By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
Before I
start looking at future pieces, I wanted to reflect on my favourite 10 pieces
of 2013 for Viewing Perspectives. These do not look at the yearly reviews I did
in December, so it is pieces I covered from January 1 – November 30 2013.
1. WHAT MAKES US
CARE – A STUNNING EXHIBITION – Written in September 2013
Definitely,
this was my most favourite piece of the year and it has easily attracted the
most hits, with over 900 page views so far. The average audience of website
hits per day I was getting for Viewing Perspectives before the review of ‘What Makes Us
Care’ was no more than 8-10 which was slightly disappointing. So to see this
rise into the hundreds comfortably was a lovely feeling. The cause, the
photography, the venue were all perfect and it attracted strong social media
following, especially on Twitter. I’d like to thank The Big Foundation,
Centrepoint and Kathryn Prescott for sharing this piece and enjoying what I
wrote about ‘What Makes Us Care.’ This is my number one from the past year and
the one piece in the history of Viewing Perspectives I lookback on with the
most vindication and satisfaction to date.
 |
| What Makes Us Care was a special exhibition |
2. AUCKLAND – A GUIDE
TO WHAT’S ON OFFER IN 2013 – Written in February 2013
Back in
February of last year, things were pretty bleak for me in regards to the job
market. I was relying heavily on low-paid or unpaid freelance work but the job
as a travel copywriter with Holiday-Weather.com was the best freelance position
I had. The first task I was given was to write a detailed piece about the
magnificent city of Auckland in New Zealand. Writing about travel destinations
was exciting, a new challenge and one I greatly enjoyed. It is something I can
not only put onto my CV in future but gave me a new scope on travelling and another new skill out of my comfort zone. This piece, along with the
ones for Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca were the rare high points of a dismal
opening six months to 2013.
3. SKINS FIRE –
A DARK AND UNHAPPY ENDING – Written in July 2013
The
groundbreaking British teenage TV drama Skins ended last summer after seven
successful series which launched the careers of many young actors and actresses
and delivered some amazing storylines along the way. I was intrigued to see
what happened with the final series which had some of the previous generations
return and the show take a new direction of entering adult lives. Skins Fire
was the episode that interested me the most, considering it was the second
generation (series 3 and 4) that I was mainly into. I enjoyed sharing my Skins
passion and this article was favoured by one of the cast members on Twitter, so it must
have been a decent piece of work. If it wasn’t, then I offer my sincere apologises
but it was one of my favourites of the past 12 months.
4. 2013 IAAF
WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS REVIEW – Written in August 2013
Those who
know my sporting background will be fully aware of the football, motorsport and
tennis passions but maybe not so much with athletics. Having gone off the sport
around a decade ago, I have been reintroduced in recent years by the feats of
Mo Farah and of course, Usain Bolt. The IAAF World Championships in Moscow were
an interesting competition and I’d rank it as my favourite sporting piece of
2013.
5. THE STATE OF
FINANCES IN 21ST CENTURY FOOTBALL – Written in April 2013
I’m proud of
this piece I did in April 2013, although I can’t honestly remember why I did it
to start with. I e-mailed a few colleagues who I had worked with when Total
Football Magazine existed and used my services. While I regret many aspects
about that role, I don’t regret the extra skills collected, nor working with a
team of talented contributors who I can call as friends and colleagues. It also
showed I could ask people for quotes or to answer questions for me in feature
pieces which wasn’t always a comfortable skill in the University days. My view is the result brought about a balanced and constructive piece of feature writing.
6. WHAT WENT
WRONG FOR BLACKBERRY? – Written in October 2013
 |
| It is fair to say I had an unhappy time with BlackBerry smartphones |
I’m not going
to lie; I don’t shed any tears seeing RIM and BlackBerry suffer, even though I
do feel for those who have lost their jobs following profit losses and cutbacks.
This was a feature I wrote during my time writing for TheRankTank and I took
great pleasure in writing about the shortcomings of BlackBerry, especially
having had one of their unreliable smartphones for the best part of two years. Taking
my professional approach, it was an angle I wanted to cover and the piece I
value the most during my freelancing with the retail website.
7. THE DANGERS
OF SOCIAL MEDIA – Written in June 2013
To many of
us, social media is seen as a friend of ours…well almost. This was an area I
wanted to write about for months but never quite had the courage to do it until I
did in June. I offered some advice from my experiences and shared some of my
social media stories, especially with Twitter and Facebook. It was another
topic I enjoyed sharing my feelings on.
8. IS SEBASTIAN
VETTEL BORING? – Written in October 2013
Grand Prix
racing takes a backseat on Viewing Perspectives in 2014. While I will still be
a casual viewer of the sport, the days of writing regular race reports and
season reviews have now reached their conclusion. This was a reflection on the
German destroyer that is Sebastian Vettel and giving my view on whether the
critics are right to say that he is boring. One of the better pieces on F1 I
feel and don’t worry regulars, there won’t be much of this in the next 12
months.
9. ONE YEAR ON
FROM UNIVERSITY – A FRUSTRATING 12 MONTHS – Written in May 2013
Things have
changed a lot since I wrote this as spring became summer in 2013. It marked the
one-year anniversary of finishing my degree at the University of Northampton
and it was at a time where I really felt in a position of no future and no potential
being offered. However I wanted to ask the bigger question of whether I
regretted going to University with the lack of opportunities around. Click on
the link to see what I said. I definitely don’t regret going now too!
10. SUPPORTING TWO
WORTHY CAUSES – Written in September 2013
One of my New
Year resolutions last year was to start making small contributions to a couple
of charities who I have always valued for their amazing work for those who don’t
enjoy the same quality of life compared to some of us. I did this after getting
my job in the summer last year in the publishing industry and this piece
highlights the work they do, why I decided to choose the British Heart
Foundation and Teenage Cancer Trust and the reasons for giving something back
to the world.
