(Char) Emily Writes

Whilst going through some boxes at my mum's house, I found some old books that I almost forgot I had. Half of these I haven't even read yet! There is nothing like going through old stuff and finding some treasures. That's exactly how I would describe some of these. There are a few that I would like to talk about today. 1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green This is a classic. I'm sure everyone read this as a teenager and obsessed over the film. Of course, I was one of them. I loved John Green and the Fault in Our Stars was one of my favourites. Focusing on two teenaged cancer patients, this book is full of heartbreak. But the love these two teens feel for each other is strong and takes them to exciting places. I fully remember crying at both the book and the film, I'm not ashamed to say that. 2. Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern From the author of P.S. I Love You , Where Rainbows End is a beautiful love story about two best friends who eventuall...

Recently, I walked into a bout of writer's block. The kind that feels like a physical headache and drives you to insanity. As much as I wanted to write, I just couldn't. Sentences just wouldn't form, instead I would spend hours staring at a blank page. Luckily, I've got through the worst of it. Partly down to just generally moving through it, but also because of different techniques I've tried. Today, I'm going to be showing you some of these techniques. I'm telling them from a writer's perspective, but you could apply a lot of what I'm going to say to anything. 1. Set Vague Goals Setting goals can be helpful for some. They give you something to work towards. However, I found setting myself strict goals, such as writing to a certain word count, very counter-productive. Instead of enjoying my writing and doing it for myself, I was stressing and making it into hard work. Now, instead of saying, "I will write this many words," ...

Over the last few weeks, my motivation has been crumbling to the point where I can’t even bring myself to write. Which isn’t good when you’re on a writing degree and your whole life revolves around it. Unfortunately, I can’t say that my motivation has come back. What doesn’t help is the fact that my laptop’s keyboard is breaking. The left side of it doesn’t work. I never realised how many ‘S’s I used before this happened. On the rare occasion, however, it does work. But that doesn’t matter – because my brain hasn’t been working. I did post two blog pieces on here but deleted them the next day. Due to writer’s block, I just wasn’t happy with them and physically couldn’t be bothered to share them. One piece was actually about my experience with writer’s block. Ironic, I guess. The stresses of university keep piling up. My degree show was cancelled due to the virus and my graduation ceremony has been postponed. And my first deadline is coming up on the 23 rd April. Yea...

Whilst I was endlessly scrolling through Pinterest the other night, I came across a wonderful idea that I wish I had thought of before: create a 'to be read' (TBR) jar. Genius, I thought to myself. And as I was mind-numbingly bored, I decided to create it right then and you know what? It was a lot of fun. To create one of these, all you need is a jar, some paper and a pen. The person on Pinterest had coloured paper which they used to organise titles into different genres, however I just had this recycled paper which I've been dying to use. Then, you simply just need to cut the paper up into smaller pieces and write down all the books you want to read. For me, this was everything on my bookcase that I haven't read yet, plus a few books that I would like to read again. This was supposed to be the most tedious part but I honestly really enjoyed it. I loved just searching through my bookcase, it felt calming. The part that I found slightly boring was folding all...

Welcome to my first monthly book club where I show you the books I've been reading throughout the month. I'll be reviewing them and talking through my favourite aspects of the books, similar to what I do on my Bookstagram: charemilyreads. Star Read of the Month: Unfollow Starting off with my favourite read of the month: Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper. Megan tells a beautiful and powerful story of how she left her family and broke free of her life-long indoctrination by the Westboro Baptist Church. They're people who I absolutely despise, especially after watching Louis Theroux’s documentaries on them. However, I found myself feeling sorry for some family members, and I was able to see a more human side to them. Not to say that what they’re preaching is in any way humane. I felt for the children who have had to face years of abuse. The women who are oppressed daily by the men and elders of the church. That’s who I feel sorry for. The majority of the members did...