9/26/2018 0 Comments Mental IllnessesHello! My name is Heather Kirchhoff. I am the Young Adult author of Fading and The Last Night. My birthday is today, and I feel like it’s fitting to talk about something that’s very important to me. Mental illnesses.
I wrote a true story about my struggles with depression and anxiety that was published in Invisible, Not Imagined. I’m nervous to be sharing my story, but I didn’t let that stop me. I want to make others feel like they’re not alone. Plus I feel like they’re not talked about a lot, and it needs to be. Mental health is looked down on constantly. Those who don’t deal with it thinks we’re just making it all up. That we can stop feeling a certain way. There are some people who even go as far as believe that the reason we’re having issues with shootings and all that is because of mental illnesses. I disagree. Just because someone has a mental illness does not mean they’re going to harm someone else. Yet there are people who would tell you otherwise. These people must be lucky enough to not have to deal with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, insomnia, claustrophobia, and so on. Bullying is another issue. Children are getting bullied, and this needs to be put to a stop. It’s not okay to make fun of someone else. You don’t know how they’re feeling, or what they’re dealing with outside of school. You don’t know, so why bully someone? Some people are strong enough to take it. They’ll just ignore you. Pretend that you’re not talking to them. But there are others who believe they are not strong enough. They will believe everything you say about them. Think they’re ugly? A loser? They’ll start to believe that as well. You know what that’s going to more likely lead to? Suicide. Now, of course, it’s not always because of bullying. Someone may have been dealt with a hard hand when it comes to life. It’s still not an excuse, though. Reach out for help. And tell your story. We need to spread kindness, not misery. We need to lift others up, not tear them down. Just keep going, even when life gets hard. I know how difficult that is. I understand it. Never give up. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I post every Wednesday. My debut novel is about a girl struggling to cope after a love one dies. It deals with mental illness. You can check out The Last Night here! Hello! My name is Heather Kirchhoff. I am the Young Adult author of Fading and The Last Night. My birthday is today, and I feel like it’s fitting to talk about something that’s very important to me. Mental illnesses. I wrote a true story about my struggles with depression and anxiety that was published in Invisible, Not Imagined. I’m nervous to be sharing my story, but I didn’t let that stop me. I want to make others feel like they’re not alone. Plus I feel like they’re not talked about a lot, and it needs to be. Mental health is looked down on constantly. Those who don’t deal with it thinks we’re just making it all up. That we can stop feeling a certain way. There are some people who even go as far as believe that the reason we’re having issues with shootings and all that is because of mental illnesses. I disagree. Just because someone has a mental illness does not mean they’re going to harm someone else. Yet there are people who would tell you otherwise. These people must be lucky enough to not have to deal with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, insomnia, claustrophobia, and so on. Bullying is another issue. Children are getting bullied, and this needs to be put to a stop. It’s not okay to make fun of someone else. You don’t know how they’re feeling, or what they’re dealing with outside of school. You don’t know, so why bully someone? Some people are strong enough to take it. They’ll just ignore you. Pretend that you’re not talking to them. But there are others who believe they are not strong enough. They will believe everything you say about them. Think they’re ugly? A loser? They’ll start to believe that as well. You know what that’s going to more likely lead to? Suicide. Now, of course, it’s not always because of bullying. Someone may have been dealt with a hard hand when it comes to life. It’s still not an excuse, though. Reach out for help. And tell your story. We need to spread kindness, not misery. We need to lift others up, not tear them down. Just keep going, even when life gets hard. I know how difficult that is. I understand it. Never give up. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I post every Wednesday. My debut novel is about a girl struggling to cope after a love one dies. It deals with mental illness. You can check out The Last Night here!
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9/19/2018 0 Comments ProcrastinationHello! My name is Heather Kirchhoff. I am the Young Adult author of Fading and The Last Night. Today I’m wanting to talk about procrastination. I’m doing it right now, honestly. I’m writing this blog post on Wednesday at eight seventeen PM. Why would I admit that? It’s simple, really. I don’t want to pretend that I have everything figured out, or that, as much as I would like to, pretend I already have blog posts written for the next month. I don’t. I planned to, but life doesn’t always work out that way.
