Looking Forward to 2024 - Another Busy Writing Year

‘So here it is,’ no, not Merry Christmas, this is the last blog of 2023. I want to thank you for supporting me here over the last year. The metrics for such a small audience have been impressive.

I keep writing that I will move this onto another platform; 2024 is the year I will finally achieve this.

As you may realise, I now have a Substack site, ‘Stuart’s Substack.’ I plan to use Substack to write about my writing exploits and the progress of my novel and future. I hope to grow the email list by keeping subscriptions free. With the audience that I have on there, I have an 80% open rate, which is another excellent statistic. I will need to look at my diary of writing commitments to determine which day is best for me to work on Substack.

The ‘Novel in a Year’ has one more workshop, but that is not until March 2024. I hope to finish the first draft in the next couple of weeks, closing in on 60k words and 190 pages. It’s nearly at the end. Just another couple of scenes to get the cast assembled in the right place, and I can start writing the finale. 

I intend to put the novel aside until early February and concentrate on plotting the next one. I will then edit one and write the next for a few more months. 2024 is looking busy indeed.

Hopefully, a few more writing opportunities will be available this coming week. This week has been a bit busy in my full-time job with the NHS, and I didn’t manage to get my half-hour writing in a quiet office at work. I have managed almost two thousand words for the novel Substack and this blog piece; it has been a somewhat more productive week despite Christmas and New Year.

I want to research some exciting subjects for this blog this year. I would also like to involve you that read these too. If there is anything that you would like me to write about, please feel free to leave a comment on the blog. I want to encourage you to enjoy the pleasure of writing.

Happy New Year. I’m looking forward to writing more for you in 2024.

A Happy Christmas and looking forward to 2024

Happy Christmas, and welcome to this last blog before the big day. Don't worry; I'm sure there will be another piece before the end of the year, too.

As I wrote last week, I'm even closer to finishing the novel now. I have managed to write another three thousand words this week.

Although I reported that I had another idea for a novel, after a workshop on Tuesday, I now have another one. The initial idea must be put on the back burner for a few months. A little teaser, it involves mince pies.

Before Tuesday evening's workshop story plot revelation, I had purchased two entries to the latest Bath Flash Fiction Competition. That means writing two 300-word stories in time for the February 4th midnight deadline. I really should sit and work through a couple of plots over Christmas.

This week, I managed to print out 'Beasting Dartmoor'. It was quite a sight, 180 pages long and still ongoing. It is now closer to that 200-page mark. I did write a while back that Beasting Dartmoor was a working title. I have been thinking about alternatives and will announce that in the coming months once I have really decided the way to go.

Christmas is the time for giving and receiving presents. Let's think about those not having the best Christmas during these times of national difficulties. Also, this time is for remembering those not with us. We lost my Father and Brother in December past, and I'm sure you will have someone in your thoughts, too.

Like any new year, 2024 is shaping up to be another exciting year. With all my writing goals, we also have several trips booked in 2024. I can't wait for the better weather to arrive so we can go camping again.

Here's wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Merry Christmas.🎄

He shoots, He scores! Are you setting any goals for 2024? Here's some of Mine

In March of this year, I started the Novel in a Year workshop, intending to complete something that had been winging around my thoughts for nearly forty years. Closing on fifty-five thousand words, and close to 200 pages later, I am very close to finishing the first draft of my first Novel. I still aim to complete it before the year's end, and I should be able to achieve that aim.

2024 should start with me editing the first draft. Editing is more important than writing the first draft initially. But alongside this editing, I need to start thinking about publishing and marketing the book. There are many ways to publish these days, and I will explore which avenue will suit me best, but then there is the marketing. I will also need to update my blog into a website and blog.

At the start of 2023, I intended to complete that migration within the first few months, but that didn't happen. I will begin 2024 by getting a new online presence for my blog and, more importantly, a home for the Novel. 

Unsurprisingly, I have already been thinking about my following writing projects. I have an idea for another novel. It will take some research (perhaps over the Christmas break), and I'll need to check out some possible copyright issues for the character I have in mind.

A few months ago, I registered on Substack. I have to admit that I haven't done as much with it as I would have liked. I just found out that there is a Zoom-based webinar this week about how to use it. That is something that I need to have a look at. 

Another of my failed aims for this year was to have an attempt at screenwriting. I have read several Spooks, Fame and Cheers scripts this year. Wait, I'm doing myself down now; I've also read scripts from Fleabag, Killing Eve and Line of Duty. I still need to write my own, though.

I want to get back into writing for magazines and websites. A regular contributor opportunity would be just the thing for me going forward.

There are many writing opportunities out there, and it would be great to grab a few.

