Writer's Block

Writer's block is that terrible decline in inspiration and sometime sanity that writers face.
No-one knows what causes it and no-one knows exactly how to beat it. Here are some tips, from me and from another source.
Then again, just writing a book is a tough enough process, without the block that gets in the way. How can I write a book? This is such a commonly asked question. I may have found the answer....kind of.
Nowadays authors are turning to self publishing rather than traditional publishing, and e-books rather than paper books...is this the way forward?

How to beat writer's block

• Get out the house/wherever you are and see a different sight, this can spark inspiration
• Try reading
• Listen to music
• Do some painting or drawing
• Read lyrics
• Change your writing style
• Read some old work/writing
• Browse the internet
• Read blogs like this one.

Thank You

I wanted to say 'Thank You' to a certain blogger who posted a post about...little old me.
I want to express how amazing this person is. She is caring and listens to other people's problems all the time. And she is so so optimistic, unlike me.

Who wants to be normal?

I know a girl, an inspiring girl. She has been through so much, but she's still here today with only the scars remaining. Every day she is fighting an ongoing battle with herself. She has diagnosed and undiagnosed mental illnesses which prevent her from living a normal life, but normal is overrated.
If she had a normal life, she would not be defending LBGT rights and raising awareness of mental health problems. This girl, day after day, is fighting for a better cause - humanity. I believe that we can learn from her because even when life throws the worst situations at her, she picks herself up and uses her experiences to help others. That is a true inspiration.
Please read her blog, she is an enlightening person.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Keep blogging. You know who you are.

 

 

Size Zero And Anorexia Nervosa

The fact that models are basically all size zero, which is size four in UK sizes, is a disgusting and shocking phenomenon. They are not real women, real women are not size zero.
The growing number of eating disorders in teenagers, especially girls, is an unhealthy and stark truth.
Many girls start to lose weight because they think they are perhaps a little bit overweight, but this escalates and they believe they are fat. This can lead to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which is serious and life threatening. Anorexia usually is rather silent and secretive to begin with and families probably will not notice their loved ones weight loss. But then as the weight loss becomes more drastic and noticeable and the young person begins to start purchasing laxatives and making themselves vomit to rid themselves of the food they've eaten, the disorder can be noticed. However it is not always noticed. Some girls can become extremely unwell and their families do not even notice, because they are hiding it so well.
This post is written in an attempt to expose some of the habits that people with anorexia engage in, in order to help families catch the disorder before it is too late. The sick truth is, some women want to be size zero and go on a quest to be size zero.

Anorexia: The Facts

• Anorexia is a very serious eating disorder that occurs mainly in young women from the age of 15 to 18, it is defined as the loss of extreme weight through dieting, the person suffering from anorexia will eat very little often actually making themselves sick after eating or use laxatives in striving towards losing weight.
• It is a psychological disorder which once taken a serious hold on the person that person will actually convince themselves they are fat, no matter how much weight they lose, they will still see themselves as being overweight.
• About every 4 in 10 people who have deep seated anorexia and suffer from this illness will actually make a full recovery and others do improve, 3 out of 10 will however continue to suffer from major long term illness.
• If not recognised and help sought 15 percent of anorexia suffers will die from the disease within 20 years of its appearance.

Anorexia: The Habits

• The cup trick: Using a coloured cup or mug that is not see through, the person spits the food out of their mouth into the cup when pretending to drink
• Hiding food: in various places - sleeves, pockets, even down their bra
• Purging: purchasing laxatives, making themselves vomit
• Exercising obsessively: even in their rooms, where it is hidden

Discrimination Is Still Around

                                
Post originally written on 13th August 2011

I have just watched the BBC DVD 'The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister' about a lesbian living in the 1800s and it shocks me as to how people were so judgemental and would not let her live her own life.
Gays and lesbians are becoming widely accepted in the UK, however what about the people living in the countries where it is still illegal?

 

Don't Call Me Crazy

So a new programme began this week. 'Don't Call Me Crazy' follows the lives of teenagers in an inpatient psychiatric hospital in the UK, suffering from various mental illnesses. The unit - The McGuinness unit, has now been replaced by a brand new modern unit called Junction 17.
After staying at one myself, for 2 weeks, I found this programme rather interesting, yet also sad. Sad because of the illnesses the young people have and sad because of the way they are treated.
My stay at a psychiatric unit was a rather positive experience.
The people there were not restrained in front of other young people, which they are in the McGuinness unit.
One of the patients who suffered from depression, anorexia and also self harmed, refused to be weighed and eat. At the unit I was at, the young people had to eat, and did. They were weighed. They were supervised a lot of the time to ensure they were not exercising and moving around, especially twitching and fidgeting slightly to burn off calories. They went to the toilet and were not allowed to flush the loo until the staff had checked there was not sick down the toilet, which is a way of purging (vomiting).
On the positive and motivational side, one of the patients who suffered with acute OCD told the camera how "OCD does not define her as a person."
The patients raised awareness of the stigma surrounding mental illness and shared personal insight into their minds. All in all it was a very worthwhile programme. It was widely talked about. I read this article in The Guardian which advertised and promoted the programme which raises awareness surrounding mental health.

