Hello, my name is Sarah. I’m a 28 year old, living in Leeds, Yorkshire bred-and-born. I’m originally from Halifax, though I’ve bounced around a lot. I would like to say I’m a rolling stone, but my parents were just dysfunctional. I attended some five primary schools, two secondary schools, one sixth form and one university. It was university where I really came alive. I defied the wishes of my parents and pursued Creative and Professional Writing. My step-mum told me it would never get me a job and…
She was right!
The fact is “creative” roles don’t really exist. Not for plebs like me. If you’re the daughter of an LA music producer or a British history professor, then sure, a certain degree of nepotism will get you into the industry. But for people like me, who spent their childhoods running for their lives through council estates, that world is essentially walled off from us.
But I’m being too bleak.
Let me start again.
I want to be a writer.
I’m not sure yet what shape this will take. I also have a raging back case of autism and ADHD (combined, which my psychiatrist told me is the most severe form of ADHD). This leads to a lot of ideas, and what I call “shiny object syndrome.” Dropping one project to work on another, and another, rinse-and-repeat. In some ways, this blog might be another “shiny object syndrome” project, to be picked up and discarded when I’m bored or burnt out. I hope not, but the risk is there.
I used to love reading. Now I’m lucky if I get through a book a year. It’s tough, and it’s frustrating. I once saw a comment on X (then Twitter) of someone questioning why an individual with ADHD wanted to be a writer/reader when they “couldn’t read anything longer than a shopping list.” That comment really stuck with me. It pissed me off, but it also lit a fire in me, and I was determined to stick to writing and reading, no matter what. It’s been hard. There have been months where I haven’t written a single word. But I want to keep the dream alive, and recent hardships have taught me the value of having a direction and a purpose.
Therefore, I have decided to pursue this writing thing more seriously.
I might never be a Kurt Vonnegut, or George R.R. Martin or Sally Rooney, or any of those other much more talented writers I look up to. But I can be myself, and share my story.
I hope you get something out of these crazy posts.
