"Where Have You Been?"

Hello everyone!

Long time no post, and for that I am so sorry! I really should have kept on top of my blogging but a lot of things happened and then it just slipped along my priority list!

Since May 2018, a lot has happened in my life! Over the last 16 months I have had three different retail jobs, one at a grocery store, which was part time. I was working there from June until September in 2018 and the only reason that I left was to go back to Derby for my third year at university. When I finished my degree, I got a job at a theme park, which I recently left due to the lengthy commute and expensive rail fares, despite generally loving the experience of working there.  I am now working at a juice bar! So far, I'm really enjoying it and I hope to continue working there to save money for the next part of my adventure into becoming a novelist!

Since my last post, I also completed four NaNoWriMo events, and reached my word count goal of 50K each time. I spent three of those four events working on content for my dissertation for my third year of study. This was due to feeling immensely insecure about the story I had decided to write for this extended study, mostly due to its poor reception in a previous year. However, in hindsight, I couldn't have thought of a better novel to work on. I'd been working with it since First Year and to have the last leg of my journey through academia at Derby to be about the same characters that started the journey with me is really emotional. I am definitely going to share my experience with this story with you guys too!

Another new part of my life, which you may have noticed if you follow my instagram @Imogen_L_Smiley, is that I have started a bullet journal. It was something that my best friend encouraged me to look into and it was one of the most uplifting experiences, impacting my mental wellbeing as much as it was a fun hobby to partake in. I currently have two journals, one is a bullet journal, filled with spreads about things I enjoyed and whatnot, however another is a writer's journal. That was something that I was tasked to create in my second term of university, where I would track progress, jot down ideas and reflect on what I had been taught in class, and work on my projects outside of the classroom, like my coursework for the three modules I was doing. I found it really helpful and decided, after leaving the course, to continue to reflect on my progress in this way.

Ultimately, all of my efforts have lead up to me having completed my third year of university and graduated with a Honours Degree in Creative & Professional Writing from the University of Derby! I graduated back in July and am now making preparations to continue my journey!

Albeit, I'm not starting my postgraduate study in this academic year, I hope to continue to follow my passion of writing and chase my dreams. I'm hoping to start the next leg of my academic journey the September of 2020.

For now, I need to find my feet, keep writing, and find the school that's going to be best for me! I'm just going to keep going, because, in my experience, everything I've been through, has happened for a reason!

Now that I'm back to blogging, I am hoping to share content with you frequently again, with writing prompts, character analysis, praise, and more to come in the future!

Thank you so much for your patience!

And remember:

Per Ardua Ad Astra!

- Imogen. L. Smiley