Mamma Mia! It’s a lockdown again! I honestly tried 3 different plays on words here and that was the best one. Please feel at least a bit sorry for me, I’m tired and sad and on death’s door. (I am sorry for the amateur dramatics, I – along with the entire world population I imagine – am feeling fed up of the pandemic today).
So, we’re into 2021 – it’s finally January (although we’re actually more than half way through now, whoops). I had decided to give dry January a go, but I quickly realised January would be dry enough as it is, so I had a pint down the beach on day 3, and have drunk almost every day since. I don’t know if I would recommend this heavy drinking if you also feel shite about the world, but if it helps you get through things, go for it.
So anyway, with no fun things going on for the foreseeable future (other than Saturday night board games nights… which is not sarcasm, it’s actually a fun highlight of the week), I thought I’d work on my goals for the year, of which I have a few. I did make this list a couple of weeks ago when I was feeling much more energetic and inspired, so I guess we shall see how life moves, and if I’m dead instead next week, then so be it. Again, I’m sorry, blame it on le pándêmîc.
So as I was saying, with binge-drinking down the pub, as well as doing spontaneously stupid things, like staying up past 10pm being more or less out of the equation, I will now be spending all day every day very hard at work on becoming a real life proper writer. I mean, I am a writer already, but I’d love to be paid for it too y’know.
Now, small disclaimer: these ‘goals’ are all quite profesh and not particularly exciting, but I was hardly going to put ‘travel more’… The only flights I’ll be taking are the 2 flights of stairs from my bedroom to the kitchen. But anyway, I would argue that my goals (which are basically New Years Resolutions, let’s be real) are arguably less dull than ‘quitting smoking’ or ‘dry January’, as great feats as these may be. And yes, I’m allowed to throw shade now that I’ve given up on being a dry January wanker.
So here are my simple set of goals for the year, which, unlike a resolution, I intend to change during the year to adapt to life. Anyway enough chit-chat, here’s the finished product:
It’s very pink and cute because I adapted it from a babysitting flyer on Canva.
Now just to go a bit deeper into the ‘goals’ in question; I have been feeling very inspired to pitch to big publications this year, and have initially tried to send at least 1 pitch week to begin with. Ideally I’d like it to be higher, but I work full time and have other things going on too unfortunately. In fact, I’ve hardly even found time to do any writing at all recently (hence why I’m writing this blog post at 1am on a school night… Actually it’s mainly due to the fact I had a 2 hour stress nap earlier). So I’m starting low with hoping I’ll get just a few commissioned pieces this year. Any more than that and I’ll be over the moon. I mean in reality, if I get 2 commissions I’ll be buzzing, as it will beat my 1 commission of 2020 (full disclosure: it was for my ex-boyfriend’s magazine so doesn’t really count).
I’ve also mentioned my book a couple of times there, so in case you didn’t know: I’m writing a book. It’s very exciting and I would bloody love to get it published, or at least get the gears turning on that in 2021. You’ll notice the blog post I tagged there I wrote about a million years ago, as is the same with my book. But 2021 is gonna my year alright?
I have also been taking part in an editorial training programme with City Girl Network learning lots of super helpful hints and tricks to help with editorial bits in the future, which runs until May, so I look forward to learning more throughout that time, and finishing that (hopefully) feeling more knowledgeable about the mad old world of editing n journalism n shit.
Finally, you may notice the lil question mark next to the MA… And that is because I’ve got a lot of shit going on already, and do I need to pile that on too? Who knows.
I’m gonna give a lil shout out to journo Twitter here, which I’ve really started to feel a part of over the past few months. It’s the most supportive and helpful place ever, and I feel very inspired by you all xxx
If you’ve made it to the end, thank you and tbh, well done. I feel by putting these goals into blog post and graphic form, and unleashing to the internet put some pressure on myself to actually get my shit together somewhat.
Thank you v much for reading! xoxoxoxo
Amber's Diary 