Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Awards

The lovely Victoria Stacey of Florals and Teacups nominated me for the Sisterhood of World Bloggers Awards the other day and I’m happy to finally get around to participating. My sincerest thanks to Victoria for the nomination – you are a wonderful human being and a fantastic blogger!

“The Sisterhood of the World Blogger Award is an award that celebrates female bloggers. After being nominated by a fellow blogger, you must thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog, and answer a series of ten questions that the person who nominated you has created. Then you create ten new questions for your nominees to answer and make a list of at least ten nominees (blogs that you enjoy reading).”

1. Describe your blog in one sentence. A memoir in motion.
2. What is the best place you have ever travelled to? I’d have to say that it’s a tie between Vancouver and New York City. Both beautiful and full of life; I felt rejuvenated and inspired from the moment I landed.
3. What is the weirdest food you have ever tried (either abroad or at home)? Is liver weird? I’m not too adventurous when it comes to food.
4. If you won a free trip anywhere in the world, where would you go and with who? Europe. I’ve never been and would love to explore a few places with my fiancé on our honeymoon.
5. If you could only blog about one specific thing for the rest of your life, what would you choose? That’s a tough one; I write about whatever I’m experiencing at a specific moment in time. To write about only one thing wouldn’t be authentic or me.
6. Where do you hope your blog will be in the next year? I always hope that it’ll blow up and be turned into a book. THAT is my hope every single year but realistically, I just hope it’s still around and that people continue reading.
7. Who or what inspired you to blog? One of my best friends inspired me to start this blog. She said that if I wanted my writing to really exist, I’d have to put it online.
8. Why do you continue to blog? It gives me clarity.
9. If you aren’t blogging, what are you doing? Writing in my notebook, spending time with my fiancé and family, reading, or painting my nails.
10. Share your favourite blog post ever (could be your own, or someone you admire!) Most recently: The Crawl by Amanda DiPasquale

I’ll be honest the older I get, the crazier life gets, and the less time I have to follow blogs. I do have a few blogs that I visit whenever I find the time. Here are six female bloggers that I admire.

Victoria Stacey Florals and Teacups (is this allowed?) 

Megan Radisa and Meaghan Onorato The Meg Life

Amanda DiPasquale Not A Model Blog

Karen Viray The Red Bow Blog 

Lindsey Reeder Reeder Reads 

10 Questions: 

1. Describe your blog in 140 characters.
2. How do you hope to inspire other women with your blog?
3. Why did you start blogging?
4. Why do you continue to blog?
5. What is the best meal you’ve ever cooked or eaten?
6. What is your favourite blog post (that you’ve written or that’s been written by someone else)?
7. What is your favourite book?
8. If you could tell your 10-year-old self something, what would it be?
9. Who is your fashion icon and why?
10. Beyonce or Adele?

xoxo,

Vanessa 

What is Happy?

I had a thought yesterday and it created another thought, which rolled into another, and then into a labyrinth of the best thoughts that could be thunk. But then the phone rang. POOF! Gone. My life has become a series of cycles; planning, researching, working, budgeting.

Apparently that is what growing up is all about. On my drive to work I often think about happiness, I look at the person in the car next to me and wonder if they’re happy. I wonder if they like their job, if they’re passionate about what they do. I imagine what their home-life, love-life, and hobbies are. I wonder, what is happy?

My happy comes in the form of moments. My niece’s smile, a perfectly written sentence, my fiance’s hand reaching for mine, a drive up north, having dinner with my family, crying over a character in a book, saying something smart or witty enough to evoke laughter from someone. My happy comes from something more than 9-5, although I do leave the office feeling accomplished and useful, my life will always be about more than that.

That is my happy. What’s yours?

Love Always,

Vanessa Xo

Sometimes I just can't do it

I love my blog. I do. I love the way it looks, I love the way it feels, and I love that I’ve stuck to my guns as far as content is concerned. But sometimes I just can do it, I don’t FEEL like doing it. I’ll sit at my desk and think: WHAT’S THE POINT?! I’m not making a difference in anyone’s life, am I? This blog isn’t for the GREATER GOOD, it’s for the LESSER ME!

I’ll go through weeks where everything I’ve written is complete crap, I’ll go through days and days of not wanting to share anything on my blog, I’ll stare at a blank screen and let my eyes well up with tears. Today, yesterday and the yesterday before that is one of those days.

I find comfort in knowing that even my favourite blogger goes through this kind of thing too. I find that it happens when I haven’t experienced anything new in a while, when I dream of going on vacation, or when I can’t do something that I really want to do. It happens when I feel uninspired. It happens when I feel forced to write. It happens when I get mad at my blog from distracting me from starting a new novel.

I guess the point is that it DOES happen and the only thing to do is let is pass.

Until then, is there anything you would like to see on My Pen, My Voice?

