Hey Thinking out loud here :D
This week I’m going back to a proper sit-down blog. So before you get reading, get yourselves a drink, whether it be water, tea, coffee, wine, beer, a cheeky g&t. Whatever may be your drink of choice and find yourself a comfy seat. This one might be a long read, sorry, not sorry. (End of the blog me. This is really long definitely get yourself a drink, something to eat and a comfy seat and maybe something warm and cosy if you are somewhere cold.)
This will be a post where I let my thoughts run wild. No poems, short stories, just my thoughts and letting them be, no boundaries no this is what I’m going to write, I'm going to write whatever comes to mind whatever topic. Right now, I have no idea what this blog post will be about or what I will write, so this could be interesting, but after all, that is what this blog is called Thinking Out Loud right?
Recently there has been a lot of different things happening in the world and being said on the news, not that, that hasn’t ever happened before, shock it happens all the time. But recently there has been a lot from mental health awareness, which some past blogs have been based on. I find it so important to talk about and to not stop talking about.
To climate change and how drastic the world around us is changing from what we use and how we are living. This has also been in recent blog posts. The post before this one was a poem on climate change it was called Not Our Problem. (If you haven’t read it, please do, out of every post I’ve ever written it is the one that left me moved and the one that I felt most compelled to write.) It’s a bit of a play on how we are acting like it isn’t our problem when in fact it totally is our problem, also something that needs to be talked about and being kept on talking about. I find so often with an issue or a problem the minute you stop talking about it is when it gets swept to one side and gets forgotten about or gets seen as no longer being a problem or that in hope it somehow fixes itself, when we all know that doesn’t happen, the same can very much be said for mental health.
To leaders of countries saying and doing things that surprise surprise not everyone agrees with, but that is politics for you, not everyone is going to agree with everyone, and that’s ok.
As much as all these things do need to be spoken about, especially mental health and climate change. This post isn’t going to be about any of that despite clearly having just written a page and half about them. Contradicting I know but there you go, this is just part of thinking out loud and letting whatever I’m typing be typed, welcome to how my brain works.
So Instead of writing about anything on the previous page, let’s talk about something entirely different. Let’s have a catch-up. How is everyone? What’s going on with you? Let me know in the comments below (if it doesn’t show up straight away don’t worry, it will, I just moderate all comments before they can be shown at the bottom of a blog post.) I’m good, life is busy but good, I actually just went through some past posts and realised I haven’t really talked about what I do or even really who I am, so hey here I’m known as Thinking Out Loud aka Freya though have many nicknames I will answer to. I am shy most of the time really only when I’m away from a computer screen and out in public do I go shy and become my introverted self. I am twenty-four, originally from West Yorkshire in England, then moved to New Zealand and now currently in Australia for a little while.
I am a writer, shock surprise, like no one reading this didn’t already guess. I have been writing on and off since mid to late 2014, but physically sit down at laptop this is what I want to do and just writing since mid-2015. Within that time, I have been writing a trilogy based on mental health. It is a total work of fiction and follows three different characters stories but are all in one way or another connected. Depression is very much openly talked about in them, and different sides of depression are spoken of from the person who physically has it to loved ones around them, and how it also affects them.
I have though alongside the trilogy started writing stand-alone books manuscripts. (For anyone who isn’t a writer manuscript or ms for short, are what books start out as before they become the end product you hold in your hand or on any reading device.) All of which are varying in genre. I don’t think I have a single ms besides the trilogy that is all in the same genre. Some have things from similar genres, but they don’t all fit in to say romance, but there is an element of that in some of them. I guess what I’m saying is I don’t think I’m a writer where I stick to one genre or topic to write on or about. I know typically you find with writers and authors that a lot of what they write is one genre and they stick to that genre. Take Stephen King where his books are horror or J.K Rowling where hers a predominantly based on magic and the wizarding world. (I know not all of her books are in the same genre.), with me, that isn’t going to happen I have everything from mental health, fantasy, war, crime and the list goes on, and each one of those genres I know is very different, but that seems to be the type of writer I am. Hopefully, once I get published and realise books, there will be something for everyone and not just one demographic group but something for young to old to female to male. I don’t want to be that person who wants to please everyone, and that’s not at all what I aim to do as I feel that is impossible to do. But if there happen to be ideas I think of that happen to go over many genres with different books and characters then this girl is going to write it, regardless of the genre and demographic I have previously written. So no I won’t please everyone, but yes I will write whatever genre for whatever demographic group.
I have also had this blog on the side, I think I first started it back in 2015 though I had it a little while before then when I was deciding if I wanted to have a blog (that was the introverted side of me very much having a hold.) I know this blog has entirely at times taken a back seat, on those weeks, months, years, where it has taken a back seat it’s merely because I’ve focused so much on the trilogy and trying to get that to the point of being able to take at least the first book to agents/ publishers. I guess I’m still finding that fine balance between ms writing and putting one day aside where I write a blog post and edit it then upload it. Which hopefully fingers crossed soon I realise that I do need to have a break from ms writing/editing one day a week and dedicate that day to this blog. I know upload days are Thursdays but not always possible to write, edit and upload in one day especially if it’s a short story or poem with them I like to give them time to grow and truly be happy with what I have written.
I also like everyone spend way too much time on social media, though I have met some amazing people on Instagram and Twitter over the past three years, who are also writers/ authors. I have learnt so much from them and without them don’t think I would be as confident as I am in my writing compared to when I first started and knew nobody for the first year I had no idea either of these social media sites had such a vast writing community, of course. I had and still have friends who aren’t writers, but I do often feel that talking about characters like they are real people isn’t the same as when you speak to a writer about them, I do think that talking to none writers you get these weird looks of are you ok? And are you sure you are sane? Most of the time, yes to both and sometimes no to both, that’s all part of being a writer. I couldn’t be more thankful for the online communities I am so lucky to be apart of on days when you are your worst enemy and think you’re not good enough or your characters are just not behaving. You can guarantee there will be someone to talk to who knows exactly what it’s like and what you’re feeling. In general, just knowing you have this whole world online, that’s such a fantastic support system for when it seems like the hardest writing day someone will be there to help you and talk to you. That’s also another thing for any writer who isn’t fortunate enough to have a fantastic support system at home the online community is guaranteed to always be there for you. In with the online support, I have an amazing family, and amazing friends who I know are there when I need them, and if I’m not sure about something I can go to them or send them a message asking if something sounds right or if I should upload whatever I’ve written for here. I don’t do it often but knowing they are there, is so important and something I am thankful for.
This genuinely turned out longer than I thought it was going to be, so if you did make it this far, I’m surprised you did and thank you for making it to the end. I hope you’re drink helped you through this read.
I will possibly be back next week, I hopefully will be, but I have some friends visiting and not sure yet what the plan is, but if I figure out that fine balance of ms writing and blog writing who knows anything is possible right. As you can see, I can clearly keep writing and rambling, so going to end it here. Thank you again for reading. I hope you have a lovely day week.
Love always
Thinking Out Loud XX :D
