My Life in Letters: W.

Writing.

It’s the other half of my degree, it’s the thing that kick-started any creativity I’ve ever possessed.

I first starting writing when I was 9 years old. One Saturday morning I was bored while my mum had a lie in. Back then, the internet wasn’t really something a nine year old was interested it, so the computer for me consisted of Paint. And that’s about it.
However, on this particular morning the Word Processor attracted my attention for some reason. 
So I decided there and then that I would write a story. Being a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan even at that age, my first paragraph was essentially regurgitated Whedon script, and as a nine year old thinking it was totally cool and not knowing the word ‘plaigarism’ then. 😉
So, what started as a bored nine year old wanting to pass a few hours, turned into my first novel. Which then spawned a sequel and eventually transformed into a trilogy, which I completed when I was 13. 
These early novels were terribly written, but the plot showed potential. I am currently trying to dig through it to find some gems for the basis of an adult rewrite.

From the second I started writing that first book, I decided (and told anyone who’d listen) that I wanted to be an author when I grew up. 
I continued writing through my teen years, starting a handful of projects that I never saw through to completion, but at least continuing to stretch my writing brain.
When I found the course at Bolton University, I decided it was ideal for me. At that point writing had taken a back seat to photography in terms of a career path, but was still a passion of mine and one I wanted to pursue. The course offered me the chance to study both photography and writing together, which was perfect for me.

Since coming to university I’ve steered more into poetry, as the fiction tutor wasn’t inspiring me to try my best, while my poetry tutor was. Strangely, before coming here I hated poetry. I hated how it was taught, I didn’t like the typical overly dramatised representations of it I’d been exposed to and the archaic language I’d experienced with poets such as Shakespeare- which let’s face it, is all you’re ever really taught in high school. 
Since learning it in university however I’ve fallen in love with it. I’ve built myself a good body of work, and I may even pursue getting it published.

In the meantime my fiction has been put on a back burner, but it’s all still there, and I have several ideas to work on in the future. 

Although my career path has changed course a little, I still want to pursue writing, and I still want to eventually get those books published that I so long ago sat down and started writing, thinking to myself “wow this is awesome, I can do anything I want here!”

Eventually, I want to make that girl’s hopeful dream of “when I grow up I want to be an author” a reality. Until then, poetry me up baby. 🙂

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My Life in Letters: I.

I thought long and hard about what began with the letter “I” that I could use to talk about an aspect of myself with. I finally settled on “Indians”. More specifically Native American Indians. I have a lot of background in the culture and one side of my family tree is tied to a Native tribe. I’ve grown up studying their belief systems and I’ve been raised on their remedies.

Recently I wrote a poem about the obliteration of many of the tribes during the 1800’s for my degree. It’s one very close to my heart.

Their Last Standing Chief

When the land was still ours
Before greed overshadowed humanity
and slaughter became a game

We lived with our families
We held our heads high with pride
saturated with the knowledge of our ancient ways

Our wisdom was our power
nature was our magic
Robes of fur would warm our villages
and our remedies would cure all sickness

Our weapons were wood of the trees
and stone of the earth
Your weapons spouted fire
from metal that shone like the sun

And our strength, though mighty, was lost
and where we once stood tall, our bodies lay scattered
Our people may have fallen
but our Spirits can never be taken from us

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