There are many things I can pride myself on, although I am struggling to think of anything right now. Maybe there's just some things that I'm less ashamed of than others. One thing that regularly comes top of my 'things I don't like about myself list' is my inability to stick on one project and not get sidetracked. This month, instead of rocketing up and up towards my 50,000 word November novel word count, I found myself playing Skyrim remastered, and a lot of it at that. Even though my lovely Mage Aurelia is now Arch-Mage with enough destruction points to burn down a small village in seconds, my pitiful attempt at the start of a novel remains sat far down in my Google Docs archive, unopened for at least three weeks. So, once again, I've found myself declaring this attempt at novel writing a complete and utter failure. But, it's okay. These things do happen. As the great, inspirational philosophers in Chumbawamba once said, 'I get knocked down but I get up again'.
I found myself wondering what I should do with myself now that I've accepted that I'm a failure. Rather than doing anything productive, I took my disappointing self onto Twitter. By some kind of divine intervention or, more likely, luck, I stumbled upon the Christmas writing competition that Amazon were running. They were running a competition to find a new, modern version of The Night Before Christmas poem. I was filled with renewed excitement for writing as I typed my own take on the festive rhyming style, thinking about all I would do with the £2000 worth of Amazon vouchers I would win as a result. My mind went wild, if I started self publishing books, I could drop out of uni right now! I would only have to sell 250 books a month at £3.99 to make £1000 a month, how easy! In my head, my future had been mapped out for me as a result of this competition.
Unfortunately (and predictably) I haven't actually won the competition. Reality came crashing back down, and I had failed once again. I've realised that if I were to quit uni, I would have over £20k of debt and nothing to show for it. I also realised that to become a self-published author, I would have to actually finish a book, something that we all now know that I seemingly find very difficult to do, no matter how good my intentions.
So, that's two failures under my belt in a very short space of time, what is a girl to do? Rather than give up completely, although that option is very tempting, I've decided to persevere. I love writing and I love sharing my stories with the world, so I'll continue to do that. Even if it takes me 5 years, finishing a degree and 7 play-throughs of Skyrim, I will eventually finish the novel I started. That's a promise.
In light of my reinvigorated passion to share my work and the fact that it is now officially the start of the Christmas season, I've decided to put up my losing piece of work. Don't let that put you off though, I still like it and it was so cute that it made my Mum cry. So it can't be that bad. Enjoy!
The Morning of Christmas (A New Night Before Christmas)
It was the morning of Christmas,
a pretty and frosty day.
The children woke early,
as in their beds they could not stay.
Isla and Grace smiled at each other,
excited about the presents that they'd soon discover.
Santa had been and soon it would be time,
to go downstairs and see the presents in a line.
Big ones, small ones, the girls didn't care,
they would be happy as long as something was there!
“I’d like a dress!” Isla said to Grace,
a happy smile spreading across the little girl’s face.
“I want diary!” Grace said with a grin,
“So then I could write about all the cool things I've seen!”
After a while, they got out of bed,
And to their parents bedroom they lightly did tread.
They opened the door, just the tiniest bit
Until they made a space through which they could fit
On their tip toes they stayed and slowly creeped close,
And jumped up on their parents who were still in a doze.
Their Dad jumped up, with such a big fright,
And said quite shakily, ‘Alex, please, turn on the light!’
To their delight, it was their two little girls,
Their small happy faces covered by mounds of messy curls.
Each one taking a daughter by the hand,
They led them to the staircase and told them to stand.
‘Now hold onto the bannister and shut your eyes tight,
I want your presents to stay out of sight!’
Doing as they were told, the girls kept them closed,
Even though as they stepped downstairs their excitement rose and rose!
‘You can open them now!’ They heard Daddy say,
They threw open their eyes and looked in dismay.
On the sofa where the presents normally sat,
There was only one box, how weird was that?
‘Is it for me? Or is it Isla’s gift?’
Grace said looking sad, as her mood began to shift.
‘Now girls, this is important, I want you to decide,
Who gets to keep whatever treat is inside!’
What should they do? The question rang in their heads,
should they try and keep it or give it to their sister instead?
After minutes of silence, they both had an idea,
There was someone who definitely deserved a gift here!
‘You two should keep it!’ They both proudly said,
Causing their Dads’ eyes to fill up and their cheeks to turn red.
Nodding their heads, they all gathered around
To see what, inside the box, could be found.
Dad lifted the lid, and the girls squealed in shock,
As in the box was a tiny, sleeping dog!
Daddy reached in and took out the pup,
He leaned over to the girls so they could have a closer look.
‘You girls make us proud, we are both so glad to see,
We have two little girls who are selfless so easily!’
‘Now you can see it was all just a test,
To see who could convince to give it to them best.
But you showed us your kindness and now you can see,
That the gift was a fluffy addition to our little family!’
The girls were so happy that they’d made their dads proud,
In the whole world there wasn’t a happier family around.
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