Thoroughly modern millennial

Tag: 2016

  • 3 Reasons To Start A Personal Journal

    3 Reasons To Start A Personal Journal

    As the new year rolls in, I’m sure you’re inundated with dozens of self-improvement posts across the blogsphere – and are probably sick to death of them already as well (and if you aren’t check out my writing goals and one word resolution *wink wink nudge nudge*). Whatever your resolutions this year I want to suggest one very good one that you can keep going for as long as you please.

    Start a personal journal.

    There are many very good reasons to start one but here my own, personal top three:

    1. You can be completely honest with yourself

    You know those thoughts you have in your head that you feel like you cannot tell anyone for whatever reason? Get them down in that journal. You can be as crass, gross and unapologetically honest with your journal because it’s literally just you reading it.

    2. You can use it to clear your head

    Whenever some ‘big’ happens to myself in my life or if I feel overwhelmed, I journal. Just the act of getting thoughts out of my head and onto paper works wonders in terms of trying organise my thoughts – like a Pensieve!. I’ve often found a session of physically writing out my train of thought in my journal ended with me coming up with a resolution to the problem I was writing about.

    3. You can see how just far you’ve come

    Whilst my blog is fantastic for documenting my current passions and interests, and my social media is good for documenting those more public ‘ life’ memories, my journal chronicles my mindset, how I really felt and my mental health through all of this. Reading back journal entries from even a few months ago makes you realise just how much you’ve changed as a person, good and bad, and can provide you with an idea of just what you need to do to move forward.

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    Do any of you keep a journal? Will you now? And what will you use it for?

    Ria Xx

  • My 2017 Writing Goals

    My 2017 Writing Goals

    I took a small, but very personal step in 2016 and added ‘writer’ to all my social media profiles. It may sound trivial, but the label has always been associated with an almost secret hobby that I was too scared to share out loud. This year I’m actually setting out some big and bold writing goals to really put some clout behind that title.

    1. Publish a poem a month online

    I’ve really developed a love of poetry after both delving into some great pieces in my favourite literary magazines and avidly re-reading quite a bit of Plath and Tempest last year. It’s an art form I seriously lost touch with after school and I’m definitely enjoying both reading and writing it in all forms. The poetry pieces I’ve published on the blog such as Immigrant and To The City That Stole My Heart are some of the work I am most proud of and I want to share more of that either here on the blog or on my woefully empty writing Tumblr.

    2. Submit to 5 literary magazines

    Though I call myself a writer I’ve never actually tried to submit anything for public consumption (outside of the blog) for fear of it ‘not being ready/good enough/finished…’. So this year I am aiming to submit to at least 5 literary magazines. I’m already prepping material for two and have my sights set on a few more towards the end of the year as well, so I’m off to a good start. The point of this goal is not publication – though that would be incredible – but to start to building my confidence and get feedback on my creative writing in a professional capacity. I also actually want to experience a bit of rejection to see how I handle that (*yikes!*).

    3. Connect with other female writers both online and in real life

    One my absolute highlights of 2016 was attending the Write Like A Girl workshop in London. Being in such a wonderful, supportive environment of inspiring, creative women was honestly just the thing I needed to re-ignite my love of writing. I’ve have already signed up to GrrrlCon in Manchester this year (I. Am. So. Excited.), but I also want to get more involved in the writing community online. That means hitting up people on Twitter and starting up a dialogue here on the blog too.

    4. Promote more small literary presses and magazines

    Reading is such an important tool in a writer’s belt and though, yes, novels are fab, they are time consuming and the more mainstream publishers are simply not filling in my thirst for diverse voices. As I professionally work for a big publishing company, I want to champion the little guys of the literary world outside of work. That means featuring more small presses and investing in great indie lit magazines (and giving them the social media promo they deserve).

    5. Write a little every day

    This was a goal from WLAG that fell off the bandwagon (Oops), so I’m kickstarting it up again. I want to aim for 10 mins a day on a weekday, with 15 mins on a weekend. I’m also widening the parameters to not necessarily ‘write’ full prose or project work, but am including planning and pre-prep for longer writing sessions. My absolute stipulation is that it has to stretch my brain creatively, it can’t be blog work (which my writing time tends to dissolve into) and once I hit that pre-determined writing time I have to stop.

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    I know a few of you reading this are writer-y types too, so in the spirit of goal 3 let me know your own writing resolutions in the comments below.

    Ria Xx

  • 2016 | In Retrospect

    2016 | In Retrospect

    A year of saying ‘yes’

    2016 has come and gone in a bit of a whirlwind. It’s certainly not been a fun one for the human race with a strenuous political climate, hard fought social justice issues and general cloud of doom and gloom shrouding round the World. On a personal level it’s been hit and miss, but as I’ve tried reflecting on my own year one thing that’s come forward as an official theme has been ‘saying yes’.

    I started 2016 with a focus goal, which fell out the window – as resolutions do. What replaced it was a sense of ‘why not?’ to many situations.

    Saying yes for me has manifested in different ways. I’ve been saying yes new job opportunities that will further my career, changing job roles twice in the space of 6 months. I’ve been saying yes to dating and all the mass (or mess) of emotions and situations that places you in. I’ve been saying yes to socialising and spontaneity, with good and bad consequences (mostly on my liver and wallet – resolution for 2017, cut down on the G+Ts). Of course some ‘yes’s have meant other aspects of my life have slid off the radar. Yes isn’t always a positive notion, but it is an active one that I want to try and re-prioritise in the new year.

    These are the more visible ‘yes’s though. The idea of ‘yes’ is more than just ‘doing stuff‘ and there’s a whole host that aren’t so obvious. Like saying yes to feeling more confident in myself and that I’m good considering myself as a constant work in progress. I’ve said yes, to the idea of owning my heritage as a woman of colour, a South-East Asian woman, a Filipina. I’ve been saying yes, to calling myself a writer; yes, to reclaiming my blog and online space and moulding it into something that’s more ‘me’; yes, to growing as an activist and a feminist, to listening to others stories, to challenging my own way of thinking.

    These are the ‘yes’s that feel important to me to carry on doing and always keep in the back of my mind as I gear up to set myself new resolutions for 2017.

    travels to NYC & Dublin ~ turning 24 ~ cocktail evenings (a lot of them) & brunch dates ~a stellar year of geeky pop culture ~ old friends, new friends, work friends, internet friends  ~ a record show year (Waitress, Finding Neverland, Matilda, Miscast Gala) ~ Summer in it’s entirety  

    And finally, I want to end my last post of the year on a lighter note. With the world denouncing 2016 as a pile of trash, it’s important to remember the good stuff.

    See you in the New Year chums!

    Ria Xx