Next week, it will be very nearly Christmas. There should be something to write about for the blog.

Have a great week, everybody.

Wet Weather and Getting Bashed

 

What weather have we had this week? As I write this on Thursday lunchtime, the wind is blowing, and the rain is lashing down, as it has been all night long. It is certainly not the weather for sitting outside in my favourite place for my lunchtime writing session.

Thursday is my usual day to start the week's blog piece. It somewhat disrupts the novel writing, but I'm sure I will catch up with that sitting in my armchair. That will be after my right shoulder has been bashed around at the Chiropractor this evening. I have a rotator cuff injury. I also idly said I would get into the loft to get the Christmas decorations down. You can see that this writing lark can be quickly interrupted.

 

At last Saturday's novel writing workshop, we talked about editing our books. As I wrote last week, mine is approaching the end, and the next piece of work for it will be an extensive edit in the new year.

One of the things that we did discuss was publishers' house styles. Thankfully, we had an editor online who could give us the latest thoughts from publishers.

Numbers could be clearer in writing. I have followed the rule where the numbers 1 to 9 are written as numbers, and from ten onwards, they are written as words. The publishers now require one to a hundred written out and a number written from thereon.

OK, simple? No, OK, and Ok are OK, depending on the publisher. OK is not under any circumstances. Is that OK?

How about whilst? That is something I am prone to use; I very nearly used it in a sentence earlier in this piece. No, it must be, while. All 'st endings are not de rigour.

A simple find and replace cannot solve these, so it will have to be a trawl through the novel manuscript to find them.

Next week, I'd like to talk about my writing goals for 2024, the first few months of which will be hectic.

The Beast is Coming Towards the End, where next?

 

Before I hurl myself headfirst into the spirit of the Christmas Season (It's the C&E UCR Team Christmas shindig tonight at Sandy Park), I wanted to bring you the latest news from 'Beasting Dartmoor.'

This week, I passed the fifty-thousand-word mark in the Novel. It's quite a feeling to get this far with something that came to mind over thirty years ago.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which finished for 2023 on Thursday, aims to write the first draft of a fifty thousand-word novel in a month. That works out to 1,666 words daily, with an extra one on the last day. It takes resolve to take this challenge on, and many support groups and Discord channels offer support for those taking part. I thought about giving it a go one year, but that's about as far as I got.

But, back to Beasting Dartmoor. 50k words is a significant milestone and enough for a novel in itself. There is probably another 10 to 15k more words before completing the first draft. My initial aim at the beginning of the year was 90k words when I started the Novel in a Year workshop with Jenny Kane. When I get down to the first edit in the new year, that number will grow closer to that amount. 

 

I have the ending already mapped out. I know where the story is going. It's going to be easy from here on in? No, there are a few conundrums to sort out yet, one being, do I want any characters for another book?

It has been a labour of love, and it has taken quite some time to get to this position. Would I write another book? Hell, yes. I already have ideas for the next book. One thing, though, is that I will be quicker with it next time.

I will be attending the next workshop in our Novel in a Year this afternoon. I will come away with more changes and ideas for the rest of the book. I'm still on track to have the first draft finished very shortly,

  

Where Do You Write? Writers are Everywhere

 Firstly, my apologies for not publishing a piece last week. The last few weeks caught up with me, and I needed the rest. But here we are back once more.

This week, I have been thinking about where I write and the productivity I get from writing in different places.

Roald Dahl famously wrote in a shed at the bottom of his garden, and I've seen that replicated by many other writers. 

As I write this on Friday morning, I sit in my armchair in the front room with one eye on the TV weather forecast before setting off for work. I do a lot of my writing here, but it isn't the most productive of my writing locations.

Jenny, who runs the Novel in a Year workshop I attend, has written hundreds of thousands of words in a corner of her local coffee shop. Jenny is so regular that she has a corner table named after her.

   

I've been seen in a coffee shop too.

William, my other writing hero, has an office in his home. It is the hub of his writing empire and is full, and I mean full, of books and bookshelves (the story of a shelf collapsing one night and blocking him out for six hours is for another day). William, however, being all things Apple, can be seen writing in many different locations on many devices. William has even been seen on a bus writing on his Apple Watch.

One of my most productive writing locations is at work. A couple of years ago, we had a team meeting. As we were, at the time, still aware of COVID restrictions, we found a seating area behind one of the buildings at work, which was in full sun. Since discovering that location, I often pop out during my lunch break to write. I'm regularly seen sitting out there writing for this blog, mainly my Novel and usually on a Friday lunchtime. I dash inside if it starts to rain, and it is a bit character forming as the air temperature drops. But I get a favourable word count whilst out there. I usually get about 300 words, and times that over the week, and it's 1,500 words. Not too shabby for lunchtime writing. 

