Redesign, Rebuild, Reclaim: An Update and Plan of Action

There’s no point beating around the bush, I’m a bit of a bad blogger.

A really, really bad blogger.

I won’t make excuses, won’t sit here and say that I’ve been too busy, that I haven’t had time, because I have had time. I’ve just chosen not to make time. My priorities the past couple of months have been away from all forms of writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

But now that things have sort of settled down in my life, I can begin to properly focus on writing again.

There’s another issue, however, that we need to talk about before we can continue.

What is this blog?

Seriously though, what is it? This has been an issue I’ve struggled with for a while now. I want to do so many different things, but every time I try them, they just don’t stick, don’t feel natural. I’ve written about my WIP, written about life anecdotes, written reviews of movies and tv shows. I’ve done a whole lot, but I felt like I was trying to be everything at once.

The issue that comes with that, though, is that I like doing different forms of writing. Because there are so many different layers of my life I want to share, and so many different topics I want to touch upon in both fiction and non-fiction.

So the past few months I’ve done a lot of thinking. In between my new job (which I’ll touch on in a moment) and just generally dealing with life, I think I’ve figured out exactly what I want this blog to be.

I’ve got a three point plan ready to deploy, so let’s get on with it, shall we?

Redesign:

After much deliberation and consideration, I’ve decided this blog is going to be focused entirely on my efforts to become a published author of both fiction and non-fictional works.

Before you say anything, yes, I know that’s what I set out with this blog to begin with. But I was unfocused in my vision, my goals, and how I wanted to structure this. The past few months have given me a new perspective, and most importantly have pushed me to become the person, the writer, I really want to be. I can’t do that without practice, so practice I shall.

So what’re my goals for the blog, as a whole?

• Weekly Blog Posts. Yes, I know I’ve made this promise before. But this time it’s different. I can’t tell you why it’s different, I’m just a changed person now. So this blog will be updated, weekly, every Monday.
• Updates on my WIP. After a few months of absolutely no activity writing wise, I’ve had enough of inactivity. I’m itching to get back to writing, and tonight I’ve set about putting together a schedule for the upcoming year that’ll help keep me focused on my writing goals. I’ll discuss more about my WIP’s in the near future, and hope to properly continue to update you on their progress, perhaps weekly.
• Writing Tips and Tricks. I want to talk about writing, and what I’ve learned over my nineteen years of existence. I am by no means an expert, but we’ve all learned tips and tricks along the way. I also hope to learn so much more than I already do about writing, from independent authors as well as fellow bloggers.
• Reviews. I do very much enjoy critiquing things, and as such I will continue to do so on this blog. I will review most forms of media, like books, movies, tv shows and even the occasional video game.
• Reader interaction. I want to talk to you more. I want to promote more discussion about the pieces I’m working on, as well as the pieces other people are working on. I want to properly envelop myself in this blogging community. Specifically, I want to meet and talk with other young bloggers like myself, because I feel there is nothing more interesting than hearing the stories people my own age, my own generation, are coming up with and cultivating. That’s not to say I’m not interested in the writing of people older than myself, far from it.

I would also like to point out that this won’t be my only blog here on the internet. I won’t go into the specifics of them now, since we’re here to just talk about writing, but expect an update when they’re launched over the coming weeks. As I said earlier, there are many layers of things I want to write about, so I shall.

Rebuild:

When I was in college, I used to write so often. More so than I’d ever written in my life. Those study sessions in small cafes, rain pouring outside and pitter-pattering against the glass, a caramel latte warming my hands as I scanned over the computer screen, made me so happy.

I don’t get to do those a lot anymore, which is a shame, as they truly were one of the highlights of my college experience.

The reason they were so effective, though, was because I pushed myself to write, and  I had deadlines.

I want to rebuild myself back up to that writer, the guy who wrote every day no matter how tired he was, the guy who thrived on thinking about story ideas on the train rides to and from college. The circumstances are different, sure, but I still have that drive inside me.

This new schedule I’ve developed, alongside finally settling into my routine, should do the trick. And if it doesn’t, I’ll figure something else out. I want to have work published someday, and to do that, I’ve got to work as hard as possible.

Reclaim:

I’ve not written for such a long time that part of me feels like it’s forgotten how. Like my fingers have forgotten how to move across the keyboard, like my brain has forgotten how to turn letters to words, words to sentences, sentences to paragraphs and paragraphs into stories.

