Lost in the Story

One of the biggest mistakes I made when writing and publishing my book was neglecting all my other hobbies that fell into the ‘creative’ category. Sure I still went to the gym and I still trained brazilian jiu jitsu with my team but any other creative outlets were a no go. Photography, blogging and writing fiction were all off the table. 

In my head it made perfect sense, publishing my book was my number one priority, I’d signed my author agreement with my publisher and I had deadlines to hit. I was also working a full time job with chronic illnesses and disabilities whilst trying to maintain somewhat of a social life. 

Something had to give and it was anything creative that wasn’t me working towards my book. 

In hindsight this was a massive mistake as I’d happily argue that it stunted my creativity massively. You simply cannot pour from an empty cup and when you’re not topping up your well of creativity, well then it’s going to run dry. 

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My book Empty Vessels was published late 2024 and my mission for 2025 has been to reclaim my creativity. I started blogging again and just hit the 9 near anniversary of this blog. How crazy is that!? But something was missing and that something was photography. 

The long-time readers of this blog will probably remember the mismatched cover images of my old blog posts, or the random pictures I’d just insert mid-post. Those nature, outdoorsy photos were mine and taken on my trusty Nikon D3200. You see, photography is something that I adored quietly and in the background. I never properly learned how to take photos, never was part of any photography clubs or communities, it was just me and my camera facing the world and I liked it that way. 

I think it’d be very easy for me to say I ‘gave up’ photography when I started writing my book, but I think I’d lost that part of myself when I went to university. At home we went out as a family most weekends and went on plenty of adventures where I could bring my camera along for the ride. Whilst my university was in beautiful Wales by hills and the sea, I didn’t have a car to get around to those beauty spots and no friends who wanted to go there who had a car. By the time I found my current friendship group, who are all considerably more outdoorsy than me, I was writing my book and didn’t feel like I could waste my precious writing time asking to go on adventures with friends to take cool photos. 

I truly made some mistakes whilst writing my book and that above was one of them.

But now the book is complete and I’m equipped with my own car (her name is bean and shes green), I took myself on a little solo adventure today with my camera. 

I was rusty, it took me a moment to even remember how to put the lens on my camera but I did it and I feel great for it!

If I could give one bit of advice to any aspiring writers, or anyone writing their own book it would be don’t neglect other forms of creativity. Yes you want to get that book finished but your book will always be there. Shut down your laptop, put down the pen and go fill your creative well… you’ll thank yourself later.