Monday 31 December 2012

Ding Dong, Ding Dong


2012 is fading away, and 2013 approaches... Has it been a good year?

Yes, personally I'd say so. At work things continued to go well, and this year I got to make a lot of documentaries and feature programmes, which are always fun as they allow me to write narration scripts, and to employ some of the same creative and editing skills you use in writing, to piece the programmes together from their disparate elements. Making a documentary is much easier and more enjoyable than writing a novel, though!

I made a lot of these programmes, but my favourite would have to be Radio in a Roundabout Way, because it was mine through and through - from conception, to recording the interviews, writing and editing it, and I even put my voice on it as narrator too. Plus it got me a lot of very flattering e-mails from colleagues and strangers, and was even the subject of a professionally-published review (in The Lady magazine, of all places...).

But writing-wise...

I did write one short novel this year, but that was a purely private project as a gift for a close friend. I did a lot of work editing and refining The Wicket in the Rec, and in 2013 I will once again have a go at submitting that to agents and publishers.

It is time, though, to think seriously about the next novel or novels. So, a public declaration that...

By the 31st of December 2013 I plan to have written the first drafts of two novels. One a 'serious', contemporary fiction piece called Another Life, probably about sixty to seventy thousand words long. The other a science-fiction action/adventure story called Time Engine, probably about eighty to a hundred thousand words.

That's the challenge I'm setting myself for 2013 - two first drafts.

So we'll see how that goes. Happy New Year, everyone. Take care of yourselves, and look after your ambitions.

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