Posted on 29th May 2026
I finished my first creative project in a long time
It always felt like something was missing after I drastically reduced the amount of time I spent on social media and ditched my smart phone. It wasn't the social media itself or writing on this blog that I was missing, but the pursuit of long-ignored creative outlets I once enjoyed. Having that little bit more free time created a space for me to start exploring these things again.
At the beginning of this year I found myself clearing out a drawer full of sketches I'd done a long time ago, and hung onto for some inexplicable reason. Finding them gave me the little shove I needed to try spending more time exploring the interests that I've neglected over the years.
Those drawings reminded me of the ways of spending time I'd let go of to prioritise other things in life, largely because I believed they didn't really serve me in any useful way and the nagging doubt that I'd never really be good enough at any of them for it to be worthwhile. I was much better at coding, I thought, and since that brings with it the prospect of a serious career I better focus on that instead.
However, flicking through the sketches I'd done nearly two decades ago, I was struck by how good they actually were. It was as if the passage of time had given me some kind of reverse rose tinted glasses which diminished my ability in my mind, as if I needed to believe that I was never that good to ease my guilt for dropping those interests altogether.
For a brief moment I became angry at the world and myself for allowing a situation to happen where I basically suppressed a lot of my creative self because I had internalised a belief that I was living in an environment where none of that stuff mattered.
After discovering the sketches, I realised that I did in fact put in a lot of effort into these things in the past and became actually pretty decent at them. But I didn't feel I needed to hold onto them and these memories of that past. What I did feel would be good for me would be to prioritise some time for immersing myself in the art of others and creating some of my own too - focusing on what I can change now rather than lament the loss of 'what could have been'.
So I took a break from writing this blog and began to use my spare time to try a few things. I got thinking about the worlds I used to create in my head - characters and places and stories - the sort of thing we all have the imagination to create but often lose touch with when we grow older. I knew if I wanted to get some of that out onto the page - be it through illustrations or the written word - I would need to stoke the fire by finding some inspiration.
I did a bit of research into the kinds of books I might like to read. I've always liked fantasy fiction, but I wanted to hone in on stories with well developed, complex and varied characters and writing that didn't focus too heavily on violence and dubious sexual encounters (like some of the books I'd read previously that were heralded as classics of the genre). I found a few authors whose books I liked the sound of and I have read several of them already this year. It definitely helped stimulate my imagination to the point that I started to create the outline of my own story.
For several months I wrote, often every day, contributing a few hundred or even thousand words at a time to my novel. Somehow it just happened and I have now got to the point where I have a complete manuscript which is intended to be the first book in a series of novels.
I have no idea how good my book is. It definitely still needs a bit more editing. But I'm really proud to have written a complete fantasy fiction novel aimed at a young adult audience and more than that created some characters and a narrative around them that forms exactly the kind of story I think I'd have enjoyed reading growing up.
I will try and get it published and I intend to keep reading, and writing, for some time to come. Even if it never has a wider impact, compared to the alternative of scrolling on social media, spending more time reading and writing has already given me a lot of joy and filled what time I have to devote to it with something that makes me feel far more positive about the world. So it's kind of a win whatever happens.
I have started documenting some updates on my writing and what is happening with the book on my very amateur YT channel. It's mainly for my own benefit - so I can work through some things in my head without resorting to writing (as I've been doing a lot of that lately!), and also to create some kind of a record / evidence of my progress. I think that's also increasingly important when AI generated 'content' is so rife. So the link is here if you're interested: