6/10/19 - Song Of The Week Sunday

Hi guys! I'm back with my first Song Of The Week Sunday since my hiatus! The purpose of this segment is to give you guys a quick glimpse into my life and the things I listen to on repeat!

The song of the week this week is Death By A Thousand Cuts by Taylor Swift from her new album, Lover!

You can stream it on Spotify here!

https://open.spotify.com/track/2dgFqt3w9xIQRjhPtwNk3D

I had it on loop without even realising that I did, it's just so catchy and emotive that I didn't get a chance to listen to anything else for hours on end. I just love it! I really hope that my friends and I will manage to score tickets to the Lover Tour whenever that will be because I am absolutely desperate to see Taylor Swift in concert!

I hope you guys have an amazing week!

And remember:

Per Ardua Ad Astra!

4/10/19 - Favourite Character Praise Friday - Riza Hawkeye

Hello and welcome back to Favourite Character Praise Friday! This is one of my absolute favourite posts to write and I hope you enjoy my picking apart of my favourite characters enough to stick around while I examine my next victim, I mean, character. Don’t worry, I do not rank these characters in a particular order, it just so happens that some characters are better worth sharing praise for at a different point in time to others! Remember, every fifth instalment is Least Favourite Character Praise Friday, so keep an eye out for me probing at characters I can’t stand and raving about how well they were written in order to evoke such a reaction.

So, who is the subject of my next Favourite Character Praise Friday?

Riza Hawkeye from the Fullmetal Alchemist Franchise 

Warning! The following content will contain spoilers for the Fullmetal Alchemist Franchise! 

So, who is my first victim, post-hiatus? Riza Hawkeye from the Fullmetal Alchemist Franchise. I’ll admit, you’ll be seeing a fair amount of her this month as she is one of my all-time-favourites. I actually wrote an essay about her for university coursework because a friend of mine insulted her and her character arc.

I have been a fan of Riza’s character for many reasons, and not just because of her heavily implied romantic relationship with Roy Mustang, despite my shipping it. I generally love seeing such a complicated character be presented. Hiromu Arakawa gave us an absolute gem with Riza, being a multi-faceted, insubordinate yet trustworthy character with an immensely well-crafted story, which interweaves perfectly with her perceived love interest.

I feel like a lot can be learned about Riza from both a stand-alone character perspective but also in the idea of writing an established relationship, whether romantic or platonic.

The first thing I think that I, as a writer, learned from the way Riza was written would be that dry humour is equally as effective. When I was writing, particularly for young adults, prior to exposing myself to Arakawa’s content, the majority of the humour I used was loud and boisterous, with characters poking fun out of each other, bawdy banter and crude jokes. I even once had a character dare his best friend to carry him on his back in a pair of golden high heeled boots that belonged to another one of their friends. While these aspects of humour worked, especially in circumstances where characters are either immensely comfortable with one another, or are in a 21 Dares type of scenario, they weren’t necessarily the be-all and end all of humour. Riza’s means of joking with her superior, Roy, tended to be similar in reference to what she would say, however, her delivery was usually quiet, snide and sharp. In their case, it tended to be quips about Roy’s inability to use his alchemy in wet environments, which became a running joke throughout the franchise, particularly as Riza had snubbed him as being useless, as if his other military training was surplus compared to his alchemic prowess. Observing this as someone consuming this content exposed me to a more adult and mature method of sharing how a character may feel about a companion, and establishing their rapport for the readers / consumers. I thought this was really interesting!

Another aspect of Riza’s character that I adored to no end was how serious she was in contrast to the other characters in her company. Despite her being a lieutenant in the military, she is surrounded by young and boisterous male characters that tend to be over-dramatic when left to their own devices. She, in contrast, is significantly more reserved and stern, yet still gets along very well with her colleagues, despite the differences in their behaviour and outlook. In some instances, it is the way in which they share trauma, with many of the older characters in the series having served in the military during the wall in Ishval, however, even with that in mind, they do not tend to discuss those events due to them being too horrific. I found Riza’s perspective on her actions in Ishval as interesting when compared to other characters like Kimblee, who seemed remorseless. In contrast, her reaction to the atrocities that took place was that she deserved to be executed for the war crimes she committed, and she was willing to serve her country until she was granted the chance to die by court martial as she felt she deserved.

