It's the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend - Not quite where I thought that I would be - Read On

 I had hoped that this Blog piece would appear on my wonderfully new and shiny WordPress site. Annoyingly, I haven’t been able to get back to the website dashboard to finalise the site due to access problems. It is a bit of a bugger really and over the last few days, I haven’t really had the time to sort the problem out, this week. As I’m working over the weekend, I don’t think I will be getting any further with it until well into next week. These things are sent to try us, as the cliché informs us.

This week, I have been working on the rewrite of my first novel, ‘Beasting Dartmoor’. It is taking a bit longer than I thought that it would, which is more than likely down to my typing speed, to be honest. What I have completed so far has changed a little bit, checking that I’m using First, Second or Third person properly and that the narration is sounding correct. I think that more difficult decisions regarding the structure are on the horizon. Still, it is something that needs to be done, and I just need to get on with it. I know some authors out there enjoy this part of novel writing and hate getting the first draft written. I’m unsure where I stand, but I certainly enjoyed writing the first draft of ‘Beasting’ and I am also enjoying writing the first draft of ‘Mince Pies’, although that will have to take a back seat for a while.

Alongside the rewrite this week, I have also been working on something for the Ottery Writers anthology. I was inspired by an exercise that I undertook during a Zoom workshop a few weeks back. I need no more than 3000 words for the anthology piece and I am fortunate that I can have the first 1500 words reviewed and edited. I also think that this may work as a plot for a longer piece of work, so I will have to think about what I want to do with it. In the meantime, I will be working on the second 1500 words for the anthology. 

Over the last week or so, I have had a few new subscriptions come onto my Substack, which is pleasing. Like this Blog, I didn’t write on there last week, so I must make every effort to publish once again this week.

As I write this, on Thursday, we are heading headlong into the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend. As usual, the talk is of busy and congested motorways and the appalling weather that we are experiencing currently. I am working Good Friday and over the weekend, so writing time may be a little limited, however, there will be writing, for that I am sure. 

May all your Hot Cross Buns be nicely spiced and your Easter Eggs chocolate. Have a great Bank Holiday whatever you are doing.

  

The Last Novel in a Year Workshop - Where has that time gone?

Today, Saturday 16th March 2024, is the last of my Novel in a Year workshop. It is a cliché, but where have those twelve months gone? They have been delightful and inspiring and also equally frustrating and confusing. That is what it takes to write a novel, I suppose.

This afternoon we will be learning and discussing to self-publish or mainstream publisher, and how to submit the book. Writing the blurb and a synopsis are the next important pieces of writing for the book. These may be short pieces but they are no less important, as will be the marketing of the book.

As I wrote in my Substack email this week, I have suffered a bit of Imposter syndrome. I haven’t done much editing of ‘Beasting Dartmoor’ so far. There is so much doubt going around in my head, currently, although I am very much enjoying writing my next novel/novella and I have reached ten thousand words in that piece this week. 

Since March 18th last year, I have written nearly seventy thousand words for the novel. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing at the start, all I knew was that I had the beginnings of a story that I had briefly written but I had no idea how to take it forward and yet we’re here 365 days later, and I have the first draft and I am actively thinking about polishing it up and getting it ready for publication.

I have had so much support from my wife, Kathy and family and friends. My work colleagues have been immensely interested too. I have written many of the word count during my lunch times and many want to read it too. I think I will be signing a few copies too.

Another great help I have had is from the Patreon group to which I belong. Each Sunday afternoon we join William on Zoom, and with a big countdown clock in the corner of the screen, we write away for an hour. I usually write between 900 to 1100 words in an hour, which is a great start to the writing week. 

Also as part of the Patreon group, on Fridays, we receive a Fess Up and Press On email. It's a great one for productivity. We Fess Up what we have written in the week. We are usually in the shadows of William, he is, after all, a professional freelancer. This week I hit 10k in my second novel ‘Mince Pie Murders’ and I estimate that two thousand of those were this week and this piece is coming up to five hundred words. I have done more in the past weeks, but as written before, ‘You can’t be a writer if you don’t write.’

Have a great week everybody  

Sunny Days in Hong Kong

 I must admit that March and spring have almost sprung, but not quite yet. It's Thursday, and it's time to write this week's Blog. The Blog this week comes from the Quiet Carriage of the 0855 train to Waterloo. We're travelling to see the Massed Bands of His Majesties Royal Marines at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night. As always, we are up for a bit of a wander around London. You can expect a few photos on Social Media over the next few days.

This week, I decided to dig out another photo from my days on HMY Britannia. In this photo, we appear to be playing out of Hong Kong in 1986. It must have been when we were sailing up to Shanghai to commence Royal Duties for HM Queen Elizabeth's unique visit to China. We returned to Hong Kong with HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh, two weeks later. If these photos had been taken at that time, we wouldn't have been dressed in shorts. 

