SarahLevy.co.uk

Thought I’d drop in with a few resolutions…a little late perhaps, but better late than never! Let’s face it-these things are usually forgotten by Jauary the 6th anyway. At least by jotting them in cyberspace they will be more likely to be adhered to! To be honest, most of them are more goals than resoultions.

1) Lose weight and get fitter. I know-cliche cliche-yeah yeah, blah blah blah, but I really AM going to do this one. My weight tends to fluctuate a fair bit, within the parameters of about a stone or so. I’m currently at the top of my bracket so I WILL be shrinking back down!

2) Start singing lessons and keep them up all year.

3) Do at least 3 singing performances-Sing Live is the best hobby I’ve had in years and the thought of the concert is the pinnacle-let’s keep it going!

4) Write more and submit at least 3 short stories into contests.

5) Find a job that I love-or at least enjoy enough to stick to it until I can afford to go back to uni. (I failed to mention that I didn’t get the job I had the interview for last month-but it seemed really dodgy there so I was kinda glad…)

6) See Les Miserables in London

7) Wear eyeliner more-yeah, ok that one’s shallow, I know.

8 ) Keep this blog updated and improve the site.

I think there are a couple more too…but these are the main ones!

I’m off to a pretty good start (she says, having just put her eyeliner on-jk ) I’m doing well on number 4. It’s been ages since I wrote fiction and I really had a craving to start-up again so I started looking for some projects to get me rolling. I found a brilliant webpage: www.prizemagic.co.uk/html/writing_comps.htm which has fed me with some great, inspiring ideas. I hope to write a book one day, but my wrtiting style needs much improvement. I’ve decided that entering short story contests will be ideal practise because:

1) Most of them have a theme to write on, which will make me try different genres and writing styles, and help me figure out what I’m best at and enjoy most.

2) They have strict word counts, which will make me more obedient at being concise, eliminating waffle in my writing and improve my story organisation.

3) They have strict deadlines, which will encourage me to actually finish pieces that I start writing-so that overall, I build up a collection completed of work.

4) Work I’ve done will be read, if only by judges who cast it aside immediately to the reject pile.

5) There can be some pretty hefty cash prizes and even publishing opportunities for those who win-and you never know…

I’ve begun my first entry for an international competition run by a museum in Henley on Thames. I have to write upto 4000 words (which sounds a lot, but isn’t to me,) by the 15th March. It has to be written for a young 21st century audience (ages 5-16) and be about a river! I had a flash of inspiration for a story and so I have outlined everything and am now in the writing stages. I’m about 700 words in and have been editing them profusely for the last 3 days! Very enjoyable though!

Well, that’s all for now! Oh, except, I want to put a quick note in to say how excited I am regarding the presence of Ben Adams on Celebrity Big Brother 6! I was an a1 NUT back in the day, as most people know. I think he’s coming over really well in the house-he’s exactly the same as ever and so down to earth! So, if you hate Big Brother/have no interest…or if you do, but support someone else-just forget all that and trust me…VOTE BEN! Of course, the downside of all this is that now I find myself addicted to another Big Brother series, which is never good-but with the totty that is Mr Adams present, I think I can cope with that little drawback. Hehe

‘Til next time

Happy Tuesday!

Sarah x