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?