Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness…
This time last year, I was frantically preparing for my final A-level exams. Flashcards were produced at speeds fast enough to inflict near-fatal papercuts to any unfortunates in the vicinity. Tears were not shed, as this would have ruined the precious booklets we were issued for English Literature. Entire cans of instant coffee were consumed during the production of yet more reams of Hamlet essays. I think I recited soliloquies in my dreams, but I could be wrong because my FitBit reliably informs me that I did not, in fact, sleep.
PERCHANCE TO DREAM (twitches eye).
As much as I, and my fellow classmates, complained about the workload, English Literature was a brilliant subject to study. Of course we also studied two other subjects – English Language and Media Studies in my case – but most of us unanimously agreed that English Literature was one of the toughest.
It turns out I needn’t have worried since it all turned out well in the end, and as Autumn marches swiftly forth I find myself missing those classes. Like a good friend you jokingly argue with, I grumbled about peeling myself out of bed at 7AM for classes but in reality looked forward to the camaraderie so much that I’d never miss a day. I’ve always loved learning, but the back and forth between teacher and student, particularly in my Literature classes, was what really made the content come alive. I think that the reason many of us managed to achieve high grades was partly because humour and in-jokes made the trickier parts of the syllabus much more memorable.
This autumn, I no longer need to panic about whether I’ll manage to achieve the grades I want, and the Shakespeare quotes we memorised inspire a sense of nostalgia rather than dread. It turns out that the volunteering I recently took up involves working with books in a new way, as I’m in charge of sorting, scanning and shipping books that would otherwise be recycled. With an extra pair of hands, the proceeds from unwanted tomes can benefit charity and allow others to buy preloved books affordably. Including myself.
Did they hire somebody who’d buy the books herself intentionally? I’m not sure why I was singled out for this duty, but I’m going to have to learn to fabricate bookshelves fairly soon unless someone stops me.
As such, there’s been much more book collecting than stationery collecting recently, largely due to the fact that my writing workload has increased elsewhere. It’s not quite as efficient to handwrite an article, scan, then edit it, when you can type it directly into WordPress. I’ve had to streamline this process so I have time to improve my writing, a constant battle these days as I find my way in the world of researching, freelancing and journalism in a bid to build an attractive portfolio.
College only served to prove that opportunities are rarely served cooked to a perfect medium-rare. Writing in particular is a sprawling, messy field, fraught with competition and underpaid gigs designed to con newbies. The only option is to focus every ounce of energy, spare or not, into honing your skills and becoming the best writer you can be, ideally across several different niches. I’ve found I can’t manage that quite as well when I’m writing meditatively with my fountain pens, much as I’d love to. Improvement happens when you doggedly research, copy and paste your sources into a Word document for easy referencing, extract the facts, write the piece, proofread and submit. Improvement also happens when you get that piece back, your editor points out elements that you never thought were issues, and it hardly feels like you’re making any progress but you carry on regardless. It’s worth all the stress involved though, when you finally produce a piece that you can be proud of, and working with editors has undoubtedly improved the quality of the factual, research based articles I produce elsewhere.
It leaves less time for my stationery, though! This autumn, I’d like to figure out a schedule so that I can post more consistently here while producing the bread-and-butter of my portfolio for career progression. Nocturnal habits allow for a few more hours in the day, but I deeply suspect that this will lead to drawbacks in the future… if I could get a 26-hour day, that’d be great. No? Fine. Have it your way. Spoilsport.
As I prepare myself for what will hopefully be an exciting and successful 2025, I hope I can share some of it here along with more appearances from my favourite pens. I think it’s probably time I do a batch clean and re-ink some much loved writing instruments!
