A Letter to myself

I recently read in The Guardian, that Stephen Fry wrote a letter to his 16 year old self, so I think I'll give it a go myself.

To Melanie (aged 16)
You have had a great life up until now and it will just get better. There will be times when you'll want to just hide away under a duvet cover, and never come out. But do not worry; these times will pass and will only make you appreciate all the happy and fun times to come, which will always, always, outnumber the sad times.

That boy you recently met at the nightclub 'Shades', and have fallen madly in love with...well lets just say that in 22 years you will still be hopelessly in love with; and that goosebump-feeling you get, whenever he enters the room, will never leave you.

You will be a great mum to two beautiful children, although the journey to motherhood will be harrowing and very sad on a couple of occasions. But trust me, it will be worth it.

Be strong enough to always follow your own intuition and never do things that you think are not right. There will be several times that you won't heed this advice, but you will know it immediately. In particular, your choice of career. So just enjoy your nursing and midwifery careers and just accept them as a journey to who you are.

When you see that pamphlet coming through your door, for a part time social science degree at the University of Hull, jump at the chance at getting on the course and never look back. You will be truly inspired by a lecturer there, who will reawaken in you, a fascination of the society you live in.

It will probably take you about 22 years to finally gain the courage and confidence to do something about your yearning to be a writer.

I'm really hoping that in 22 years from now I will recive a letter, similar to this one, giving me guidance and words of wisdom.

Love

Melanie (aged 37)

p.s. You might want to stop eating all that chocolate now, because it's going to end up right on your hips!

Productively productive

Well I've spent the past few days just reading, reading, reading!

Unforetunately not a novel, but things that I'm sure will be of vital importance to me in my quest for my literary career. I've finished the Writers Bureau book 2, and have been reading certain pages of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. This is an amazing book, with so many useful nuggets of information. Any aspiring writers or even 'old hands' at the writing game, should have one, as it is crammed full with articles on how to publish, lists of publishing houses, and magazine and newspaper listings. However I do think there is a new one coming out in June/July time.

I've been trawling through numerous magazines to get a feel for the way the articles are written and also to determine what they publish. I think I'm now ready to give assignment 2 of WB course a go. I have to write an analysis of a magazine, how they present their features and articles, and then write an article myself for that publication.

I've never written an article before so it should be a great learning curve for me. I'm sure it will be worth all the hard work that I'll be putting into my writing over these next few months, and assignments, to eventually get to see my name in print. I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Will let you know how I get on

Melanie x

Feedback, feedback, feedback!

I finally got my feedback from my first Writers Bureau assignment last week, and it was worth the wait! It was very positive and there was nothing significant to be changed. It was such a relief, as I am constantly wondering: am I up to this?

I'm continuing to read the 2nd book of the course and I'm finding it very interesting. I'd never have thought of studying a magazine's contents before; analysing and understanding how articles are written for specific magazines. I would probably have just written something and then sent it off to a magazine, expecting them to just accept it. I'm so glad that it's made me analyse the market first, think about what articles I want to write about, and then write the article in line with the way the magazines want.

I do feel a little apprehensive about contacting editors though. Why is this? Is it because of my idea of what an editor looks like - working in a big publishing building, standing behind a desk screaming, 'Get this...ditch that...I woudn't publish this crap....I want more of this...but definitely not that...deadlines, deadlines, deadlines', whilst smoking a big fat cigar, and stroking their beards...and that's just the women!

Anyway I've now got a few ideas for some articles, but think I really need to look very closely at the market so will have to update my blog as I'm going on! x