Gay Myths

I found two photos on Facebook that convey the myths surrounding gay people, I uploaded a YouTube video of me reading them out as I think it is important to stop the misunderstanding surrounding homosexuality.
The picture below shows the myths people believe about gay people that absolutely are NOT true.
We don't want to sleep with EVERY woman if we are a lesbian or EVERY man if we are a gay man, just like straight people don't want to sleep with EVERYONE of the opposite sex.
We can have children, not 'naturally', obviously, but with the help of science or adoption agencies.
We can have normal monogamous relationships and are not all promiscuous.
We don't hate the opposite sex, we don't all wear leather and feathers. We are not out to convert your children, as converting someone to being gay or straight is impossible, as sexuality is no choice. It's neither a phase nor a choice and we don't like kids, we aren't paedophiles, we are functioning members of society with loving healthy adult relationships.
We cannot be cured with any amount of praying etc, as it is not a sin to be gay.
We don't need to sleep with a member of the opposite sex or meet a lovely member of the opposite sex to turn straight as this is impossible. We don't flaunt our homosexuality nor do we cause AIDS. In many gay relationships there are two butch men or two girly women, THERE IS NO 'MALE' AND 'FEMALE'. We can still be religious.

Lack Of Mental Health Awareness And Support

There is a serious lack of support for people suffering with psychiatric illnesses.
There is little awareness too, for the conditions which affect millions of people around the world.
Discrimination should not exist in the year 2013. Or even in the year 1913 or 1813.
Mental illness is just a core part of being a human. It is hereditary, it runs in families.
I heard the awful story of a poor 21 year-old woman who suffered from depression and was feeling suicidal, so told her college who rang the police. The police found no-where safe and secure for her to go other than the police station, so she spent the night in a cell.
Mental illness is not a crime and therefore the poor woman should NOT have been treated like a criminal and put anywhere near criminals.
People NEED to be educated on mental illness...

Reading

I have always loved reading, what better thing is there to do?
You can escape from your current world and live in another for a brief period of time.
I began devouring (not literally!) Jacqueline Wilson's novels when I was a child and they led me onto Anne Cassidy's teenage thrillers, Cathy Cassidy's children's rom-com/domestic novels and then onto Julie-Anne Peters's LGBT novels (when I realised I was gay and was sick of reading teen romances about girls falling for boys!)
I have several books that once I had finished I never thought I'd read another as good:

-Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson
-Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
-Sugar Rush and Sweet by Julie Burchill
-Pages For You by Sylvia Brownrigg
-Girl Walking Backwards by Bett Williams
-Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
-The Pact by Jodi Picoult
-The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I highly recommend all the above reads, if you click on the title of the novel above you will get a link to purchase it on Amazon.co.uk. They are amazing novels and really grabbed me, these authors are also amazing and so inspirational. Read my post about Sylvia Plath and her novel The Bell Jar.

Self Harm

Self Harm is a precarious topic. No-one knows exactly why one self harms, for there are many reasons.
The most common are:

• Relief of stress
• Self punishment
• To gain a feeling of control
• To show externally the pain they feel internally

I self harmed for all the above reasons. I thought it was a good way of coping. It wasn't hurting anyone else, it didn't cause serious damage and it worked. However it scarred, I have scars. Am I proud of them? No.

Am I proud to have gotten through what I did? Yes.

Every scar has a story and a reason. The bad day, the break up, the day I hated myself, was stressed, depressed, felt alone, angry.

Please try not to self harm: it only resorts in long term harm and permanent scars. You don't want to be reminded of your bad times every time you look down at your arms.

Don't start cutting other areas of your body as a way of concealing the fact you are self harming. Just because no-one can see it, you are still doing it. Just because you feel pain, doesn't mean you deserve to. You are stronger, better and more beautiful than the demons of self harm. You are not alone, ever.