I want to reclaim that confident writer, the guy who felt entirely in his element when faced with a blank page. I want to be the guy who spent hours in a coffee shop intricately planning out his characters, writing outlines and conjuring up stories.

He was a guy who was on his way up. How far he would get is anyone’s guess, but he was going up. He was progressing.

I’ve not progressed in the past few months writing wise, and that, quite frankly, pisses me off.

That changes from now on.

This isn’t a New Years Resolution (good luck if you have any though!), this isn’t an empty promise.

In 2017 I’m going to work on producing some of the best articles, the best reviews, the best discussions and the best pieces of fictional writing I possibly can.

I look forward to all of you being on this journey with me, and I look forward to taking a look at all the hard work you’ve put into your blogs both in the past and in the future.

I hope all of you have had some happy holidays and are looking forward to the new year ahead!

J. Fenton.

Blog Plans

So… remember me?

Hello everyone! I’m back after another absence, for which I can only apologise for. A slew of things have come up in my life that made it difficult to blog (and write overall), but now I’m back on the saddle, as it were!

Today I’m going to be discussing a few of the articles I’m planning on writing in the future. So this post is more of a ‘what’s in store’ than anything else, but it’ll get me back on track with regards to blogging, so it’s all good.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in!

• This one is pretty self-explanatory. I’ll mostly be doing movies, television shows and books, but I might branch into the occasional video game I play or something else entirely, who knows! I want to stress that reviews are not my strongest suit, and they’re an area I would like to develop in. As such, constructive criticism for them would be very much appreciated!
• Character Analysis’. Characters are, by far, my favourite part about story-telling. As such, I would like to do one of two things. It’d either be an in-depth analysis on them, examining their psyche and motivations. Or, it’d be just a general overview of a character that I feel like might be underappreciated or unknown to people. I’ve got a couple of ideas for characters already in mind, so look out for one of these in the near future!
• Young Writers Advice. I, personally, believe I’m too young to be giving out properly substantial writing advice. That being said, I feel like I can connect to people my own age and discuss with them about the struggles we, as young writers, might face while writing. This could be stigma from older authors and people in general, to balancing schoolwork and writing, to a plethora of other tips, tricks and discussions.
• Guest Posts. When I have built up enough of an audience and interacted with enough writers, I would certainly like to have some guest posts up on the blog. These would all have a specific focus, however. I would like for each guest post to discuss what the writers were like as teenagers. Specifically, what creative mediums that they were introduced to around this time that helped shape their writing, and just in general what their writing was like back when they were younger. If anybody is interested in writing a guest post, please let me know and we can discuss the details!

So, there we have it! These four things will become more prolific on my blog as time goes on, and of course you’ll continue to get general writing and WIP updates, as well as any other articles that strike my fancy.

Thank you all for reading, and see you all next time.

J.Fenton.

The Scary Part

On Monday, I finished planning out my novel.

Like, properly finished planning it out. I wrote up all of my chapter outlines, with more detailed ones to develop as I actually write them. I finished planning out all of the main characters, finished doing all the necessary research I might end up needing, and finished everything that that I might possibly need to do.

So now, I’m faced with the absolutely horrifying prospect of actually writing the book.

This… unnerves me. And it’s really, really weird. This book has spent about a year and a half in my head, and I’ve spent roughly six months sketching it all out. It’s a beast I know well, at least in regards to its physiology. And yet the prospect of opening up a blank word document and typing up the first few words sort of petrifies me.

All this work, all this preparation, and I find myself nervous at the mere thought of beginning to actually write.

This is weird for me. Weird isn’t even the right word, it’s downright strange, peculiar, bizarre. I’ve never felt like this before, so jittery and shaky.

I don’t think it’s anything to do with me being worried it’ll turn out bad. I’m not worried about that in the slightest, because that’s what the editing process is for, and I’m confident enough in my abilities that I can produce something that, with a lot of editing, can turn into something great.

So if it’s not me being scared of the quality, then what is it? What is leaving me with all these butterflies (and probably other insects to be honest) in my stomach, fluttering away?

I honestly think it’s because this is where the real journey begins.

