Journalism

Over the past 6 months, I’ve definitely learnt a lot about myself and my skills as a writer. At the start, I didn’t really want to set myself too many goals, as I wasn’t sure what I would be capable of, and what would be easier said than done.

I’ve really enjoyed my hour a week, writing about things that affect me in all sorts of ways; things that make me happy, things that make me sad, things that confuse me, my experiences and anything else on my mind. My last article was particularly fun; I just hope I don’t get into trouble for writing about teachers. I think I demonstrated self-control fairly well, however; it took a lot of will power not to be rude and us expletives all the way through.

But I think I have definitely developed my writing skills. I do prefer writing creatively and fictionally, creating my own characters and setting my own scenes, but I have learnt a lot about writing more ‘professionally’. I don’t think any of my articles would be suitable for publishing or anything; there’s far too much sarcasm, and there’s not really much content than real newspapers or magazines would use. But either way, it was challenging for me to not turn my articles into informal babbling; I did try to steer my work towards the more formal sides of things, but I don’t think I did too well.

I’m doing it again, aren’t I?

After these 6 months, I think I can safely say I know what works well for me and what doesn’t when I’m writing. I don’t really bother giving myself a set structure for my writing, because otherwise I’ll feel like I haven’t lived up to my own expectations, regardless of the quality of the piece, and I won’t be fully happy with it.

I think, for me, it’s a good idea to just go wherever my thoughts take me, rather than outlining exactly what I’m going to write about before starting. This is why I’ve always kind of generalised my titles, so I don’t really have to confine myself to specific topics or areas within a topic. Although, this is supposed to be a review of my 6 months (I think) and so far it’s kind of worked out.

I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to set up my own blog, and write essentially whatever I want, and have been supported by so many people, when I wasn’t really expecting to go anywhere with it, or tell anyone about it. Now, a few of my friends read it from time to time, and looking at the stats for the views of my blog, there appears to be a large Russian audience. I’m not sure how accurate this is, however. But, I’ve done about 50 posts and gotten nearly 5x as many views. It’s not many, but I thought it would get about 3 views.

I’m definitely going to keep the blog, and maybe update it now and then if I feel like it, or have something to write about. I really want to thank everyone who has ever read my blog, and especially thank you, Mr Worsley, for reading it for 6 months as well! I really appreciate it.

I think I’ll do 1 more week, just to be on the safe side of how long I have to do my skills section, and then sign this section off.

:)