Tips for stopping self harming:

• Instead of cutting use an elastic band to ping against your arm, this causes pain but does no long term damage
• Hold ice cubes on your skin to create pain but no permanent damage
• Listen to a sad or happy song, get your feelings out by singing or dancing
• Write a diary or blog
• Talk to someone

Break Ups

Break ups hurt so badly.
When you think you've met your soulmate and it ends, that is agony. Maybe soulmates don't exist, but I like to think they do.
Everything happens for a reason, so break ups must do and no matter how agonising they are at first, HANG IN THERE, and things will improve, because they can't be worse than suffering the throes of heartbreak!
Being the dumped one sucks. You feel ther's more to say but the other person has already ended it. You lose control. You are left miserable in your own stagnant and self pitying waters.
But the dumpee also suffers. They feel guilty, possibly trapped, maybe regretful. They had their reasons but perhaps they were unsure what do do. Or how to do it. The bottom line is: break ups hurt everyone. But they are a part of life - life is full of cracks and breaks, your heart will mend eventually.

Inspring Quotes

General
Live life to the full.
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

LGBT
"I think the best day will be when we no longer talk about being gay or straight...
It's not a gay wedding, it's just a wedding...
It's not a gay marriage, it's just a marriage."
- P!nk

"I don't consider myself just an ally to the LBGT community, I consider myself your family. And so, I'm doing what we all do with our families - I'm loving you, I'm supporting you, I completely accept you as who you are."
- Anne Hathaway

"You don't have to be gay to be a supporter, you just have to be human."
- Daniel Radcliffe

"It's insane that civil rights are being denied to people in this day and age. It's embarrassing, and it's heartbreaking. It goes without saying that I'm completely in support of gay marriage. In 10 years we'll be ashamed that this was an issue."
- Chris Evans

"For me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."
- Barack Obama

"No sex is wrong, if love is in it."
- Marilyn Monroe

Holidays

We're all going on a summer holiday.
Sun, sea, sand.
I get too excited about going and too sad going home. The promise of a holiday motivates me, keeps me going, gives me something to look forward to, the build up is amazingly excitement. 
Then the few days before all I can think about is the incoming holiday. The vacation  I pack, excitedly, and dream of sun. Then the airport journey is exciting, getting there, being there, just the promise of sun-kissed skies soon. Wondering where everyone is going, the excitement in the air.
The holiday itself is like a dream, unreal. It is too good to be true.
The journey home is so awful, I cry and cry, I know I am lucky to have been but it doesn't change my depression over the fact that the holiday is over.
When I am finally home, I cry for weeks. It is stupid.
Holidays are the best time of my life. I live for them.
What can beat a holiday after all?

"DEAR GRANDMA..." WHEN RELATIVES DON'T GET WHY BEING LGBT IS OK

"DEAR GRANDMA..." WHEN RELATIVES DON'T GET WHY BEING LGBT IS OK

Victoria Munro (17) is unhappy about the fact her Grandma is uncomfortable with her being gay. She's written a letter to her, trying to make her understand why being LGBT is not something to be ashamed of, and why she should be happy for her. Tori's been kind enough to share her letter with us... We'll let you know how her Gran responds! Wish her luck!

Victoria Munro

Both my grandma and my father are quite homophobic. My paternal grandma was born in 1930 thus giving her different views and beliefs to most people nowadays. When she discovered, via my dad, that I was gay she didnt speak to me for some time. When she did it was never about my sexuality and if the topic came up she would crinkle up her mouth and not say a word. I wrote this letter to give her insight into what being gay means and to educate her ignorant beliefs with the simple truth, that love is love.

Dear Grandma Edna, the other day when I was lying awake in bed I had the idea to write you this letter. I know three years ago, Dad told you I was gay, and we have not spoken about that since. I wanted to tell you how I feel so that you have a better understanding of what my life is like at times. I have known I’m gay since I was 12 and it is NOT a phase. Also, I did NOT choose to be gay - when does anyone choose their sexuality? They don’t. No, I simply began falling for people but I realised it was girls I liked not boys. Gay people have always been around, it is just that in your generation people did not admit to it because it was still not legal and they would be stigmatised, beaten and verbally abused. Now that it is legal to literally ‘be yourself’ a lot more gay people are coming out. You may not be happy about it but I do not want to live a lie and be unhappy for the rest of my life. I’d much rather admit to being who I am and get on with my life. I think that as long as I am happy, my family should not mind. I am not ashamed about who I am, it is me, I am part of the minority, but that does not make me a freak. I am human, I have feelings, why should I be put down for something I did not and would not choose? At the end of the day, I am going to marry a woman and I am hopefully going to be in love and happy - and what is so bad about that?
None of the above is intended in a rude, sarcastic or scrutinising manner, I just wanted to share my feelings with you.
Lots of love
Your granddaughter
Victoria
xxxxx

About the author: Victoria Munro (17) is a writer and LGBT activist. She has published two books: Kiss Chase (for 15+ readers); and Silver Lining (a story for 11+ readers). She recently wrote a letter to the MP David Burrowes about his voting record on LGBT issues, which has been published in Pink News and When Sally Met Sally. Read Victoria's blog here: http://insanityandequality.blogspot.co.uk/

Article from When Sally Met Sally

Book review: The Bell Jar (WARNING SPOILERS)

DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVE YET TO READ 'THE BELL JAR'

Perhaps the most obscure book I have read.

