In previous blogs to you, dear reader, I set out that 2024 was my year of trying to take the words ‘creative’ and ‘freelancing’ out of my head. Instead, replacing them with the word: rest. And whilst you can’t take the creativity out of the girl, I did do as good a job as I could to rest as much as I could.
Now, in that blog post – I did not mention what 2025 would entail. And that’s because – I don’t know.
I know that I wanted to unlock my creativity and do it in a way that allowed me to be my authentic self. So, this January – I challenged myself to write. And I could write about anything. It didn’t have to be in any specific form and it didn’t even have to be good. Let’s be honest – that last part is a cake walk. I think any creators looks at what they’ve made and a bit of them goes – ‘nah!’
So, I thought it would be interesting to see what ‘dipping my toe’ in the literary waters looked like. What came up crops and what did not.
And in summary, it was – different. I don’t normally write in such varied forms and I’m not sure how I feel about it. However, what joins all of these pieces together is how much I love storytelling so I can’t be too concerned, the foundations are there – it’s just working out how it grows out.
I wrote 10 pieces of content this month.
Poems: 4
Songs: 3
Play: 7 pages
Essays: 2
Short story: 1
Poems
Poems are often by far the easiest and most accessible way into writing for me. Often a thought drops into my head and then a poem writes itself. It’s a really lovely way to remind myself that my brain still works and chugs away. I think poetry lends itself to sadness because in a lot of ways – that’s an easier emotion to express in a wordy form. I’d argue happiness needs no words – it’s a boundless experience.
This year I decided that ‘ridiculous’ poems were something I could add to the mix and there are two especially in the mix that are a bit silly. The poems I wrote are as follows:
1. A poem about not wanting to return to work after the Christmas holidays – ‘January 5th’
2. A poem about how much I hate parallel parking (#1 silly) – ‘Parallel Park’
3. A poem I wrote about feeling Blue to the melody of the I’m Blue song (#2 silly) – ‘Blue’
4. A poem I wrote about listening to music as you commute in and how the song can change your mood – ‘A Side/B Side’
My worst piece of writing this month definitely came from Blue and was as followed:
“i’mbluedabedodabedooiwanttocryandthrowupallthetimeandhavethebestfuckingnightofmylife”
An artistic genius at work, folks. We’ve all got to get the bad stuff out at some point.
Songs
I love writing songs but struggle with the patience of completing one. I can often do a verse and a chorus and then I promptly give up. This is mainly because although I am a rhythmical person, my musical skills are so-so. I can give you the shape of a song on the piano, guitar or ukulele but not much else. I’ve challenged myself not to throw in the towel and complete the songs I write this year.
Two of the songs I completed and one of them – I just have melody and lyrics. I couldn’t add instrumentation to it and then lost mojo for it.
A little-known fact about me is that I love country music and that’s often because I love story songs so what I write often has that spin to it, too.
The songs I wrote are as follows:
1. Hometown Hero – a song about someone that stays in their hometown and slowly decays. Unfinished.
2. Dehydrated – a song about two lovers in the 50s having a torrid affair one summer
3. Babe, Let’s Go To A Museum – a song about a couple going to a museum on dates throughout their lives.
Play
Playwrighting is probably where I feel most at home. Equally, it scares me in the way you have a mortgage for a home. I feel like I have a responsibility to pay my bill and get the goods. Which is why it’s frustrating when often the first draft comes a cropper. I jump around from play idea to play idea to play idea – again, developing anything is a pain in the bum.
On two separate occasions in Jan (and then added editing time where I’ve come back to the computer on a different day), I've written scenes for a play about family vlogging. It’s messy and interesting to me and I forgot how much I love writing in voice. I LOVE writing in voice. Especially when the character is complex. And a little mean. My pen is especially sharp with that. I’m not too sure what that says about me.
But, I think a lot of writers like writing horrible characters for that reason. There’s something awfully freeing about it.
Essays
I had never written an essay that I had shared with other people until this year. I decided that I would post a link from my Instagram and anyone who was welcome to could give it a gander. It felt extremely scary but – isn’t that just what sharing is? Absolutely terrifying.
The last thing I shared publicly was my debut play which was extremely exciting but also extremely soul bearing. So, why not share essays and get over the fear.
The essays I wrote were:
1. 2024: My Year of Non-Freelancing – a deep dive into what I learned deciding upon employment after being freelance for a number of years
2. Books of 2024 – a breakdown of the top ten books I read last year.
I wrote two essays and I was overwhelmed with how many people connected with the first one, especially. It was really nice to know that I wasn’t the only one who felt disconnected in the saturated freelancer market and I had so many lovely conversations about it. Equally, with the book essay – it’s such as lovely moment when a friend messages and goes ‘THAT BOOK, I LOVED THAT BOOK!’
And actually, publishing my essays has been a really nice way to connect and not feel like I write in a silo.
Short Story
I gave myself a list of creative writing prompts that I could tick off throughout the year if I found myself in a rut but still felt the need to write. This short story idea came from that list. Whilst I am a big prose reader, I don’t write it myself. But this month, I did. Huzzah!
The prompt was ‘Write a story about a ladder at the edge of the sky’ and so, I did. I wrote two pages that I’m pretty proud of that interpret the ladder as a stairway to heaven and we follow a sixteen year old boy as he dies. Sounds bleak. And yeah – is a bit bleak. I wrote from the POV of death/an ominous death-like voice which I really enjoyed. Again, I have a thing for voice.
My proudest writing for the month probably comes from ‘The Ladder at the Edge of the Sky’ and is as follows:
“Humans do this bizarre thing of holding ladders for one another. An act of ridiculous care in the guise of practicality. There is nothing practical about inefficiency. There is everything inefficient about love. That’s why you humans are so good at it.”
So, there you go! That was my writing for the month. Pretty fun, pretty weird.
Let’s see where the rest of the year takes us…
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