I didn't know there was a term for this hairstyle! Finally made the chop last year as I have thick hair that is a nightmare to take care of and I've loved every minute of it. Although I do still feel this weird type of pressure to 'conform' to these beauty standards and grow it out. I also tend to hide behind my hair, so for that reason alone, I think having shorter hair is better for me. Such a great piece, as always :)

I'm at the stage in my Medium journey when I feel a bit stagnant - both in terms of creativity/writing and earnings - and I feel compelled to take one of these courses but in truth, like you, they just don't sit with me well at all. I want to figure out this stuff on my own and trust the process. Oh, and I don't have £100s spare to splash on one. Great writing, as always.

The more observant of you will have noticed that my newsletter is late this week. I usually have it written on Thursday and scheduled to go out first thing on a Friday morning, but this week I simply ran out of time. Rather than not doing one altogether and sacrificing my ten-week streak, I just decided to write one anyway but push it back a day. What difference does a day make, anyway?

Despite having 16 or so hours in the day to play with (when you take 8 hours of sleep away), there never seems to be enough time…

Despite Medium giving us promises of changes and that the algorithm is moving to something more relational that favours smaller writers, this will take time to have an effect. Although I’m looking forward to seeing these changes take place, and hopefully, benefit writers, I know that it will take several months for any of us to feel a real impact.

March was my worst month on the platform, both in terms of earnings and overall reach to readers. Despite continuing to publish my best work, I didn’t see a reward. Although I appreciated the stories from more well-known writers about…

It’s been over a month since I started my NCTJ, and it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. There are days when I love what I’m learning about and days where it all seems to feel a bit much. But I guess it’s all part of the journey. Ahead of my first exam (in just under two weeks), I thought I would write another update and let you know how I’m getting on.

I don’t know if these posts are useful or not — but they may be nice for me to look back on in the years to come…

Loads of things are happening in England at the moment. After being in our third lockdown since early January, suddenly, everything is opening up. Almost overnight, pubs, restaurants, cafe’s, gyms and personal care facilities like hairdressers have opened after being closed for so long.

The pressure to pile up our diaries and make the most of each moment is real, and it can be hard for people that have found being in lockdown beneficial for their mental health.

But I wanted to write this to remind people that just because there’s pressure and it seems like everyone is doing the…

When I was small, I always imagined myself as a writer. I would get through stacks of jotter notebooks, filled with short stories all written out by hand. As I got older, I started to abandon the ambition the more I read. I used to think, but what do I have to say that’s any different? Am I even good enough?

But the reality is, everyone has something to say. As writers, our job is to write it in the best way we can, put it out into the world, and then readers will decide.

I soon shifted my mindset…

Uncertainty has become a dominant facet of life over the past year, and many of us have turned to books to heal our anxieties about the current state of the world. Of course, we all read for different reasons — but escapism is a central component when reading fiction.

The following books are chosen for how well they can transport us away from the present and remind us about the power of fiction. They transcend through a myriad of different genres, times and places, but what unites them all — is their ability to take us away from the now.

Where the Crawdad’s Sing by Delia Owens

…