botherd | (no subject)

So, on Wednesday I graduated! I now officially have a BA (Hons) in English with Study in North America, but I've yet to put it to good use and find a job. (And now I'm back living with my parents, KILL ME NOW.) The graduation ceremony was awesome, because FLOELLA BENJAMIN. I just wish I'd been as brave as some people and asked for a hug.

Random gripe: my degree certificate doesn't have my middle name on it. I like my middle name! I like having the same first two initials as Exeter's most famous graduate! So I'm stupidly disappointed about that little detail. :(

Anyway, life: I had been feeling like I was totally done with university, but now I'm thinking about working at some pointless job for a year and then doing an MA in creative writing. IDK. I just don't want to end up doing some job I'm not that interested in and having it become my career, you know?

... I feel like if I want to be serious about becoming a published writer I should write something that, um, isn't fanfiction, and yet that's all I want to write. I'm working on an 80s AU that I think has a lot of potential to be good. But it's probably going to be longer than my little bang fic, just because more characters have significant parts (so far I have Katie, Effy, Naomi, Cook, Freddie, and maybe JJ; SPOT THE GLARING OMISSION), and that means it's going to take me aaages to write it. Sigh. I need something that's like a pensieve, except instead of turning thoughts into swirly white stuff it turns them into words.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, yes, I know - I just meant that I didn't want to end up on some career path that took over my life and never gave me any time to write, because that's what happened to my Dad. I don't really have a dream job or anything like that so I'm mainly just looking for something that I can put up with, sigh.

Having ended up in horrible dead end jobs myself that wore me out, I'd really advise you to use this time while you can live at home for a bit etc (take advantage of it! it doesn't last forever!) and the job market is poo to think about possible paths you could take that would allow you time to write but not drive you mad in stopgap jobs or tire you out so you don't want to write when the time is there. I wish I'd thought harder about that side of things when I was younger. Hence me doing all the IT study now, because it's something long-term I do enjoy and can do part-time and doesn't make me hate writing and music (whereas running workshops and doing freelance journalism sort of did). A writing MA can always be done part-time and at any point in your life, but there may be other things you can do - even internships etc if not further study - that can push you a bit further with something you are interested in, even if it seems to come a bit out of leftfield. Take advantage of all the funding, courses and support you can still get while you're under 25.