The last thing was how to portray a different type of devotion. Regardless of how one looks at the relationship between Roy and Riza, romantic or platonic, their storylines are closely interwoven to demonstrate how close the pair are. The level of trust they have in each other is hard to pull-off in fiction, in my experience, without the action coming across as forced. However, Roy and Riza are constantly demonstrating that they will help one another when they need it, with Riza saving Roy’s life as early as episode five, and him returning the favour by episode nineteen. They are co-dependent on one another, sharing the same goals and ideals, deciding it would be better for them to be punished for what they did at war, instead of getting on with their lives as if nothing happened, or ending their lives themselves. Which, ultimately, made Riza’s declaration that she had “no intention of going on by [herself]” toward the end of the series to be much more emotive, as she never wanted to end her life by suicide. This is, likely due to the fact that military systems tend to consider suicide or attempting to do so as cowardice.

Ultimately, I love Riza’s character, regardless of what she taught me. I hope that my analysis will help you see her in a new light!

Please, if you have opinions on Riza, feel free to share them with me! Don’t forget you can check out my previous Character Praise by looking through the hashtags below.

And remember!

Per Aruda Ad Astra!

Happy National Poetry Day!

Hi guys, its Imogen, and today is National Poetry Day! Admittedly, I haven't performed spoken word in almost a year but I am still a huge fan of poetry and I am excited to celebrate with my fellow poets on social media

This is just a short freewrite that I thought I'd share with you guys. Once a poet, always a poet, mic or not!

Imogen's A Theatre Nerd: Heather's

I have been immensely fortunate when it comes to exposure to musical theatre and live-stage performances. When I was younger, my aunt used to purchase tickets for myself, my younger sister and my mother to see shows on the West End, some of which, I still have the programs for now. I remember the first West End show I went to was Hairspray when I was around eleven or twelve years old. We got to stage door after the performance and the programs we bought were covered with signatures from cast members that were delighted that we had enjoyed the show. The last time I went on one of those trips was when I was sixteen. I had seen Wicked with my family and not everyone had enjoyed the performance as much as I had. But I was still much too young to go to the theatre alone. However, my love for musical theatre in particular didn’t cease.

It was only recently, in October of 2018, that I went to another West End performance, where I saw Heather’s on tour with two of my friends, just weeks after I’d managed to purchase Hamilton tickets for myself and my mother in the new year. It was then that I realised I had happened across an expensive habit. Since then, I have made four more trips to see shows in London; Hamilton (twice), Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child and The Great Gatsby at Gatsby’s Drugstore.

I figured that, I would share some anecdotes about my experiences, because, honestly, I just love to share and remember the fun I had!

SO, Heathers! 

On 25^th October 2018, I travelled to central London with a friend of mine to see Heathers: The Musical on stage. My friend, Matt, was already on the train, and I joined him when it pulled up at my station. We met our friend, GL, over in Leicester Square. Admittedly, we had left very little time to eat and get to the theatre, as he had had lectures at university and we had been running late due to issues with the tube, having missed one to get us to Leicester Square faster.

One thing I would definitely suggest, in hindsight, if possible, is to give yourselves as much time as possible to get to the theatre, and, if possible, avoid making commitments that clash. In our case it was unavoidable as education, rightly, comes before going to see a musical, but if you can choose to travel down earlier, I would do so. We ended up inhaling fast food before running to the theatre, which wasn’t the easiest place to find, which had, ultimately, made me anxious, despite my friends insisting that they knew where they were going. Another suggestion would be don’t down a large chocolate milkshake and then run off to the theatre, it doesn’t make for a comfortable start to the show!

