First Draft:

Rising indie pop star Charlotte Matthew’s abrupt road to stardom

It all started a few months ago when 20 year old Charlotte Matthew chose to audition for the X Factor. This life changing decision left Charlotte with attention like she has never seen before. 

Growing up Charlotte was an only child with alcoholic parents. This meant Charlotte was constantly in and out of unstable foster homes, which led to her running away a lot. However, Charlotte was not a problematic child like you may expect, instead she describes her younger self as the “quiet girl who often sat alone in the corner with her head in a book”. During the time Charlotte would spend alone whilst running away she told us that she enjoyed listening to indie music on her ipod. Charlotte was often made to live with her Grandma and it was while doing so her Grandma’s boyfriend introduced her to this indie-pop genre. It was during these runaway adventures that Charlotte took the indie-pop music she was so inspired by and started writing her own songs. 

With all this sudden fame it even seems she has got a stalker on the loose and a blood relative too. Yes that’s right, in a recent interview we did with Charlotte she expressed her concerns saying “After ending all contact with my biological parents in my early teens my mum heard about my recent fame and has contacted me multiple times begging for money. I didn’t think much of it and just ignored these emails until she found my new address and was caught standing outside my door for hours banging on it and demanding money”. Charlotte also told us how her own mother was threatening that she would leak her address and due to this is currently in the process of getting a restraining order. 

It seems Charlotte went many years trying to avoid any attention from everyone, so what inspired her to perform on national television? Simply, friends along with finally feeling confident enough in herself encouraged her to go to her first audition. Charlotte spoke to us on this subject telling us “Getting used to the amount of attention I am now receiving, is the most difficult part. Let alone dealing with all the hate that comes along with it”. Although it seems like Charlotte has been getting a lot of love on social media platforms she has also received a bundle of hate on twitter as people are discovering her old tweets talking about controversial things such as mental health and eating disorders.

Despite Charlotte’s challenging childhood she has still made a successful name for herself and seems to have already found a loyal and trustworthy fan base. She told us her favourite thing about all this fame is having so many people she feels she can relate to on a spiritual level and she gave us an exclusive glimpse of what she might be producing in the future, telling us only “i hope soon i can create something more than just music, something that can help my supporters through a hard time”.

Written by Annabelle Webb

My MP3 recording of first draft:

 

After listening to my recording I have decided to make the following changes:

• The stand-first was too wordy, so I cut it shorter by adding a question. This engages the reader more than a statement would.
• In my first draft I repeated lots of words, so I made sure in my final draft to think of any different synonyms
• Fix any spelling mistakes

Final Draft:

Rising indie pop star Charlie M’s stellar road to stardom

Who Is Charlie M and why is her name suddenly everywhere? It all started a few months ago when 20 year old Charlotte Matthew chose to audition for the X Factor. This life changing decision left Charlotte with attention like she has never seen before. 

Growing up Charlotte was an only child with alcoholic parents. This meant Charlotte was constantly in and out of unstable foster homes, which led to her running away a lot. However, Charlotte was not a problematic child like you may expect, instead she describes her younger self as the, “quiet girl who often sat alone in the corner with her head in a book”. During the time Charlotte would spend alone whilst running away she told us that she enjoyed listening to indie music on her ipod. Charlotte was often made to live with her Grandma and it was while doing so her Grandma’s boyfriend introduced her to this indie-pop genre. It was during these runaway adventures that Charlotte took the indie-pop music she was so inspired by and started writing her own songs. 

With all this sudden fame it even seems she has got a stalker on the loose and a blood relative too. Yes that’s right, in a recent interview we did with Charlotte she expressed her concerns saying “After ending all contact with my biological parents in my early teens my mum heard about my recent fame and has contacted me multiple times begging for money. I didn’t think much of it and just ignored these emails until she found my new address and was caught standing outside my door for hours banging on it and demanding money”. Charlotte also told us how her own mother was threatening that she would leak her address and due to this is currently in the process of getting a restraining order. 

It seems Charlotte went many years trying to avoid any attention from everyone, so what inspired her to perform on national television? Simply, friends along with finally feeling confident enough in herself encouraged her to go to her first audition. Charlotte spoke to us on this subject telling us, “Getting used to the amount of attention I am now receiving, is the most difficult part. Let alone dealing with all the hate that comes along with it”. Although it seems like Charlotte has been getting a lot of love on social media platforms she has also received a bundle of hate on twitter as people are discovering her old tweets talking about controversial things such as mental health and eating disorders.

Despite Charlotte’s challenging childhood she has still made a successful name for herself and seems to have already found a loyal and trustworthy fan base. She told us her favourite thing about all this fame is having so many people she feels she can relate to on a spiritual level and she gave us an exclusive glimpse of what she might be producing in the future, telling us only “I hope soon I can create something more than just music, something that can help my supporters through a hard time”.