I’ve always wanted to write, ever since I was a child. In fact, my goal in life is to pen a novel and get it published, to see it on a bookshelf in some fancy bookshop. I want to be able to point at it and say, “This is my work. It’s up there with all the other books in the world. But that one? That’s mine.”

I’ve never wanted anything so badly in my life. It’s a validation I have craved since I first knew that writing existed. I want to create a world and shape it so that someone, somewhere, will love reading it just as much as I’ve loved writing it.

I’d like, one day, to meet someone who is my current age and have them look me in the eye and say, “You’re my favourite author.”

God, wouldn’t that just be wonderful? It would.

This entire time, this entire journey, has merely been a precursor. Even that has been a long, winding road. It has been full of terrors and difficulties, whether they be from within myself or from outside interference.

But it is a journey I have no succeeded at, and I am proud of this.

I have reached the base of the mountain. But now? Now I have to climb it.

And that’s really terrifying.

But do you want to know something?

There is not a single doubt in my mind that I’m going to fail.

Oh yeah, it’s horrific. It’s massive and it’s large, and there will no doubt be obstacle after obstacle that I will have to overcome.

I’m not failing now, though. I’ve spent too much time getting to this spot. Too much time dreaming of the peak of that mountain.

Do you want to know what’s buried underneath all that nervous energy?

There’s passion, there’s excitement, and there’s determination.

I’ll be documenting this journey to the peak as best I can. But, I can promise you this.

I will reach that peak.  And I will place a flag of validation right at the highest point.

And there, so very high in the sky, I will have achieved my goals and my dreams.

Dear Young People-Bad Guys and Hope

I want to start this off by saying that I’m not talking about my own political views in this post. Nor is this going to be an attack on the older generation, even though it may seem like it. Whatever you chose to vote in the EU Referendum is your choice, and I hope you are happy with your decision. Instead, I want to talk about what a lot of people my age seem to be saying about us leaving the EU, the people fronting that campaign, and the general lack of hope I seem to be seeing not only from people my age, but of all ages in the Remain camp.

*****

Dear Young People,

I think this is the first time in our generation that the bad guys have won.

At least, who we perceive to be the bad guys. I’d argue that amongst most teenagers, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are the trio of people we despise the most. I will not go into why this is, because that’s not the point. But I see a lot of hatred directed towards these three people in particular.

We’ve been very fortunate in the sense that we’ve not really been old enough to be fully aware of anything truly terrible going on. At least, not on our own doorstep. For people around twenty, all the major events that we might have witnessed in our own country we either: don’t remember, or weren’t old enough to fully grasp what was going on.

With the rise of social media, we are capable of learning about a variety of different experiences and horrors people are facing all over the world. At some, we mourn. At others, we make light of (Donald Trump, I’m looking at you). And yet our generation, in the United Kingdom anyway, have yet to face anything overwhelmingly negative.

But, finally, that occurred. The bad guys, our current main antagonists, people we have sneered at and loathed and despised, have won this battle. They came out on that morning with their smug grins and their victory parties and they gloated. They had won, and for the people in the Remain camp, they had lost.

So, for the first time, we are faced with the idea in real life that sometimes, the good guys don’t win. We’re used to that in novels on occasion, but real life? That’s a bit different. And it’s funny that, isn’t it? How people always say, “stories are just stories, life is much more realistic!”. And yet, for a lot of teenagers, we’ve never had to experience something where we look on, slack-jawed, as something that could be horrendously damaging happened to our future.

And so I see a lot of people, some I’m close with, some I’m not, despairing. And in their opinion they have reason to, and I will not dispute that.

I have, however, seen some rather alarming posts from people my age that I care about, that state that they’re ‘losing hope’.

See, leaving the EU doesn’t scare me. Staying in the EU doesn’t scare me. ‘The Bad Guys’ winning doesn’t scare me. But people losing hope? Yeah, that does a bit.

But I don’t think we should lose hope. Why? I can think of a few reasons.

If you want to look at things like a story, how do they usually go? The bad guys, at the start, win a battle. They get a big victory of some kind, in order to drum up tension and intrigue. It’s to get a little voice in the back of your mind thinking, ‘these characters might fail, they might not be able to come back from this’.

But what happens? In the end, although it might end up bittersweet, the good guys conquer the evil-doers and all is well.

This isn’t a story, though. This is real life. And real life is far different from a story, it doesn’t follow a specific pattern or rhythm.

