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Miss H Writes ....

I want to be a writer. I haven't always, but sometimes it takes time to realise the important things in life.

I'm a graduate from Lincoln University with a degree in Illustration, but I realised two thirds of the way through my course that drawing wasn't what I wanted to do with my life.

It's a body blow to realise something like that. I'd been lying to myself all through second year, telling myself that illustration was my thing, and refusing to even consider the possibility I could have made such a big mistake.

When I finally admitted it, at the beginning of my final year, it was almost a relief. After two years of conscious self-deception, it was a weight of my shoulders to come clean. But then I had to figure out what I really did want to do. Something creative, I thought, perhaps an art editor or agent. I looked into these but nothing really grabbed me. I think I was just trying to cling on to the idea that I would use my degree in some way, but it wasn't to be.

All my life I've been writing, more than drawing. When not practically inhaling books, I'd often be making up little stories for friends or just jotting down ideas to amuse myself. I don't know why I didn't think of it before.

 When I finished my course in May 09, I began writing in earnest. I was looking for a job and used the time I wasn't job hunting to think of ideas, produce illustrations and, with a fair amount of help, start to build my website. It's all really simple in terms of the way it's put together, but I've learned enough to know how to maintain it.

After a while I had enough material to put my site online and start promoting myself. I went for the pseudonym of 'Miss H writes' firstly as it's always nice to have a screen to hide behind and secondly, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, since it sounds a lot more romantic than 'Katherine Holt Writes Some Stuff'.

This is still in it's early stages and I'm writing as much as I can. I completed National Novel Writing Month last year, in which participants must produce a 50,000 word manuscript in thirty days. This was such a good exercise in getting me used to writing daily, even after a eight hours of data input at work, that as a new year's resolution I have committed myself to publishing 2000 words a week of an episodic novel called 'Guin' on my website, which I shall be writing as I go along. It's the culmination of a few ideas I've been thinking about for a while and is a sort of twisted fairy tale. I've also got links to my short stories on my site, a chapter of a novel, articles, and a blog. In a few months I hope to launch a reviewing section as well.

Most recently I have had an article published on the BBC Lincolnshire website as well as a book review for new culture magazine Faux. I've been writing all my life but given the amount of work I've put into the last nine months, I often feel like I haven't achieved enough. No matter how depressing it can be, the need to keep writing makes it worth while, as does the positive feedback I've been getting. That, and the feelings of intense guilt I get if I stop working!

So as a wannabe writer, I am precisely that; a wannabe. Yet looking back at how far I've come in just a year, I do feel quite positive for the future. For a person with no website making knowledge or recent English qualifications, I think, or rather, hope, that I'm doing alright. Even if I'm not, the fact that I'm (almost) doing what I love makes it all worthwhile.
 

 Miss H writes is the pseudonym of Katherine Holt, an aspiring writer from Lincoln. Examples of her work can be found at:

www.misshwrites.co.uk

 as well as blog posts and a regularly updated serial.