I doubt I’m alone with this. I doubt you’re shaking your head, thinking I should get on my game. Or maybe you are. Who knows? For those who aren’t—for those who are wishing they had it all together like someone they see posting online appears to—it’s okay. Not everyone does. I’m a major procrastinator. I wish I wasn’t. I beat myself up for it, but what good does that do? To make myself feel bad? It doesn’t help anything. It’s hard not to procrastinate. At least, for me it is. I’d rather do something else, like read. Go for a walk. Or do housework. Give my dog a bath. Clean out the fish tank. Those are things that need to be done too, right? The only problem with that is I’m not getting my lifelong goal done. My goal is to be a successful author. To write the best books possible. To share my stories with you guys. I’ve started forcing myself to stay up when my alarm goes off on the days I have to work. Instead of laying back down after eating my breakfast and brushing my teeth, I decided it was time to get ready for work and write afterwards. I usually have about twenty to thirty minutes until I have to leave. That’s plenty of time to get a little bit written. Plus I feel like I accomplished something, and it isn’t even seven AM yet! I think one reason someone would procrastinate is because they’re not sure what to do. Maybe they have a task that is huge to accomplish. Like writing a book. Creating a business. Maybe you don’t know how to go about it. I know I’m in that boat. You know what I’ve realized? Research is helpful. Knowing what you’re talking about. It’s also helpful to talk it out with someone else—or multiple people. In the end, if you want your dream bad enough, you'll work for it. It may take a while, and may feel like you'll never get there. Trust me, you will at some point. One day you're going to look back and realize how far you've come. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I post every Wednesday. My debut novel is about a girl struggling to cope after a love one dies. It deals with mental illness. You can check out The Last Night here! 9/12/2018 0 Comments My MissionHey guys! My name is Heather Kirchhoff. I am the Young Adult author of Fading and The Last Night. Today I’m wanting to talk about my mission. Yes, I do have a mission when it comes to writing, other than producing the best book that I can. I wrote The Last Night hoping to inspire someone to keep going, to never give up no matter how hard it may get. I published it hoping it’d bring awareness to bullying and suicide. I also published it hoping that someone would realize they’re not alone—everyone struggles with something. Honestly, that’s what I want for all of my books. I also want to talk about things that you don’t hear a lot about in books or movies. I want to bring awareness to things we don't hear about very often. I feel like it’s needed. Everyone needs to see a character that has flaws, that has an illness, whether it’s mental or not. They need to be able to see that just because they’re struggling with something doesn’t mean they can’t overcome whatever they put their minds to. I want to inspire the dreamers. I want to make someone see that their dreams are not out of reach. That they can do whatever they set their minds to. If that’s all I accomplish in my career, then it’d be worth it. Let’s not forget that I would like to make people emotional while reading my stories. I want to evoke the kind of emotions that I felt while finishing up Twilight. I want to cause the kind of amazement that I felt when reading Vampire Academy. I want readers to love my story and at least a few of the characters like I did with Evermore. There’s so much that I would like to see happen for my books, but none of it will happen if I fail with my mission. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I post every Wednesday. My debut novel is about a girl struggling to cope after a love one dies. It deals with mental illness. You can check out The Last Night here! 9/5/2018 0 Comments The Moment I KnewHey guys! My name is Heather Kirchhoff. I am the Young Adult author of Fading and The Last Night. Today I’m wanting to talk about the moment I knew I wanted to become an author. It’s been about eight years now since this realization hit me. I was thirteen years old at the time. I had just started enjoying reading that year, actually.
It was summertime and I was almost done with Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. The ending had me shaken and so emotional that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I guess you could say I was a little amazed at how it affected me, and it got me thinking. I really wanted to make others feel the way I was feeling in that moment. I wanted to make them shocked, nervous, and maybe even a tad bit heartbroken, depending on the novel. I wanted to create a story that readers could get caught up in. Despite all of this, I wasn’t fully convinced I could do it. A few weeks later I devoured Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. You guys, that book was amazing. The entire series, really. It made me want to become an author even more, so I began leaning towards the idea of it. Still, I didn’t start writing. I don’t know what was stopping me. I guess it was just an idea of something I could do at the time, but it wasn’t something I did. Finally, I read Evermore by Alyson Noel. That book sealed the deal. I wanted in on the literary world. I didn’t want to hold off any more. I wanted to write to my heart’s content. I was a thirteen year old girl who had a dream. I’ve been daydreaming about it. I’ve been trying to make my books the best they can be. Of course, my earlier work was terrible. I mean, whose isn’t? I cringe when I come across my older writing. But now? Now I am proud of how far I’ve come. I am so glad I decided to read Twilight, Vampire Academy and Evermore. If I didn’t, then I don’t know if I would have become an author. I can't imagine my life without my stories. I really hope I get to meet Stephenie Meyer, Richelle Mead and Alyson Noel one day. That would be amazing. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I post every Wednesday. My debut novel is about a girl struggling to cope after a love one dies. It deals with mental illness. You can check out The Last Night here! |
About Me:Hello! My name is Heather Kirchhoff. I am a Young Adult author. I want to give out writing advice and help other authors avoid the mistakes I made. I post twice a month for now. Archives
April 2020
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