You’re right. But the fact of the matter is that 73% of people our age voted to Remain.

73%.

And that was just people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. Can you imagine how many would’ve voted if the age limit had been lowered to, say, sixteen?

It’s the most united we’ve ever been on anything. I have never seen such a large amount of unity from people my own age. Of course there are people my age who wanted to Leave, and that’s fine, and I respect that. And there are also a lot of people my age who didn’t vote, which is genuinely a shame, but I digress.

But a vast majority of people between sixteen to twenty-four that I’ve come into contact with, whether via the medium of the internet or in my day to day life, have wanted to stay.

But Remain lost. But why does that mean the unity has to go? We lost a battle, yeah. But the war’s not over.

We were united. We stood together, shoulder to shoulder and tried to voice change. This time it didn’t work out. But we discussed it. We talked about it. We debated and sometimes we yelled and got passionate and maybe even slung insults at each other, but my God we cared.

And what did we care about? Our future. A future that is still ours.

Every generation has faced hardships. Some stronger than others, but it is a reoccurring trait between us and every generation that has come before. They struggle and scratch and claw their way through their lives to a better future, sometimes even having to rebuild in the rubble created by the previous generation.

I’m not here advocating for Remain, nor am I advocating for Exit. Nor am I saying that the people who voted Exit did it for the reasons I listed below, nor do I just believe it is the older generation doing this. But I’ve also seen evidence, truly despicable evidence at that, of people using this Referendum as a means to be racist.

But I have to say, on a personal level, I don’t get angry when an older person spews racist rhetoric. I don’t get upset when someone tells someone of a different ethnicity to ‘go back to the EU’. I don’t get heated when someone’s main reason for leaving the EU is to do with ‘immigrants coming in and stealing all our jobs’.

Instead, I just feel sad.

Because I don’t think a lot of them are that cruel.

But I think they’re very, very afraid. They’re scared of a world that’s constantly changing around them, of a world that’s evolving before their very eyes. A world where their outreach and opinions are becoming less impactful, and a world that isn’t what they’re used to. A world where their future is now their present, and one day their present will become our past.

Fear is a powerful motivator, with the ability to cause good people to say and do horrible things.

Fear twists a world-view into something monstrous. Where they see an ‘immigrant’, I might see a person. Where they see a ‘group of migrants’, I might see a family. Where they see ‘people trying to steal our jobs’ I might see people trying to make a living.

The older generation has grown complacent. They’re refusing to let the world change without them, refusing to let us go into the future. Whether you like it or not, this seems to be a fact.

I have no issue with leaving the EU. I have no issue staying in the EU. What I have an issue with is that decision being made by people who won’t be relevant when the ripples of what should’ve been our decision finally come into effect.

We as young people talk about how shit things are a lot. We complain and we whine, and a lot of it is justified. But we’re also the most privileged generation ever, especially in this country.

Because we live in a country where there are so many different cultures and people to see and learn about before our very eyes. We live in a country where we are given the opportunity at higher education in order to be the best we can be. We live in a country where, while homophobia and racism are still obviously high, people who love each other can walk down the street hand in hand, and can get married, and can raise families. We live in a country where we have access to the ever-growing and expanding technological world, with advances in medical sciences, engineering and everything in between are happening daily.

We live in an amazing country and an amazing world. A world that is ours for the taking.

We are going into a future where we will have access to information and technologies that the previous generations could only dream of. We’re heading into a place where we could cement ourselves as the greatest generation in human history.

If there’s one thing our generation should never, ever become, it’s complacent. Whether we like it or not, the current generation, the ones who are making our decisions for us, will be remembered as those that fell to fear and fell to complacency.

So let us become the generation that overcame fear, and never grew content. Let’s be the generation that continued to push the boundaries of tolerance, the generation that advanced further technologically than any that has ever come before it, and let’s be the generation that learns from the previous’ past mistakes and forges a future brighter than any they can foresee.

I won’t speak for any of you, but I know for a fact that I’m going forward and taking my future. Whether I walk there at a leisurely pace, or scratch and claw my way through the rubble of those selfish enough to only think of their present, I will take what is mine. You can take what is yours. We can take what belongs to us.

This is our future.

And with a little bit of hope, unity and determination, we can make sure that that we never have to face another set of Bad Guys again.