Focusing around the character Esther Greenwood, a troubled young woman looking for her place in the world, she has acquired a place at a college to do a scholarship away from home, and begins it well, enjoying herself and seeing her almost-boyfriend, however this falls through when she becomes depressed and attempts suicide so therefore is taken away to a mental institute after living at home with her mother for some time.

The ending is ambiguous, as the novel closes on the review of Esther's state of mind and the decision regarding whether she will be released from the hospital.

The book contains themes of virginity, mental illness, depression, suicide, writing as a profession, romance, friendship, family and love. So it covers a lot and lots of people of all walks of life can identify with Esther. It moved me, I cried with Esther, knowing some of her personality and experiences were Plath's too, as this is a semi-autobiographical account of Plath's life. I recommend this book. Highly. Every girl should read it. Every human, actually.

                            A girl's analytical review of the novel.

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia. What can I say?
Sylvia Plath was an amazing woman and after watching the film 'Sylvia', my admiration of her just grew. I was appalled at the way Ted Hughes treated her: affairs, infidelity and broken promises. She needed love and security.
I was bewitched by the film 'Sylvia' and saw it twice in one day. Partly because I love Gwyneth Paltrow but mainly because it's an amazing film portraying an even more amazing woman.
Plath was clearly always mentally unstable, from the time she met Hughes to her death in 1963. She told him many a times of her failed suicide attempts: an overdose, attempted drowning. When she discovers Hughes is repeatedly betraying her trust and cheating on her she becomes more and more ill until she cannot cope anymore and on February 11th 1963 she committed suicide by putting her head in the oven. 
In her life she wrote some outstanding poems, such as Daddy. She also wrote her only novel The Bell Jar. The book centres around Esther Greenwood, a troubled young lady trying to find her place in the world. 
The novel was semi-autobiographical and portrayed many events which also paralleled Plath's life.
Sylvia Plath was unwell and sadly did not get the help she needed and deserved. Her intense poetry on the theme of death conveys her deteriorating mental stability and suicidal ideation. 
I don't know what is was about Plath's novel that captured me, left me pining for more of her works. I read The Bell Jar in a matter of days and it stayed with me long after I finished it. I may re-read it, especially after reading an article on one woman's permanent adoration of the novel.
Plath had two children. Her daughter, Frieda Hughes is alive today and identifies as a writer and poet, her son, Nicholas Highes was a fisheries biologist known as an expert in stream salmonid ecology, however he hanged himself in 2009 after suffering with depression.

Plath will be remembered forever for her talent and beauty inside and out. Her journals are available to read, which gives detailed insight into her emotions and experiences.

Poetry: Every Day

Every Day

Every day

The world awakes

A billion people

Continue their lives

Every day

Someone dies

If you listen carefully

You’ll hear their cries

Every day

A baby is born

Given a name

As they sleep and yawn

Every day

A child is bullied

Scared and alone

He sobs on the floor

Every day

Two people get married

Declare their love

And walk up the aisle

Every day

A mother is beaten

By her husband

Who she once trusted and loved

Every day

Someone’s wishes are broken

As they break down

On a cold stone step

Every day

Is someone’s bad day

Their life won’t go right

They feel useless and worthless

Every day

Is the greatest day of someone’s lives

They go to bed happy

And smile as they sleep

Every day

Someone’s heart is broken

Its’ torn in two

As they watch their partner walk away

Every day

Someone goes on a date

Keeping their eye on the time

They don’t want to be late

Every day

Is someone’s last day in this world

But if they knew that

They might live it differently

Every day

Someone is diagnosed

With a terminal illness

They sink to the floor

In a puddle of a fear

Every day

Someone has their first kiss

They dance home in a trance

Replay that moment

A thousand times in their mind

Every day

Good rules out the bad

Evil defeats the glory

Pain and love collide

Every day

Death consumes another innocent person

And a tiny baby is wrapped in a blanket

Every day

Certain things happen

The dice of fate

Lands on each of us

It determines our futures

And alters our lives

Decides who to kill

And lets the rest survive

Every day

A new adventure starts

A story is told

As the day evolves

Every day

The sun shines

And a billion people

Live their lives.

