Hello, my name is Ryan Millward – a traveller, writer and part-time human being. This blog is a showcase for my writing projects which usually come in all shapes and sizes. My main blog ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ can be found on Facebook which is where I post the majority of my creative content. I have just published the first edition of TTFTW which can be found here. I also write for a couple of publications including Elephant Journal, and The Thought Catalogue.
I first started writing when I was nineteen and created a satirical guide on ‘how to be good at facebook’. With it becoming the talk of the class in school, I gradually began to discover and immerse myself in the joy of what it is to create images and stories using the written word. I went on to complete a degree in Journalism before realising that all I really wanted to was to write creatively, and not type in news stories and press releases I had no interest in.
With this in mind, I began travelling the world in search of inspiration and nirvana. I had already taken a gap year in Australia during university, but I had decided I wasn’t quite satisfied with that seven month adventure. So onward I went back out into the world with a flimsy backpack and a heavy heart, venturing out into foreign lands, hiking mountains, getting drunk in smoky bars, staring out into sunset skies and debating the reasons for conscious existence as a sentient organism in an infinite universe. The usual stuff.
My travels were profoundly life-shaping and naturally they began to affect my writing. I wanted to ‘rescue the words from the wilderness’ so to speak – to bring some tales and novel insight about myself and human society back from those foreign fields. Naturally this was what I soon found myself writing about in a series of essays, poems and snapshot ‘thoughts’ which were usually introspective, reflective and philosophical in nature. (This was the core idea for my blog ‘The Thoughts From The Wild‘).
After travelling for a while, I decided that I’d venture back into the world of institutional education. I applied for a masters course in creative writing and began studying my specific passion. Finally it was a chance to interact with other writers; to explore my passion while doing something ‘productive’ in society’s eyes. A long story short, I decided after three weeks of studying to quit the course and book a flight to Mexico to continue travelling the world. I quickly realised that the course was a waste of money and that if anything it was going to stifle my creativity rather than nurture it. It was time again to follow the only teacher whose integrity I trusted: my own crazy inner voice that pulled me relentlessly into the unknown lands beyond those horizons.
Right now I am still following that manic voice – going from adventure to adventure, working odd jobs and writing as ferocious and consistently as I possibly can. I am very pleased to have just released my first work of creative writing and to have a follow up book of short stories on the way. I’m not sure where the path goes from here, but all I know is that it’s gonna be an exciting and thrilling ride through the wilderness. Life is still just as mysterious and perplexing as ever, but if I have discovered anything at all on this strange journey of mine, then it is that no matter where I go in this world, the only time I truly feel at home is when I sit alone before a blank page with my fingertips hovering over a grubby keyboard.
If you would like to follow my journey, then please feel free to follow this blog. Here is where I’ll be writing my way through the wilderness with wide eyes until the end of my days. I truly and sincerely hope you enjoy the self-inflicted madness that is me bleeding my brain dry at a keyboard and sharing the gory mess from the inside with you. Who knows, maybe you can even find something of use for your own life amongst the manic musings displayed here. God only help you if you do..
Keep it real. Stay wild and stay free.
Ryan
~ A Voice From The Wild ~ 