LMK in the comments!

Talk soon,

Vanessa Xo

Photo 1 from: April and May

A Writer is only as good as her tools

I use Grammarly’s plagiarism detector because sometimes spellycheck jut doesnt cut it!

I’m always trying to find ways to improve my writing, to ensure I don’t make a fool of myself when I post a blog or send in short story. Sometimes, I’m afraid that spellcheck and auto-correct just don’t cut it. Last week I was contacted by Grammarly and asked if I wanted to be apart of their Blogger Partnership Program. After doing my research on the website, I thought Yes this totally works with my blog, lets go for it! Grammarly is an amazing automated tool that checks your work for grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes in various kinds of writing. It also checks for plagiarism! Obviously before writing about it I wanted to try it out, so the great people at Grammarly gave me a 30-day free trial. Let me tell you, I’ll be picking up that YA novel that I started and never finished now that I have an account with Grammarly.

Grammarly was founded by Alex Shevchenko and Max Lytvyn in 2008 and by 2012, they had over 3 million registered users. In April 2013, Grammarly was selected as a winner of the 2013 Red Herring Top 100 North America award. They have also been featured on Forbes, the Today Show, and About.com. This kind of website is great because it’s not just for bloggers or writers! It can be used by students, business folk (sometimes it’s good to check over important emails and documents), or by you social media aficionados who could spruce up their 140 characters (or less). For more information on Grammarly, check out their website, I’ve posted a photo of the pricing below.

Here’s how it works, you paste/upload whatever it is that you’re working on, then select that paper type (general, business, academic, technical, creative, or casual), press start review and within moments your work has been edited. Grammarly found 11 issues in my untitled and barely started YA novel — a score of 68 (YIKES!). What I like about this website is that it explains what your issues are so you can improve your writing. If you’re looking for synonyms to change-up your work, just click it and a whole slew of them will pop up. Wonder if you’re plagiarizing? Click the plagiarism button and it’ll show you where certain phrases from your work have shown up elsewhere. It said that I should cite “didn’t want to get caught doing the walk of shame” which I don’t think is completely necessary, but it’s cool to take note of. I don’t have a professional proofreader but it’s nice to have a second set of eyes to take a look at my work for things that I may have missed.

Have you tried out Grammarly? What do you think about it?

LMK in the comments!

Talk soon,

Vanessa Xo

Disclosure: Grammarly set me up with a free, 30-day premium account, as well as, a $50 gift card to Amazon in exchange for a post about their site. As always I don’t write about what I don’t like and have posted an HONEST review of their website. Also, I used Grammarly for this post — I love run-on sentences apparently. Must. Work. On. That. I’ll let you know which other posts I use Grammarly for. 

Photo Credit: WeHeartIt

How to beat WRITER'S BLOCK !

Get Ryan Gosling in your corner.

Thanks Ryan, I knew you believed in me. 

Talk soon,

Vanessa Xo

the only way out is deeper in.

“The only way out is deeper in. It’s what you don’t yet know that can save you.”
― Irini Spanidou, Before

Whatever it is that you’re going through, good or bad, pour your whole being into it. Eventually you will get out of the rut, you’ll move onto something better, or you’ll realize that where you are is exactly where you’re supposed to be. I don’t know why that quote pricked my heart, why it made me feel so… hopeful but I hope it does the same for you. I hope it helps you get through your week and pushes you to keep moving forward. Sometimes I feel like with everything I’m doing, I’m getting no results. Did you know that I’ve thought about giving up this whole “blogging” thing? I’ve thought about giving up on a job in publishing (magazine or book) and settling for whatever company will take a look at my resume. But then I realize (thanks to the thoughtful advice of my parents) that you have to keep going if you want something to happen — the only way out (or onto something better) is deeper in. Maybe your path with change, maybe your dreams will alter, but you’ll achieve them (it’s what will save you).

If I had given up I would’ve never entered the HTC One contest, nor would I have won the opportunity to WRITE a post on one of my favourite blogs. But today, that happened. My post is up on THIS IS MY LIFE and I couldn’t be happier, it’s a blogging dream come true and I’m optimistic that slowly but surely — if I keep working hard, good things will come.

___

Love Always

Vanessa Xo

BIG NEWS : #HTCOne – Everything your phone isn't

 

In April I entered Casie Stewart’s HTC One Influencer contest and just this week I received an email letting me know that I WON! So what exactly did I win? Well, shortly I’ll be putting away my iPhone5 and trying out my first Android, the HTC ONE, which you know is a pretty big deal for this iPhone-lover. With this new phone I’ll be documenting my life, as well as the other part of my prize — a social and blog mentorship with the one and only Casie Stewart (THIS IS MY LIFE). I’m so excited for that part of the contest, apparently I get to guest post on her blog too! I cannot wait to meet up with Casie (notebook, pen, and laptop in hand) and learn how to take my blog to the next level.