We had been in Hong Kong for several days before sailing for Shanghai. The band wasn't required to perform or participate in any parades, and we just had our usual morning rehearsals in the Unwinding Room before getting ready for shore leave, which would start at the allotted hour, probably 1200. 

For some, Pinkies Tattoo Parlour was a magnate. Pinkies was extremely busy during our visit. Not only were their sailors and a few Marines from HMY, but almost the entire crew was from our accompanying guard ship, HMS York. The following day, there was much hilarity in the Unwinding Room when drunk tattoo purchases were revealed. I must declare at this point that I have no tattoos.

I and several others found ourselves in the China Fleet Club that first day. There, we imbibed several beers. Very cleverly, the bar had an offer on Pusser's Rum. If I remember correctly, you received an enamelled mug with signal flags if you ordered two large Rums. As the evening went on, these mugs became more attractive, and hence, more Rum was drunk. We left early to find something to eat, but on leaving the Fleet Club, I witnessed a Sailor from HMS York staggering out with a carrier bag of said mugs.

Myself and a couple of the younger end of the band needed help finding where to eat; yeah right, this is Hong Kong, there are food outlets all over the place. That evening, we opted for street food and sat at a stand selling huge bowls of noodles and broth topped with meat and the hottest chilli condiment on earth. It was interesting to witness how this stall operated. It was a very well-lit stall, and there were electric heaters around; it was a tad chilly in the early evening at that time of the year. Seeing as we sat on a street corner, I wondered where all the power was coming from. A quick peruse of the cabling saw it end up at the top of the lamppost we were all sitting around; they were bootlegging the electricity. That wasn't all; we were sitting right outside the main entrance of the Hong Kong Police Headquarters.

The next day, we took the Star Ferry to Kowloon. We had lunch at a fish restaurant where we selected lobsters alive from various fish tanks. The lobsters were enormous.

I remember that on our last night there, this time around, there was the biggest fireworks display I had ever seen, costing millions of Hong Kong Dollars.

We left the next day for Shanghai and Royal Duties. We returned to Honky Fidd later, and that's where we parted company with HMS York. They went on to visit Tokyo, and I was very jealous. It would be another fifteen years before I would fulfil that dream. Perhaps that trip can be another Blog piece?

My Talk Last Month at Ottery Writers and the Week Ahead

Writing has been difficult this week for one reason or another, so I haven't done much at all. That is all in the past now, and there is nothing that I can do about that. I'm here, writing this week's blog on what happens as an extra day to the year. That has to be a bonus, doesn't it?

I am a member of Ottery Writers. I have been a member for quite a few years now. Unfortunately, my work shifts sometimes mean that I can't always attend, but it is immensely enjoyable and informative when I can. Last month, I was asked to talk about my experiences in the Novel in a Year workshops. I was somewhat nervous about taking this talk on, which is a bit of a laugh after all the music I have performed before immense audiences and lectures and talks I have given previously.

The evening was attended by a good number of members and a couple of new ones too. Ottery Writers meet, rather fittingly, in the library at Ottery St Mary. I talked about how the Novel in a Year workshops run and what we did on them. It was nice explaining the loose word count targets we were encouraged to hit before each workshop. I was happy to say that, on the whole, I hit the word counts and beyond quite well during the year, which hasn't finished yet. I also showed the apps and software that I used. That part concerned a few people still writing with pen and paper. I was quick to allay their fears. After all, we only need some of this technology to enjoy writing.

I'm pleased to say I had some great feedback from the talk, and I hope I have given a good insight into what it takes to write a novel this way.

'Beasting Dartmoor', which I am starting to edit, is about 68k words. I expect it to finish at nearly 70k by the time I have polished it.

The people who joined National Write a Novel in a Month (NaNoWriMo) undertook and attempted to write 50k words during November, and many of them worldwide succeeded. One year, I did think about giving it a go and did a bit of plotting. When it came to November, I couldn't find the time to write two thousand words a day. I would have to find two hours a day over thirty days at my typing speed. The Novel in a year works out at an average of 350 words daily over four days a week. We worked out that we would need forty to forty-five weeks in the year to complete. Most of us have full-time jobs other than writing. You can see the challenges of being a writer by squeezing two significant things into the day and everything else life throws at us.

Next week, I have another photo that I would like to share with you, along with a couple of dits.

Please have a great writing week, everybody; I'm off to write my Substack piece for next week. I shall be an evening performance by the Massed Bands of His Majesties Royal Marines on Friday, which I am greatly looking forward to. 

Ottery Writers (https://otterywriters.wordpress.com/) meet on the second Monday of the month at the Ottery St Mary Library (otterystmarylibrary)

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