It’s that time of year again. You’re stressing about the cost of presents and double-checking there’s enough booze in the fridge. Meanwhile, wild horses are trying to drag you to the sofa to watch another Christmas special featuring James Corden. So you take the only reasonable option: open your laptop and claim you have something important to do.
This inadvertently allows you a bit of headspace, which you spurn reading one of those fluffy writer ‘year in review’ pieces to kill time. And I can’t lie; it’s only because we’re trying to avoid Christmas shopping that people like me write the bloody things. So, without further ado.
From a personal perspective
This year has tested my family and me beyond measure. Quite a few have over recent years, to be honest. Still, this year was epic, and I can’t properly go into the reasons why. These challenges will undoubtedly persist for some time, too. But, on a brighter note, owning our first home feels like the realisation of a game-changing moment we’ve both strived hard to see.
It’s a three-bedroom end-of-terrace on the outskirts of Nottingham, and we absolutely love it. There were a few surprises during renovations, but we’ve moved now and are happily settling in. After three years of living in various forms of temporary accommodation, it feels like the mother of all blessings and one we’ll never take for granted.
If you don’t already know, my day job involves writing copy for a global software company. As you can imagine, it takes up a fair amount of time and mental processing. But they’re good people and look after me well. In addition, I’m pleased to have started writing fiction for an hour or two before work each morning.
In terms of fiction
Writing daily while working and renovating a house has felt like a real challenge. But it was also immensely satisfying because I pulled it off for the most part. Output dropped off in November when we finally moved in, but that’s to be expected.
Ultimately, plenty of words have been written this year with which I’ve been able to stick together and create a new book. And a long one, too, which is surprising because it was only meant to be a short story. (Then a novella, then a short novel. Now it’s book one of a trilogy. Oh dear, what have I started?)
Anyway, the first third has been beta-read, and the rest should be finished before the new year starts. One last edit is pencilled in for March, and should that all go to plan, I’ll have completed a finished novel from scratch within twelve months. Which is three times faster than a book typically takes me.
There’ll be another post about this mystery book project in due course. In the meantime, the only teaser I’ll give is that it blends UK crime noir with a heavy dose of sport and science fiction (!).
As for other stuff, I’ve also been able to produce a couple of shorts. One is a ghost tale, and the other is more like my usual science fiction. So, that’s around 150,000 words of finished work to send out. Of course, none of that may land on its intended target. But regarding fresh material, this is a big improvement over any year before.
The big wide picture
It’s good to have started a blog again. As pointed out in my first post, it’s a case of trying to learn from the mistakes of the last two and build something of interest for people who like to read my kind of work. I’m still figuring out how to do that, but hopefully, this site will become a place that fellow readers and writers will find helpful in one way or another.
In other news, er, that’s it. We’ve bought a house, and I’ve written a decent amount of fiction. Overall, it feels like a solid year to look back on.
Not many people know about all the health dramas that floored me between 2013-2017. Then the two years of rehab, followed by the turmoil of the last three. Ultimately, there’s no way of knowing if the years ahead will be any less seismic. But I hope things settle down.
It sounds cliche, but I can only be the best version of myself. At least, that way, I’ll stand the best chance of succeeding, whatever happens. But in terms of writing aims for 2023, well…I sincerely hope there is a publication somewhere to report.
So until the next year in review, take care and shalom.