With the start of February, hopefully comes a resolution to the job I applied for a week ago. I have a few different things to do this month, but I’m mostly excited that I can officially start looking for the next place to live at the end of this month.

I need to start writing short stories, but if you’re familiar with me at all, you’ll know that short stories are my greatest difficulty when it comes to writing … excluding self-doubt, anxiety etc. The short stories that I do have were all written either in high school or at university because I had to abide by either time or word restrictions. Setting myself assignments has worked yet (I might try again, but Mother knows that I don’t listen to myself).

I’m starting to learn more about feature writing and digital marketing, slowly ordering what I would like to learn first. There are courses that I would like to take but cannot afford at the moment, however I have been inching towards becoming more of a part of the Brisbane writing community. I write on Meanjin land, for anyone who didn’t know. I didn’t think “writing communities” were a thing when I was growing up, but that was probably a combination of my childhood and preconceived notions of what a writer was/did (Stephen King was basically my poster boy for a writer … which is strange considering I haven’t read many of his books … perhaps I was just drawn to him like he was some kind of writing deity … which isn’t too far from the truth I guess). Writing communities are a lot larger and lot more inclusive than I had thought. When I learnt that they do exist and that they’re quite proud of themselves, I automatically thought of snobbish middle-aged people who sit around deciding what the classics are based on their bland tastes and hidden (and not so hidden) agendas. But that’s really a thing of the past (still happens but not so overtly) and the writing events in Brisbane are actually very interesting and fun. I want to become more of a part of the community, but I have no idea how to make friends/network, so that’s where most of my trepidation lies. I am now a member of the Queensland Writers Centre, but it’s one thing to be a member and another to be an active member. Same can be said for many other communities that I’m a part of. QWC is an important one for me because it will enable me to learn and grow as a writer, and though I hate to say it, it’s incredibly important to have connections and be known in circles. Though it’s the laws of the entertainment industry and makes sense, the whole networking thing still seems to rub me the wrong way a little. Maybe because that’s how I think about it: “networking”. It sounds disingenuous to me and I really need to not think like that. It’s about making important connections to those in my industry. It’s a situation where it’s really okay to have ulterior motives, that’s kind of the point, and yet it still feels wrong. I also need to not mix it up with the desire to have friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, in those circles. I think the issues I have with building relationships from the way I grew up makes me think about relationships in a bit more of a restricted sense compared to others. Relationships need to matter and need to be genuine. I don’t like being nice to people that I don’t like (of course I’m civil, but I’ve reached a point where I can’t waste any more time on people that hurt me or make me unhappy). This might be something to pick apart in a later post considering how long this section has become.

Anywho, I hope everyone writes what they want to write and makes it through February doing what they want to do. Take a breather before the new month starts and keep on keepin’ on … or something like that.