Skip to main content

Never Give Up

Hi everyone.


Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. Where has this year gone? I know that September is often referred to as the new January but I didn't mean to miss out on half the year! 

I won't deny that it has been a frustrating few months and I guess I'm not alone in feeling that. Since the start of the pandemic, everything seems to be taking far longer to achieve and no one seems to be really on top of things any more. Add to that the anxiety and uncertainty about the future and it does feel at times like it would be a lot easier to just curl up on the sofa and watch Netflix until about 2027.

But when it is something you really feel you just have to keep going with, the amount of strength and energy you need to galvanise yourself can be really exhausting and debilitating. Self-care tends to go out of the window but actually, as I know only too well, that is when you really need it the most.

And when things do take a turn for the better, it is one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. On the day that my energy company finally decided that after a seven month battle with them, I didn't owe them over £1800 but instead they owed me over £1100, it felt like I'd won the lottery. 

Then, when after a six month wait, I was finally given the go-ahead to contact the potential copyright holders whose permission I need to be able to publish the book of letters to my grandmother by her close friend Ethel North, it was another momentous moment. 

So right now, if you are feeling like giving up on something that deep down you really don't want to, then my advice would be to just hang on a little bit longer. You never know just how close you might be to finally succeeding in your goal. After all, as someone much wiser than me once said, "Success is on the other side of failure." 


Take care,

Melissa x   

  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shortlisted in the Writer's Toolkit Flash Fiction Competition

Hi everyone. A good writing week this week, despite the distractions of the cricket and the tennis, possibly because my portfolio career has been suspended, pending further enquiries (don't tell my patrons!) and I've been at my desk every night. Long may it continue! I said in my last post that I was recently shortlisted (top ten) in the Writer's Toolkit flash fiction competition. The competition brief was to write a short story of 150 words or less on the theme of 'Secrets'. My story actually came out at exactly 150 words because at the last minute, after I'd sealed the envelope, I suddenly panicked and decided that the wording of the rules could mean that the story had to be exactly 150 words. Mine was 149 if I remember correctly and it was surprisingly difficult to add that extra word! Apparently the competition attracted 182 entries (which I must admit was quite a surprise) and entries came from several European countries as well as the UK. I was particu
6 comments
Read more

The Mail on Sunday Feature

Hi everyone. Well, it's not every day that The Mail on Sunday runs a double-page spread about the book you are writing. This is what happened to me last Sunday, and I'm still recovering from the shock. It was about three weeks ago that I received an email, completely out of the blue, from the paper's chief reporter. Apparently, he had been researching the issue of copyright on unpublished letters for something he was working on and had come across a blog post that I had  written about this very subject. https://melissalawrencewriter.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/publish-and-be-damned.html The post in question was about my own copyright issues concerning the large collection of letters and postcards I have inherited from my grandmother. These are not just any old letters and postcards. They were written to my grandmother by her close friend, Ethel North, who was lady's maid and companion to Lady Winifred Burghclere, elder sister of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, between
4 comments
Read more

No Show

Sorry that there is no new post this week. I am a "no show" due to the wheels coming off my trolley on Tuesday when I tried some glandular therapy treatment for my ongoing hypoadrenalism and ended up passed out on the hall floor. At the moment, my brain feels like it is full of cotton-wool and writing anything deep and meaningful (or even anything shallow and nonsensical) seems quite difficult. Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible so please do not adjust your settings.
4 comments
Read more