Heathers, was, however, amazing. I had been a fan of the soundtrack for several months, and I had been lucky enough that a colleague of my mother’s was selling the tickets as she was no longer able to attend the show. I had bought all three tickets without hesitation, desperate to see the tour, as I was sure that I would have struggled to purchase my own tickets. I loved the songs that they added in such as “I Won’t Shut Up Anymore” by Heather Duke, as I felt that it epitomised her attitude about finally being able to step into the spotlight instead of constantly being belittled by Heather Chandler.

My friends and I had enjoyed the entire show, relating to the songs and their lyrics, despite, neither being the biggest fans of musical theatre themselves. Below is a photo of us, taken after the show, outside the theatre.

I have heard rumours and speculation online, that the tour may return to the UK someday, should that be the case, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to see it again. Heathers is such a great show and if anyone ever gets a chance to see it, I would definitely suggest going for it! If high-school angst is your thing, definitely check it out!

1/10/19 - Happy Tuesday! University Inspired Writing Prompt:

Today, 1/10/19, is the first instalment of University Inspired Writing Prompts since my hiatus. Since my first year at university, I have been compiling a collection of writing prompts inspired by my time studying in Derby. I hope that these prompts help you create your own works!

All of these prompts are dialogue based, and are inspired by real conversations I have been part of whilst at university.

PROMPT #22:

"I never thought that preparing for my shift would include streaming my colleague’s EP whilst avoiding the elastic band battle crossfire. I haven’t had enough espresso for this!" 

The above prompt was inspired by my experience at work. When I was working at an amusement park, we would have to go in an hour before the park opened, to count tills and whatnot, but we usually finished that quickly.

The younger members of staff seemed to have an ongoing battle taking place with elastic bands, which we were never in short supply of. They constantly recruited new members of staff to the cause, where they would just ping every elastic band they could find, at each other. 

What made this experience more amusing to reflect upon was that the EP that we were listening to was by one of my colleagues and his metal band. Which, in my opinion, added much more drama to the battle! 

I hope that this prompt inspired something, even if it was just a smile! Feel free to check out my previous prompts by looking through the hashtags below! 

Thank you so much for reading! 

And remember! 

Per Ardua Ad Astra!

- Imogen. L. Smiley

What's New?

So! Its been a while since I was updating this blog, and some things are due to change due to that.

For starters, I don't think I'll be posting as much writing advice here anymore, despite being a writer. I struggle to articulate advice so I am unsure how frequently I'll be sharing advice. When I make a decision about that, I'll post an update on it. Until then, don't expect to see them frequently, if at all.

Another thing that will be changing is the way I work on reviews. Instead of forcing myself to engage in literature etc. my hope is to ease myself back into reading and writing comfortably and work my way back into consuming content to review etc. This is because I got burnt out so badly during my third year of university and never recovered a passion and eagerness to read before being thrust into 40+ hours of work a week at the theme park, not including commutes.

I will however, be continuing to share weekly writing prompts, inspired by my time at university, prior to my graduation. I also intend to continue to explore characters in the form of Favourite Character Praise Friday. I will also continue to post Songs of The Week.

However, it's not all bad! I'm hoping to share new content too! A new segment that will be coming in the future of this blog is "Imogen Is A Theatre Nerd" which is where I will be gushing about my experiences as a fan of theatre and avid visitor of the West End. These posts will be fortnightly, talking about my trips from October 2018 - which is when I started recording why I loved each trip - until I have written about every trip I have been on since. Once I have caught up, these posts will cease and only reemerge when I go back to the theatre.

Another type of post which will be starting this month is "Imogen's Shoutout To_" which is where I will create a post ranting and raving about something that I have enjoyed and will vary in topic. These posts will be monthly, going live on the last day of the month, along with a corresponding Bullet Journal Spread which you'll be able to see on my instagram @Imogen_L_Smiley

Thank you so much for reading and continuing to support me as I continue my journey toward beinga a published novelist! I hope I'll make you guys proud!

- Imogen. L. Smiley

"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