A word from me about where I’m headed next.

This weekend just gone, I turned 23 years old. It was a good birthday, and I was very fortunate to spend it with people that I love, and the occasion was a good excuse to unwind having just recently moved house too. Although I can admittedly be a little defeatist through hardship as it happens, the twenty-third year of my life has been a good one; I’ve been travelling more than ever before, found myself enjoying a lot of new experiences and I’ve reconnected with a lot of aspects of my life that I’d lost touch with in years gone by. I’ve been able to do that in large part because of my decision to give up writing at the end of 2024 – it’s a passion of mine that I hold ever so dear, but it had also been taking up a very large chunk of my free time (which had already been a little limited after starting a new job towards the end of that year), and after throwing myself into pretty much nothing but media reviews for a long while, it had started to feel a little taxing to be poring over an endless circus of new releases month after month and enjoying maybe one out of every ten films, shows or games I was evaluating.

Nevertheless, I think in letting that part of my life go I also lost myself to a degree – I’ve often heard that it’s essential to maintain a balanced life through four key leisurely pursuits; to create, to consume, to cavort, and to commune. While I may have had the latter two covered to some degree, without writing I felt like I stopped creating anything of meaning, and through giving that up I actually found myself having very little interest in consuming media in any form, which had definitely affected my sense of self after having placed such a high value on entertainment as part of my life for so many years. I think with the idea of being a quarter-of-a-century old looming over my head, I’ve definitely been paying a lot of mind to how I want to spend my life, and though I might not have it all figured out, it has become clear to me that on some level I do long for that feeling of satisfaction that creating gives me; that writing gave me for so many years, and that I also miss the acutely unique joy that a good story told well is able to bring me.

Now, I have no intention to throw myself back into a whirlwind of ceaseless consumption and non-stop reviewing – I’ve become painfully aware that it just isn’t tenable for me, and I have no desire to feel burned out on doing something I love again, so the question remains of how I approach this moving forwards. Well for starters, I’m going back to basics with some quote-unquote “real” journalism in my local community – I’m already working on a story for my town’s highly coveted magazine, and I figured that setting myself up with a bit of a challenge might dust off my long-neglected skills better than the comfortable familiarity of a film review or some such thing. I realise that for the vast majority of people that read my site, that has absolutely zero significance to them whatsoever, so in that case you’ll be pleased to know that I am planning to return to reviewing this year too. It won’t be anything and everything that I watch, but if I feel like I have something to say about it, I will, and I hope that by doing that I’ll be putting out high quality work at a pace that doesn’t bury my enthusiasm.

That said, if everything goes to plan, those reviews won’t carry on into next year – that isn’t to say that I’m intending on any sort of bi-annual hiatus, but I’d like to use this year as a sort of transitionary period, where getting back in touch with those skills will serve as a strong foundation for the kinds of projects I want to take on next. An idea I’ve toyed with for many years is going into video production – I adore working with video, and I’ve always wanted to create long-form videos that go in depth on films, shows and games that I love, and whether I fail or succeed on that front I don’t want to keep talking myself out of it, so I’d much rather be able to say that I at least tried. I don’t want to give too much away, but with a number of stories that are very dear to me celebrating their 25th anniversaries this year, I figured that would be a good place to start, and I’ve cooked up some early scripts already that I’ll be trying to bring to life in the coming months. I’ll hopefully have more to share on that soon, but for now I’ll be focused on my magazine article and my upcoming return to reviewing for the thus-far spectacular Knight of The Seven Kingdoms, so if anyone still gives a rat’s arse what I have to say – keep your eyes peeled!