Beasting is finished, anyone for a Mince Pie?

 

There isn't anything else I could write about this week. On Friday, 19th January, I finished the first draft of my debut novel, Beasting Dartmoor—nearly 67 thousand words and 210 pages and one word. To say I feel pretty chuffed is a bit of an understatement.

It has been something that has been with me for over three decades. The first efforts were saved on 5.25-inch floppy disks; to be brutally honest, it's more likely to have been writing paper.

I used some of my many life experiences, except the murders, for the story, and yes, there are a couple of characters based on colleagues I may or may not have worked with. If anyone of them is reading this, they'll be panicking. 

So, what now?

The plan for 'Beasting' is to put it aside for a few weeks before starting to edit. Some parts may need a rewrite, and I need to drop a few more hints earlier. And as writers, we're always on the lookout for plot holes.

What now for my writing? After a week where I felt a bit malaise after finishing the book, I'm back on here for this week's blog, and over the weekend, I shall be writing for my next Substack email/post. I can also announce that I have started 'The Mince Pie Murders'. It's a cosy and humorous novel or novella. I need to see where the story goes. I would like to see this work turn into a series if possible. I have started the first chapter and have written a few character sheets. I'm also using an app called MindNode to plot and plan the story. This time, I am writing directly into the Scrivener app rather than copying and pasting from Pages into Scrivener. I intend to use all the bells and whistles of Scrivener this time. 

With the start editing date safely set in the calendar and mince pies already in the oven, I will not likely be slowing down anytime soon.

Writing Letters? Who does that these days?

The days of writing letters have passed, I feel. That's quite a bold statement. But let's have a quick think about it. Most, if not all of us, will send important information via email. We receive almost everything via email these days. Annoyingly, I still get a bank statement through the post and am still looking for a way to stop it; it just goes through the shredder and is recycled. I may be able to stop it on my banking app if I can get that working.

Let's face it: if we need to send someone a message, we are more likely to text, WhatsApp or Messenger. Those last two, of course, are owned by Meta. There are other ways to message that I'm unaware of. 

There are many collections of people's letters, and one of my Christmas presents was a book of letters written by my hero author, David Cornwall, also known as John Le Carré. It is interesting to see his life in letters and how his life has interacted with his writings.

Many other collections of letters by writers and others detail life in different times. In the future, will there be such collections to read about the current turbulent times that we live in?

When we cleared my parent's house, I found that my mother kept the letters and postcards I had sent during my time on HMY Britannia and throughout my other travels in the Royal Marines. My brother Andrew's 'blueys' that he had sent when he was deployed with his RAF Squadron during both Gulf Wars were all there, too.

Is it the same for service men and women these days? There is email and internet access these days, albeit restricted for security reasons. However, I would like to know if writing paper and envelopes are still available from the NAAFI shop.

Letter writing is a dying art in the 21st Century. I certainly can't remember when I last hand-wrote a letter. That is the sad reality of the digital world. I can think of areas in our social lives where we would be better off with pen and paper rather than cruel comments on digital media.

I might go away now and have to think about who I can send a letter to, and then there's the problem of negotiating the Post Office ( now that's another piece, indeed).  

 

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We all talk about the weather, don't we?

It's almost a national pastime in this country to talk about the weather, and hasn't it been shocking over the last couple of weeks? At a time when the country expects and wishes to have snow for Christmas, we are paddling in the damp weather.

For those of us who are still sending and receiving Christmas Cards, we love the snowy scenes pictured on them. One of the most famous scenes is of the Frost Fairs on the Thames. These were brief events between 1309 and 1814 when the Thame froze 23 times. Of those 23 occasions, only five were cold enough for them to be able to hold a fair on the river. From the amount of scenes we see depicted at this time of year, you would have thought that the Frost Fairs would have been a regular occasion. 

The last time that the Thames froze over was, in fact, the winter of 1963, when the country suffered a long period of winter weather, with the thermometer dropping to -20 degrees on occasion. I was barely one year old, and we lived on a farm at least a mile from the village. My mother used to tell me that we were snowed in until March that year, and the water froze in the pipes. Thankfully, my Grandparents lived in the village, and my Grandfather was the Shepherd for the farm. He could get through on his Massey Ferguson tractor and bring food and water to my beleaguered parents and presumably our next-door neighbours in the other cottage. We moved out of that cottage into the town on the day of the World Cup Final in 1966, but that's another tale. 

In the 21st Century, we have to contend with storms, the latest of which 'Henk' has been causing havoc this week. Climate change is said to be the main culprit, and I have to agree. We are looking at a period of much colder weather next week, but generally, this winter so far, it has been a lot milder than we would expect. It's getting colder next week. Time to get the winter coat out, methinks.

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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.