Today’s narrative is the 1,500th I’ve written since embarking on this literary odyssey in March 2015. The spring day I setup my website writesaidfred.org, leading me on a locutionary path of cathartic reflection, self-esteem reconstruction and acquiring awareness I’d completely undersold my capabilities for almost half a century.
I’m angry with myself for the decades of propitiation, particularly to people who weren’t worthy of the reverence shown. However, I’ll live with my former idiocy of existence by appeasement and self-deprecation, tempered by at last remedying this deeply flawed strategy…… And most importantly promising myself it won’t happen again!
I still use self-deprecation in some of the writing, however they’re ordinarily fictional references included for the purpose of whimsy. I bear a great deal more self-esteem these days, meaning I won’t genuinely denigrated myself like behaviour of old. Although, I’ve still no problem displaying candour about the genuine flaws and errors I do possess.
These 1,500 essays have been penned in a variety of places, cities and countries. Predominantly constructed in my dining room at home, there are numerous other sites where I’ve took the opportunity to wax lyrical. Amongst them:-
Trains to Manchester, Newcastle and London; during breaks in a cricket game at Headingley Stadium; a sun lounger in Menorca; the number 36 bus to Harrogate; hospital waiting rooms, Wakefield Hospice; a LGI cardio ward bed; numerous coffee shops in Leeds, Newcastle and London; hotel bedrooms/foyers in many towns/cities; my brother’s home in Gateshead, and while I waited for the band Chic’s outdoor performance at Belvoir Castle.
I can’t put into words the full tangible benefit of this therapeutic sojourn by sentence, even though I’ve attempted to in earlier paragraphs. Other than profess that without this self-counselling mechanism, I’d probably still be unaware of my worth, resulting in me remaining on a misguided path of assuagement. Consequently, my self-esteem would no doubt still languish in the trench pitifully residing before March 2015.
As each blog takes roughly three hours on average to write, I reckon I’ve spent around 4,500 unpaid hours writing these essays. My website isn’t monetised, but that matters not at the moment. As things stand, the mental health benefits acquired from my penmanship outweigh the necessity for financial gain.
I have aspirations of one day earning money from writing in some format. Even if my creatively fertile mind never journals another worthwhile epiphany in prose, I like to think there’s enough decent ideas in the 100,000’s of locutions I’ve already written to utilise for that purpose in the future.
Several people have suggested I write a fictional book;. This entailing the creation of a full story instead of the daily chronicles yours truly currently quills. My brother Ian opines that I should write a deeply emotional tale, as opposed to the whimsical prose of which I’m more comfortable. From his suggestion I assume my sibling either thinks I write serious fiction movingly, or he thinks the humour I transcribe isn’t up to standard…… Or possibly both!
I keep promising myself I’ll revisit a 370 page draft I wrote, but did nothing with in 2010. A comedy/drama I penned relaying tales of an emotional support group similar to the Samaritans. Volunteers contactable by phone or various e-channels, who provide a listening ear and a kindly voice to the emotionally troubled.
As I like to think I’ve grown as a writer since 2010, I’m of the opinion the draft requires a significant edit. That being said, though, the structure of the storyline is in place, so the guts of the re-write will be more grammar based, than any excessive requirement to amend the creative notions within the prose.
To conclude, I wanted to share a few stats regarding the journey which today saw this 1500th narrative published. The following statistics give an indication as to writesaidfred.org’s readership information since it’s inception in March 2015:-
- 1,500 – Posts published;
- 963,671 – Words written;
- 144 – Countries where the website has been read;
- 60,428 – Website views;
- 32,306 – Website visitors;
- 1023 – Bags of Haribos eaten while writing;
- 1456 – Litres of tap water drunk during writing;
- 1312 – Raucous belches after eating Haribos and drinking the water;
- 323 – Instances of writers block longer than a 30 minute duration;
- 438 – Instances of the word b*ll*cks being included in essay;
- 20 – Website redesigns;
- 2 – Website visits by people from Swaziland;
- 11 – Website visits from Kazakhstan;
- 121 – Website visits by people from South Korea;
- 11,074 – Website visits by people from the United States;
- 40,040 – Website visits by people from the UK;
- 0 – The number of blogs my daughter’s read.
All that’s left is for me to thank you for taking time to read my narratives. I appreciate your support!
