One Small Step

Dear Mum,

As you well know, my career path is undergoing a change of course down an unknown and secluded trail on which, I hope, a pot of gold awaits (literal or metaphorical – I’ll be happy with either).

I do like to hold my cards quite close to my chest – it’s a coping mechanism. The less I tell people about applications and career choices, the less likely they will know I’ve been rejected and/or am disappointed.

Not that kind words given in these situations aren’t welcomed. It just makes for less awkward conversations in which people offer those kind but rather overused phrases, like those in my ‘Plenty more clichés’ blog. Like “something will turn up” or “it’s a tough time for graduates.”

Needless to say this is very kindly meant and is, let’s be honest, pretty much all anyone can say. But it’s not a ground-breaking revelation or of huge comfort.

I have previously been very vague about my job situation in my blog but, on this occasion, I’ve decided to reveal all in a Dickensian “I am John Harmon” way.

I have just finished an internship at Dulwich Picture Gallery, which I will hugely miss, especially the opportunity to blog for its affiliated website. I write book reviews for The Right Copy, which I love because it means I get to read and then write about what I think. (What could possibly be better in life?)

I am now very lucky to be starting a book-based project at Bateman’s, and so my hungry thirst for the written word and its history can continue to be quenched. I am constantly making applications to other job and voluntary roles.

My chief obsessions in life (apart from cheesecake, rum based cocktails and living in my pyjamas) are reading and writing. Like all of my English Literature graduate friends, the big ambition in life is to write a novel.

I do have a loose plot for my novel but I feel I need a little more life experience before making the bold leap into penning it. And there are dozens of novels I want to read before I commit myself to writing, especially as they will provide me with more creative inspiration.

Although I enjoy dreaming up blogs, researching them and scribbling them furiously in a notebook before typing them up here on my yellowing Acer (which is still missing the L key) I am yearning for another creative outlet.

A rehearsal, say, for the day when I sit down at my laptop and broach entry to my own fictional world of a novel.

I have thus decided that, over the next month and a half, I will be writing a script as part of BBC’s Writer’s Room. The deadline for this script is May 21^st 2012.

This is terrifyingly close, especially as I don’t have a clue what genre of script I will write, or what medium it will be for, let alone a plot idea or leading character sketched out in my mind.

But this does offer me a deadline – a period of time in which I MUST write something and submit it, especially now that I’ve told you about it.

As a result, the next few weeks will be devoted to my progress in participating in this project. At the end of May I will revert to my usual ‘Dear Mum, here is something to complain about’ blog.

But, in the meantime, join me in my quest to produce a written text. Any creative ideas or similar experiences – please write them below. Who knows, you might be my muse!