Poetry: Lost The Game

Lost The Game

She let her pen flow

Freely across the page

With no hesitation

As she wrote down her deepest thoughts…

She dropped her glasses onto the ground

She tore her diaries into pieces

Didn’t care about the sound

She burned all her photographs

Let them curl and die

There was a smile on her face

But she didn’t know why

She ripped up her money

And threw it on the floor

Fifties and twenties

She didn’t care anymore

She scratched all her CDs

Till they’d play no more

The music was blurred

As she slammed shut the door

She emptied her handbag

Let the contents fly

Across the streets

Or into the sky, up high

She watched her house flood

As it sunk to the earth

She shook her head slowly

Remembering what it was worth

She counted the pills

There was sixty three

And then she swallowed them all

And smiled sadly

She drunk the glass of water

Until her mouth was clear

Fell in a heap

Shaking with fear

Ten years on

They still remember her name

The girl who died

Because she lost the game.

Poetry: Sylvia

I wrote this poem in memory of Sylvia Plath (1932-1963).

Sylvia

Your tormented soul
Rips open your heart
Misery floods
Engulfs your heart

Your tears roll down
Your pain stained cheeks
Your mind is empty
And your happiness leaks

A broken doll
A shattered glass
Wishing that
This storm would pass

They let you down
They squashed your contentment
Your beauty fades
Like bitter resentment

Although you're gone
You still are here
You'll live on
Your spirit's near

I turn the page
And strum the guitar
The music flows
The Bell Jar

Victoria Munro, 17

Kindles...yes or no?

Isn't it flash?!

What do you all think of kindles?
I have mixed opinions.
I got one for my seventeenth birthday in August 2012, the only reason being because I have TOO MANY BOOKS. Literally, my bookshelf is choc-a-block, I have piles of them over my floor, on my desk, in my mum and brother's bookshelf and along my windowsill. 
Too many. I told myself.
The pros and cons of having a kindle include: not having the 'book' feel. The crisp fresh new smell and touch a book has when you purchase it, being able to use books as gadgets such as tea stands and shelves for things. Turning pages. The general magical feel of a book. Flicking through the pages. Storing them on bookshelves in a line with the author's name displayed proudly, or awkwardly if it's something raunchy!
Kindles mean you can take as many books around with you as you like, which is ideal for holidays and long trips. You can buy new books with the click of a button, you don't have to have books cluttering up your house (and mind) and you know they are all in ONE PLACE.
So...what do you all think - Kindles, yes or no?

The UK Education System

GCSEs. It's what we have now. But not for much longer - they were going to turn into Baccalaureates, now they might be turning into I-Levels.

My brother recently sat his English IGCSE. An easier paper than English GCSE. It's what the private schools are taking because then the school's results will look better when more pupils pass. That seems unfair.

This IGCSE basically means my brother has more chance of passing because it is such an unbelievably easy exam paper. I was angered by this. I got a D in GCSE Maths because, quite frankly, I was shit. If my brother isn't very good at English surely he should just get the grade he is attaining. I know this makes me sound like a bitch it is just that the UK's education system is rubbish and unfair anyway. Basing a year's worth of work and learning for A-Levels, or 2 years worth for GCSEs on an exam at the end seems a bit optimistic and biased towards those with a good memory. Thank god for coursework - except they are now scrapping that too! Albert Einstein once said "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid".

That seems most true. Basing educational knowledge and intelligence on an exam is just letting all the pupils with good memories excel and those with poor memories fail.

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM IS UNFAIR. That is the truth, at the end of the day! And bringing in IGCSEs or I-Levels and abolishing coursework and controlled assessments will result in more inequality in the system. Our current system measures MEMORY not ABILITY.

UPDATE: The poor year seven's of today will now have to do GCSEs that will be graded with numbers rather than letters. 1=fail, 8=outstanding. Modules and courseowkr will be scrapped allowing those with good memories to pass and those without to fail. Bloody unfair and ridiculous.

My friend Maddy Carter wrote a good statement about this: 

"Feel so sorry for all the future year sevens having to do all exams when they hit year 10 and 11. It's so stupid. What about those kids that do better in the coursework than on exams? They're pretty much screwed! I don't want my GCSEs, which will probably be worth bugger all in a few years time needing to be translated into numbers just to even get a bloody part-time job -.- Whoever it is running the educational system, how about instead of deciding bulls**t you have no idea how much will affect any student whether they're older or younger you sit through what the exams are like now and live in our shoes where it's either everything or nothing you do something that'll keep the grades up and successful?!
Rant over."