Ask Away - How Did You Get Into Reviewing?

Hello fellow friends and bloggers!

Last year I offered you all a chance to ask me any question you wanted me to answer honestly on my blog. This was really good fun last year and so I have decided to do it again this year... 

"How did you get into reviewing?"

Question by Charlotte Whittingham

I have always loved to read and get lost in a story, I enjoy visiting the theatre to watch spectacular performances, or just popping down to the local cinema to see the latest film release. Another favourite thing of mine is to discuss what I have seen or read and put across my opinion. 

As an aspiring writer I enjoyed writing down my thoughts and feelings on events and after seeing 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' at the cinema with my Mum I found myself writing my first review. I published it on my blog and shared it around and received positive feedback which encouraged me to write some more. A dear friend of mine, Liz Wilkins, who writes fantastic reviews on her own blog; ... go in touch and discussed with me the world of reviewing. I loved to her about it and it made me more enthused and passionate about writing, finally I found something worthwhile to discuss during my writing sessions. From film reviews I began to post reviews of books I had read. Using Twitter as a sharing platform I tweeted Cecelia Ahern my review on her amazing book 'One Hundred Names'. She later retweeted my blog which made my stats hit a new record of page views. Just adding more fuel to my writing flame. 

A similar experience lead me to cry with joy - I went to see Janet Devlin perform her debut album live at the O2 Academy in Oxford and decided I would try my hand at reviewing music. Being in a band myself I found the terminology came to me naturally as I discussed her fantastic music and how pleased I was that I got to meet her after the show. Much the same as with Cecelia Ahern, I tweeted my blog post of Janet Devlin. Within minutes Janet had retweeted my review and was sharing it with her followers on Twitter. My page views were through the roof that night and I just felt blessed to be accepted and put into such a confidence boosting position. 

Reviewing was something I felt really passionate about and it occurred to me that I could do this as a part-time job, volutarily, just to get my opinion out there. This is when I started to talk to a great person - Charlotte Whittingham. Charlotte introduced me to an online magazine, which within a few days I was published onto with my first review for them. More and more positive feedback and thrills later I was asked to review for another online music publication and so was enjoying spending my time reviewing for two companies. I was happy. 

Sadly, as most will know, sometimes every good thing must come to an end. I was enrolled onto a PGCE course (teacher training degree) to fulfill my life's goal of becoming a teacher. This meant that all spare time was spent on PGCE assignments and lesson planning for my placement. Reviewing became a distant hobby as time in between each post was lengthened. I decided I had to focus all my attention on my studies which meant sacrificing my love for reviewing for the time being.  

There is of course a happy ending! I have now passed my first year of my degree, and with only one more year to go I aim to be reviewing again soon with hopes of joining another online publication who accepts my writing and shares my thoughts with the rest of the online world! 

Thank you Charlotte for this question. It has been a pleasure discussing my history with reviewing and has really sparked a flame to try and find some more time to squeeze in a review here and there, to keep my writing skills updated and ready for when I can commit real time to produce some more reviews :) 

If you have a question you would like to ask me please comment below...