2013 - A Good Year

26 December

As I confidently predicted, I have failed to find any kind of routine over the Christmas period and the stability I need to achieve any rhythm in my writing has eluded me. Rather than wait until normality returns on 6 January I had managed to rewrite the first few thousand words of AS DAD LAY DYING (one of my New Year resolutions will be to change that title) but I was forced to abandon it in the face of the inevitable onslaught of turkey and plum pudding. To further complicate matters I am now in Devon and there’s no routine here either.

But this frustrating ending should not detract from what has otherwise been a good year in the writing department. And now I am out of routine, what better time to take the opportunity to review it.

You may remember that I ended 2012 with an article entitled ‘Why Every Writer Should Have A Business Plan’. Naturally I could not then escape writing one myself and in it I gave several hostages to fortune by setting out a certain set of objectives. To save you the trouble of looking them up, here they are.

1. I will convert my third novella to ebook and have it available on Kindle.
2. I will publish BIRDS OF THE NILE.
3. I have a second novel, AS DAD LAY DYING, in first draft. I will finish this and have it ready for publication in 2014.
4. I will complete the first draft of my third novel, MALAREN.
(NB : Back then, I hadn’t learnt how to spell MÄLAREN correctly)

So how did I get on? I’ve already charted some of my progress in My Half Year Report (4 July) so there’s no need to go over old ground – ticks for items 1&2 then. At that stage items 3&4 were still in doubt but if you’ve been following Writing Life at all you’ll know that the first draft MÄLAREN was successfully completed before I went to Chicago. Well that’s good you might think, but although it has width (94000 words) I am concerned as to the quality. But let’s not worry too much about that for the time being and give a tick for item 4.

The problem has been with item 3. My original plan was to make a start on it after I’d finished MÄLAREN but then I changed my mind. MÄLAREN was the natural successor to BIRDS OF THE NILE, I thought, so why not crack on and get that ready for publication instead. I got so far with it (first 3 chapters revised and polished) and even started sending it out to agents but then Fate lent a hand and the typist I’d engaged to get it onto a USB broke her arm (bless her). So no final m/s to work on and me wondering what to do next. Somebody somewhere was obviously trying to tell me something. No option then but to revert to Plan A and work on AS DAD LAY DYING. So that’s where I am now and no chance of getting finished before the year end. To be truthful, I don’t think I’d have got it finished even if I’d stuck to Plan A in the first place – there’s a lot of rewriting to do.

Anyway, three out of four isn’t bad plus the fact that I’ve got a headstart for 2014. Which reminds me - I must write a new Business Plan. Maybe next time …