Diary of An Aspiring Author: My First Review

And it was positive!

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Happy New Year! January is always a bit of a gloomy month, isn’t it? Christmas is over, payday is still a distant speck on the horizon and funds are running low. I have certainly been feeling the January blues this weekend.

I’ve also been stuck in a rut with my writing. Various ideas are floating around my head, but I’m struggling to know what to focus on and commit to. I’m unsure what to do next and this has led to me not doing much writing at all!

However, something happened today which has given me a fresh burst of positivity. Firstly, I finally finished the second draft of a short story I’ve been battling with on and off since August. And secondly, I received my first ever review! It was for my short story published in December’s issue of Writers’ Forum magazine, ‘A Different Tuesday’.

The review was published in the letters section of January’s issue of the magazine, and was hugely positive and encouraging:

“…I found it original, engaging, descriptive and very well written!”

I still find it bizarre yet incredibly exciting that people are picking up my writing, reading it and enjoying it. And not just friends and family who may feel they have to read it, but real members of the public who are free to pick it up and put it down at please.

It’s still one of my favourite feelings – that warm fuzzy feeling that you get when you’ve written something and get positive feedback. I don’t think that will ever get old.

Writing has never been easy. There are constant highs and lows, but we must treasure these high moments and allow them to spur us on.

I’m now feeling encouraged to finish the final edits of my latest short story, and to submit to more competitions and magazines this year.

What are your New Year’s writing resolutions?