At home, I have a collapsable desk. In truth, it folds very neatly flat. I usually set it up in the bedroom for the writing workshops on Zoom that I attend, and on a Sunday afternoon, I can be found up there on Zoom with William and others, worldwide, writing our little hearts out for an hour in our novels. I usually manage a thousand words on Sunday afternoons write-in.

    A little elf has told me I might have a standing desk extension for it on Christmas Day. I have taken advantage of the Black Friday deal on our salary sacrifice site at work and have an Apple Magic Keyboard on the way. I can have my writing corner at home…maybe. 

After the Lord Mayor's Parade - It was Time for a Big Change

It wasn't until the other day that I realised that this year is twenty years since I retired from the Royal Marines Band Service.

My last engagement was at the Lord Mayor's Show in London. It was a gig I had performed many times before. The first time was with the Royal Marines School of Music Junior Band supporting CinC Naval Home Command Band, Portsmouth, with the then Bandmaster Rod Starr. Lieutenant Rod Starr became my Boss and a good friend at BRNC some years later, and there's enough mileage for those times for another year of Blog pieces. 

Returning to that last working weekend in November 2003, for the Royal Marines. We had travelled up the night before, and if I remember correctly, we stayed at RAF Uxbridge. Supposing that was the case, we would have spent the evening in the town centre pubs despite the early start the following day, followed by a curry and more beers. I remember it was a cold morning when we mustered on the Honourable Artillery Company Grounds. That is where the Bands muster to march towards Mansion House, fitting into the parade on the way. At the pace of the traditional Royal Marines, 116 beats per minute, we didn't take the 20-minute walk indicated by Google Maps.

Anybody who has taken part in a Lord Mayor's Parade will remember that it always has the possibility of being rainy, and I don't think it disappointed that day either. It is always a long day.

After a last coach trip back to Dartmouth, I was surplus to requirements for the Band required for the Remembrance Parade the next day. My replacement had already been drafted into the Band. For the first time in 25 years, I was a spectator.

And that was that for my career in the Royal Marines Band Service. On Monday morning, bright and early, I started an entirely new career as an Administration Manager for VT Group. That was the start of a significant change in my life, leading to where I am now. Twenty-five happy years in the Royal Marines, not another book, surely?  

We've had Storm Ciaràn - He's Certainly a Character with Flaws

 I trust that Storm Ciaràn has left you dry and in one piece. We were lucky in our little part of East Devon and didn't seem too bothered by it, although not too far from us in Sidmouth,  a car washed away by the sea. The drive to work on Thursday was entertaining.

So, let's get down to this week's subject: Character Flaws.

Writers, Screenwriters and anyone who writes stories will have a mile-long list of characters. My work in progress, Beasting Dartmoor, has many characters, major, minor and passing. 

Characters endure the reader to a story. Part of the writing app has a section that I use has a section where I can describe and bring to life characters. At this point, I must list that I don't have all my characters fleshed out this way. That is something that I will need to look at at the end of the first draft and before I return to the first edit.

Suppose we look at a character in a series of books by John le Carré, George Smiley. Portrayed by such nobles of British actors as Sir Alec Guinness (1979) and Gary Oldman (2011). Le Carré describes Smiley as short, fat, balding and overweight and, more often than not, is compared to a toad or mole. When Guinness was asked to take the role of Smiley for the TV serialisation of Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy, he was initially reluctant to appear on television. Le Carré eventually persuaded him to take the role. In the 2011 film, Gary Oldman undertook the role. Both actors are around the same height and don't conform to Le Carré's original description. However, Rupert Davies, who portrayed Smiley in the 1963 film adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, has the more traditional description of le Carré's character, appears at the end of the film in an attempt to extricate spy Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) and Liz Gold return across the Berlin Wall from East to West.

But there is more to Smiley than just his appearance. Throughout the trilogy (Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People), his nemesis, Karla, head of Moscow Centre, is present in Smiley's decision-making. In particular, it becomes apparent in Tinker, Taylor, Smiley's wife Ann, described as extremely attractive, is having an affair with Bill Haydon, the Mole, making Smiley and his operation vulnerable. 

Without going into the Smiley character further, you can see how the description and added vulnerability flaws have made a rounded character. 

Smiley is a complex character, but even a character like Long John Silver has a flaw.

Other notable characters with with flaws.

        The Joker (Heath Ledger in Dark Knight), has facial scars alongside his mouth. There are several conflicting stories about how the character got those scars, but these stories make the character even more crazy than he was.

