Friday 24 December 2010

Let's Go Round Again

One last chance to get the fingers on the keys before I get away to see my family.  A couple more presents to buy, a train ride and then three days of reacquaintance.  At this time of year I always find myself weighing up how the year has gone for me.  In terms of the blog, I got my question answered - I can't write for a living.  Perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough.  But for all that it was a pretty good year.  I travelled 3 times and got paid to do so (ok, twice, but the trip to Texas was definitely worth it, even if it didn't bring in any cash).  I got a couple of coverlines and I met more than a few interesting people as a result of this blog - there'll be an interview with one of them on here in the New Year incidentally.  The big highlight was the completely unique, unlikely ever to be bettered experience of inadvertently getting married in Ghana.  I'll get to do it all again, English style, this year.  Personally, it has been a challenging year and it looks like there's going to be a few more potholes in the road in 2011.  But I'm a London bike rider - I'm good at avoiding potential disaster.

So here's some good stuff that I found this year.  I found a few websites that I really like - it was nice to have some choice as my default sites are usually Twitter, Facebook and the BBC, in that order.  Platform and Sabotage Times should provide you with some distraction, should you get bored of sitting in front of the box in the next couple of days.  Always entertaining, best bloggers around are He Said, She Said and Pitchy.  Things are going really well for Pitchy it seems (despite being ill and living in Surrey) - hope he holds it together and becomes the success he deserves to be in 2011.

There are quite a few people I need to thank for helping me have a pretty cool year. A journalist that wrote back with useful advice was Rosie Swash - her podcast with Alexis Petridis is good if only because it illustrates how intensely passionate they both are about music.  Given that I no longer pore over the pages of NME, it's also a good place for me to find new music.  Journalists I need to thank for giving me the chance to write for them this year: Marie Claire Dorking at Company, Terri White at Shortlist, Duncan Craig at The Express, Matt Weiner at Sabotage Times, Martin Deeson and Mark Hedley at Hedge and Square Mile (and Eugene Costello for all the help and support he has given).   Lucy Land at West London Living.  Also Rachel Johnson at The Lady, perhaps the most surprising place I found myself this year.  The Lady also wins best office award; it's got character in abundance, lovely people and Coco the dog wandering around.  Thanks too to Jenny Wood at Look (now Buzz) and Andrea Thompson at Marie Claire.  There's bound to be someone that I've forgotten so if so, apologies and please feel free to write and berate me.   Eat, drink, be merry and we'll do it all again next year eh?

5 comments:

  1. So you can't write for a living bud? Me neither! Seems like I've followed your path, only in the US.

    But why can't you can't write for a living? Are you trying to sell sheet music in the age of the gramophone? And why do you want to anyway?!

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  2. Lee, I think it's just a sign of the economic times. If things were better, you would have been able to do it for a living. It's just a bad time for freelancers. I wish you all the best. Congratulations on getting married by the way.

    Chloe (from the Susan Grossman course)

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  3. Thanks for the comments - always nice to know someone is reading! Shoozy I'd love to write for a living as I really enjoy it, just can't make it pay enough. Could be more reasons to it (such as I could try harder or give it more time but there are only so many hours in the day and I've got rent and bills to pay). I enjoy it anyways so the blog is a nice hobby. Chloe thanks for the support (and nice to hear from you). Get in touch at the email address at the top of the blog and let me know how you're getting on post the course.

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  4. yeah we're reading - just a shame we're not paying! Interesting that your reasons for not making a living are all about you. As writers / journalists shouldn't we be looking at the wider reasons? (E.g see Chloe's comment. Plus print industry is gasping for air).

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  5. Shoozy I work in the media so I know what a gift the recession has been to journos - it means there is always something to write about. No doubt its tough out there but I believe that if you have a passion for what you do and you try as hard as you can, maybe someone will notice. Most successful people I admire have done the thing they're passionate about and money has come as a result. That's all you can do really isn't it? Give it a go and hope for the best.

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