The black streets of Zagreb were shiny with rain. Above the traffic, the noise, the movement, almost-frozen raindrops ricocheted off the grand building facades. Their silhouettes reared up against the dead black sky as tall as the cliffs that marked the edge of the island Ana Horvat called home. But unlike her beloved coastline, these…
I recently pitched for a scriptwriting project scripting videos for a massive YouTuber to broaden my skillset and earn some extra money. Unfortunately I wasn't successful, so I've repurposed my sample scripts as blog posts so they don't go entirely to waste. Here's one of them - about failure, funnily enough. I hope you enjoy…
Continue reading ➞ A lesson in failure from a champion paper airplane maker
A few days ago I received a celebratory message from WordPress telling me I'd surpassed 200 followers on my blog after just two months of going live. That's more people than I could shake a stick at! Not that I would ever shake a stick at you of course (side note: this saying comes from…
My bedroom walls are made of titanium. It's the only logical explanation for how two drill bits snapped clean in half while I was trying to mount the brackets of my new IKEA desk to the wall today. That, or I shouldn't have been so tight when I googled 'cheapest electric drill I can possibly…
Continue reading ➞ Today I failed at drilling a hole in a wall so I did a pretty painting instead
This week I've successfully not won TWO writing competitions! First the National Poetry Competition, and now the Vocal Little Black Book short story competition sponsored by Moleskine notebooks. This blog is turning into a graveyard of my failures. The first prize was a whopping $20,000 and to be quite frank, I've been daydreaming about that…
Uvita River Dirt I wrote this in March 2020 🙂 I've also, embarrassingly, recorded myself reading my failed National Poetry Competition entry out loud, in case you'd rather watch me stumble over my words than read it yourself. Disclaimer: I'm wearing an inappropriately see-through leopardskin leotard because this is my lockdown uniform. It's not something…
I've never called my journal a journal, it's always been a diary to me - but somehow journal sounds more grown up and less like what a 12-year-old girl uses to doodle hearts and the names of her crushes in. Was that imagery a bit sexist? I definitely used to doodle hearts in my diary…
Continue reading ➞ Drop everything you’re doing and write a journal entry now
Will I always feel like this? Like swamp mud Viscous, formless. I need warm, firm hands To sculpt me into something Recognisable Like a woman, or a tree. I wish I was a fearless Roman Goddess Or an African warrior with my Tits out. I would invite death To pierce my soft underside, And then…
I've got to be quick. Today was day 1 of National Novel Writing Month, better known as nanowrimo, a worldwide campaign/project/incentive to write a total of 50,000 words by the last day of November. That's 1,667 words EVERY DAY. Bearing in mind I spend eight hours of the day writing for a living and I'm…
Continue reading ➞ National Novel Writing Month 2019 begins today
Humans love to be freaked out. We just love it. Does anything make us happier than a creepy long-haired girl crawling out of a well? I studied gothic fiction in my final year of university and it was the best few months of my entire education. We got to read all the classic horror stories…
Continue reading ➞ It’s ‘spooky season’ and this is why we love horror