Staff Sargent Barnes (Platoon) has a number of scars all over his body, but it is his facial scars from previous Tours to Vietnam leads us to think about the brutality of war, which the Barnes character bears out in the film.

And then there is Harry Potter. The scar on his forehead is arguably one of the most famous scars written about about and seen on screen. Apparently received during a failed murder attempt by  Voldemort, its presence and Potter surviving the evil curse feeds the story throughout the books and the films. A bold bit of writing.

There we are for this week then. I think I shall be working Character and their Flaws for the next few months yet.

 

Stay safe in all this awful autumnal weather. We've had Ciaràn this week, who will it be next?

Busy Writing...At Last

This week, I have been concentrating on upping my writing productivity after having COVID-19 and our trip away to the Rugby World Cup (RWC) in Lille, France.

Thankfully, the RWC climaxes on Saturday evening, with England having played Argentina in the third-place play-off on Friday evening.

COVID left me a little tired, a bit of Long Covid. Never mind, onwards and upwards.

'Beasting Dartmoor' continues at a pace. I'm starting to write Chapter Twenty-Seven, and the story is approaching a climactic ending. I already know what the ending will be. I worked through it during a workshop a couple of months ago. It is exhilarating, culminating many years of wishing to be a writer/author.

I have been using many of Apple's Apps to help increase my productivity. The main one that has been keeping me on track this week is the Calendar. 

Last weekend, I sorted out a writing program for the next two weeks around my work shifts. As the Calendar replicates itself across all my Apple products, iPhone, Apple Watch and MacBook, it keeps me on my writing toes, especially as I have shared it with Kathy. I thought of automating some insignificant behind-the-scenes bits, like file saving. I haven't set that up yet, but that may be a task for this weekend.

I wrote about Morning Pages writing a few weeks ago, before my recent bout with COVID-19. I write three pages of free writing each morning. That dropped off for a while, although I did write a few during our trips away. Thankfully, I have started writing them again this week, even before my early shifts. They are a relaxing start to the morning and clear my mind for the day ahead. I'm writing this now after Morning Pages and before preparing for work. 

'You can only be a writer if you are writing' is something that I have always said, and here I am writing.

Also, this week, I attended a Zoom workshop by author Jenny Kane. A few of us meet every other Tuesday and work through some writing exercises. This week, we worked on character flaws and working on giving rounded characters for our stories. I must admit, it is something that I hadn't considered for the characters in Beasting Dartmoor. However, I came away on Tuesday evening with several ideas, some of which I can start working on immediately and others I will need to save for the first edit at the beginning of the new year.

I will also return to my Zoom writing hour with William on Sunday afternoon.

I enjoy both of these Zoom writing sessions. It is nice to be with other writers. After all, writing can be lonely unless you are part of a team writing for a continuing drama (Soap) or something similar to Game of Thrones, that is.

That is where I am with my various writing projects at the moment. I'm always open to further projects should anyone wish to get in touch. But these projects are helping me to keep writing, and that is what I like doing.

Happy Birthday, all fellow Royal Marines. We don't look too bad for being 359.

Next week - Characters and their flaws 

An Apple a Day Keeps the Covid away - It Doesn't, But Read On

Firstly, apologies for not posting a piece for you last weekend. A dose of COVID-19, two weeks in France with a week of work in between, finally did for me. I had plenty of sleep over that weekend, anyway.

October has already been a busy month for Apple with their latest releases. As I pitched a few weeks ago, the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have received much acclaim. The updated cameras have received excellent reviews. 

The current iPhone 15 has seen a price drop. A colleague at work took advantage of our salary sacrifice scheme, ordered one, and is excited for it to arrive. It may be worth a search around if you are in the market for a new phone. I have also seen some reasonable SIM-only offers online as well.

Also, this month, Apple has pushed out their new operating systems, IOS 17 for iPads and iPhones, WatchOS10 for Apple Watches and MacOS Sonoma for MacBooks.

One noticeable thing with the new lock screens is that there is much more information. Perhaps not a big thing, but it looks ok to me. Sonoma now supports widgets. This update means you can have the same widgets on your MacBook as on your iPhone.

The screen savers now have a 'rolling' feature. My present screen saver looks like it's ply through a forest. If you shoot a photograph on an iPhone using the live feature, which gives you a burst of photos, you can use that as a screen saver, and the OS will use that burst of pictures to make a screen saver photo that appears to move.

Apple's integrated operating systems are proving excellent for writers. I may have written at the time, but whilst I was in France on a day visit to Dunkirk, I managed to use the free wifi and write that week's blog piece in the Pages app and schedule it to be published, all from my iPhone SE running IOS17.