Thank you to Casie, HTC, and Say Media for this amazing opportunity, I am so excited to be the next HTC One Influencer!

—

Love Always

Vanessa Xo

Stay True.

Dorothy Parker

The most difficult thing about blogging (writing) is staying true to the voice of your blog. It’s difficult to stay true to the brand you created when there are so many other blogs and brands to be intimidated by. I created this blog as a space for my personal thoughts, as a space to practice and improve my writing, as a place to learn more about myself, as a place to share great books. Admittedly I’ve lost sight of my voice a couple of times. Sometimes I didn’t even recognize the woman holding the pen, I didn’t hear my own nasally soften-spoken voice when I read my posts over again. The important thing is that I noticed and I put myself back on track.

Another difficult part of blogging (writing) is privacy — what do you share? What do you keep to yourself? I’ve had people tell me that they follow my blog in a tone that makes me feel like they know more about me than I think they do. I’ve had people tell me that I should be careful. That my generation doesn’t know the importance of privacy. Well, that’s what social media is, letting people into your life, into your home. It’s scary how BIG social media has become in my life, I’m even applying for jobs with SOCIAL MEDIA in their description.

Sometimes I sit back and think oh my gosh, I’m sharing my thoughts with who knows how many people. On top of that it’s on the INTERNET, FOREVER. After the initial nausea from that thought subsides, I allow myself to think other thoughts. My Pen, My Voice is a brand. It is a brand that I created. It’s ME, it’s who I am and what I represent BUT I get to choose what I share. Along with this blog I have two other notebooks with me at all times. One is a diary and one is the rough beginnings of my novel — neither of which I share on my blog.

I think people forget that there’s a person behind a blog, a twitter account, an Instagram account etc and what they share is only fraction of their lives. They let you see what they want you to see.

I am my truest self when I write.

 I write with honesty, intention, passion, and determination, but please don’t forget —

My Pen, My Voice is just one side of me.

—

Love Always

Vanessa Xo

Bursting the Bubble [New BLOG Series]

I start a twelve-week publicity internship with Random House Canada tomorrow and I couldn’t be more excited!!!!!! <– notice that’s 6 exclamation points worth of excitement.  I’m even more excited to share this experience with all of YOU. So, I’ve decided to start my very first blog series called Bursting the Bubble. 

I know the whole little girl, big city blog is a little redundant nowadays but this is a huge step for me. It might only be a three-month chapter of my life but it’s a very important one. So, every Saturday for the next 12 weeks I will be posting my thoughts, challenges, and feelings about the 9-5 life of a publicity intern in one the greatest publishing houses in the world — with a one week break when I go to Vancouver.

If all goes as planned the first post of this series will go up on April 6th!

Until then, I’ll be blogging, working, and embracing this new (life) chapter that I’m about to write.

Wish me luck 😉

—

Love Always

Vanessa Xo 

until i became…Myself.

Today while I looked at Steven’s (UNTIL I BECAME) previous blog posts, I thought about the event at Minling Pan Studio and pondered over the wonderful clothes that I get to look at and/or try on at Moda L Boutique. Then I thought about my own style and about the clothes that I like to wear. What is my style?

“Fashion is bought, style is what you have.”

Take tonight’s outfit: jeans from Forever 21, shirt stolen from my sister about four years ago, boots from Walmart, and the purse is my dad’s 35-year-old camera bag. My jewelry is minimum and all three were gifts and I purchased the scarf at Forever 21 in Chicago. My outfit is inexpensive but cute and comfortable. More importantly, it’s me.

I understand how important your appearance can be and what it can tell people about you. I feel as though each day I get a little more comfortable in my own skin, I put a little more effort into choosing my outfits, I think about what my clothes will stay about me. Although I love brand names they’re not really me, plus I can’t justify breaking the bank for a new pair of jeans. By the same token, I can feel my style changing, I notice when I’m pulling something out of my closet that I haven’t worn in years or buying something I probably wouldn’t have chosen even a year ago.

I can see that I’m changing and I feel more confident in the clothes that I wear. All of these changes are going a little bit deeper though, a little below the surface. I’m not sure if I’m finally accepting who I am or if I’m really changing but I speak differently, I think differently, I write differently, and I don’t get offended as easily. I have never felt this…well… great about who I am, who I’m becoming. I’m slowly becoming less afraid, I’m slowly taking chances, I’m slowly accepting my mistakes, and I’m not ashamed to make some new ones. It’s not just the clothes or the conscious effort I’m putting into it, it’s everything and everyone around me as well. It’s the fact that I’m growing up and that I’m starting to understand what I want out of life and who I want to be apart of it. 

I never knew how good it would feel to finally become Myself.

—

Love Always

Vanessa Xo