The Beginning

“I need to get back to writing. And writing for fun.”

Those are the words I told myself a few months ago when I began toying with the idea of launching my own blog (and only about 10 years after the trend ended).

Growing up, I loved writing. I was never a big reader until I came across my gateway drug called A Game of Thrones around 2010 when I was well into college, and well on my way to a degree in journalism. I began writing seriously at around the age of 13, with a small Arsenal blog on Google’s old Blogger platform. I would write about news within the club, match reports and occasionally analyses of our tactics. It was fun. I was by no means a celebrity but I had a big enough following that I found a few sponsors in the UK who paid me to stick links to their sites on my blog. Not bad for a kid in his early teens.

I would eventually do a few more bits of writing over the following decade. Some freelance press release writing, a 4-month internship as a sports writer for a national paper (yes, I got my bylines!), and I even started a student e-paper at my university. After graduating, and still obsessed with fantasy books (after devouring a Song of Ice and Fire, I completed the holy trinity of fantasy by also reading Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter), I began writing two novels – one an urban fantasy novel set in the not-too-distant future, and the second was a high fantasy novel about a medieval society that discovers magic by accident. I finished one chapter each of those novels and haven’t written since.

You see, life gets in the way sometimes. I began my career and decided to make my job the most important thing in my life. Any spare time I had I used to get a head start on the next project, rather than focus on some of the hobbies I have. That mentality became a habit, even as I changed jobs. 5 years into my career, I still spend a lot of my downtime thinking about work and I’m still only one chapter into the books I plan on eventually finishing.

Fortunately, my career (internal comms and employee engagement) has allowed me to write often enough that I’ve not completely lost my touch (I hope). I’ve also picked up other new hobbies, like photography, videography, podcasting, tech, board games, and even reading things other than fantasy books.

So that’s why I started this site. I want to write and sometimes even talk about (Youtube channel will be up soon) these topics I’m passionate about. And that’s why you’re here. I want you to be my audience and make this journey one that I can share with my friends and family. Feel free to share your thoughts on my posts when you see them, even if you disagree with some of my opinions.

Here are some of the ground rules I’ve set for myself to help me hone my skills while on this journey:

Rule #1: Never talk about Fight Club.

Rule #2: I should always use my own photos in my articles. This may not always be possible, but at the very least, the featured image should be my own.

Rule #3: I will force myself to complete at least one post or video a week. Now, this doesn’t mean I can be liberal with the quality of content, it will still need to be researched, framed, scripted, storyboarded, etc. I just have one week to do it. Nothing more.

Rule #4: No politics. Just kidding. I can’t keep my mouth shut.

Rule #5: Put up a book review or any kind of bookish content at least once a month. Just to keep me on my toes.

I can’t believe you’ve read this far. Thanks for reading and I hope to clickbait you into reading into my site again soon.

Cheerio!