For iPad users, there has, this week, been a new Apple Pencil. Many were expecting the reveal of the iPad Gen 11, but a pencil it is. Briefly reading through a few reviews, the thoughts are that this update is an improvement on the version that required charging via the lightning/USB-C cable, which was rather ugly and had few favourable reviews.

There we are, then. It's nice to be back on the blog, and a big thank you to all who come here to read my pieces.

Next week, I will update you on 'Beasting Dartmoor' and my writing aims and targets for the next few months.

Don't be a Monk - Focus. Get some Focus to increase Productivity

I read an interesting article on a website earlier this week. 'The people going 'monk mode' to limit social media use'. It rang a bell with me as although social media is part of a writer's toolbox, it does get in the way when you need to get your head down and crack on with a word count.

The article focused on a human rights lawyer using the Freedom app. It is a blocking app, and several others are available across operating systems.

Someone who found the lure of Facebook too much whilst at University, so much so that he nearly missed submitting his dissertation, developed the Freedom app. 

I like to be quiet and not disturbed when writing, although I'm writing this in the office at work during my lunch break. But for those encompassed in the Apple Inc. environment, on MacBooks, iPads & iPhones, there is a functionality that can do all this without downloading apps. 

 Focus Modes help concentrate the mind on writing or whatever you have set it up for. By going to settings and scrolling down to the Focus button, it walks you through the process. I will link to YouTube for a VLOG by the extremely excellent William Gallagher.

Several built-in focuses include 'Driving' and 'Do Not Disturb'. I have set myself a customised Writing Focus. It switches off access to the net and only allows calls and messages from my wife.

There is a but, though. A word of warning: you could miss calls whilst in a Focus. If you have set your Focus not to receive any calls, you could and will miss any important calls. This very hand whilst driving and certain apps will send a message to say that you are driving. My phone automatically goes into Driving Focus once the car is moving.

You can automate when, where and how Focus starts using Shortcuts, another installed app. I have yet to get myself around Shortcuts at the moment. I will put that research into my writing diary, which can be the subject of a future blog piece.

Today, we will take the tram to Stade Pierre Mauroy to watch the England vs. Samoa game. As always, I will be the one in the England shirt. You can spot me on the TV. 

We weren't the first people to ask where the beach was in Dunkirque, I bet!

Here goes for the third blog piece of the week. That's something I didn't envision doing this week. However, the adventures we've undertaken do deserve writing about. 

When we arrived, we took the advice and went to the Office du Tourisme in Lille and purchased a 72-hour City Pass, which lasted our travels around the city and out to the Stade Pierre Mauroy. The bonus to this ticket was that it included a day ticket for the Pay des Calais area. Not bad for 45 euros. 

Today, Monday, we decided to use our day ticket for a trip to Dunkerque. We boarded a train at Lille Flandres station, and an hour and a bit later, we were at our destination.

It took us a little while to get to the Tourist Information Office, where we learned that the C4 bus takes you to the beach area and that all bus journeys in Dunkerque are free. That is well worth knowing if you are visiting here. 

The beach is vast and deep. There are still dunes to be seen. I had to take a moment to think of the horrors that this beach would have witnessed in May and June of 1940. 

Black clouds hung over the town, and the British Expeditionary Task Force and the French were in complete withdrawal. The Lille salient had fallen, and the Blitzkrieg German Army encircled the struggling forces centred on Dunkerque. 

Winston Churchill ordered Admiral Ramsey to evacuate to the task force immediately. 

After the beach, we went around to the museum. It was fascinating to see what went on and the disasters that happened. It mentions that the SS committed war crimes in the area, which was upsetting. But to think about what happened all those years ago is very heart-wrenching.

Britain was lucky that Hitler didn't decide to follow us over the channel, as that could have brought about a severe change in the war's outcome.

Hitler admired Winston Churchill and wanted to settle the situation with him on German terms. How wrong could he have been? The other thing that the Germans were scared of was air cover over the channel. The Luftwaffe didn't command the skies and was never able to after the Battle of Britain. 

History lesson over with, we then started our journey back to Lille. The train was duly on time for its 1812 departure, only to be delayed for nearly an hour. The French Transport Police checked everybody's tickets. That was a little intimidating, with them wearing stab vests and carrying a side arm on their hip. The train was terminated further along the line, and we had to wait 40 minutes for the next train. We arrived at Lille about two hours later than we were expecting. It felt like home.

We patiently await our Eurostar train back to London St Pancreas this morning. We've only a few more days, and we will be getting to come back over for another venture. I'm sure that I will be blogging about what happens then.