow. It is a NCTJ Journalism Course and it is for 12 months. I really wanted to get off to a good start by having a relevant qualification under my belt. I am keen to write pretty much anything but I would love to work with the entertainment industry – working with the glossy magazines, covering gigs, interviewing celebrities maybe.

I have been fortunate enough where I have been able to work with a lot of amazing authors over the past 18 months and I am so grateful to be allowed to review their work in exchange for a copy. I have developed some good relationships with the authors I have worked with and this really reinforces how much I want to write and how much I want to share the things that matter.

As-well as this, I am keen to finish my own book and hopefully get it published. I am scared to say stuff like this out loud as I know it can come across a bit like a tall ‘pipe-dream’ but with the years I have survived then I am taking the stance that I will never know unless I try. Maybe in 12 months I will be working in another office doing a relatively normal role, but I would rather try and fail than always wonder what if.

So the answer to my question, what type of writer am I?

I am a freelance writer who loves sharing content. I am a freelance writer who loves reading books and writing reviews for them. I am the type of freelance writer who sees a short story opportunity in everyday life. I am a freelance writer who is keen to succeed. I am a freelance writer who wants to report on the latest news and gossip.

I am a freelance writer

I am a writer

This is me

So here I go…