How’s 2023 working out for you?
I’m very gently easing myself back into writing. A fellow writer has just been boasting of sitting down to start a new book and bashing out 2,000 words “just like that”. That is so not happening here. I’m always happy to admit that I am a lazy writer, but even when I roll up my sleeves and get to work, I write slowly. I used to write commercial non-fiction (often anonymously) and the ability to turn out large numbers of words to a timetable was crucial. Nowadays, I write fiction and I like to take my time over it.
I keep reading stuff on social media about setting my writing goals. Really? If I were going to set goals and work hard to achieve them, I might as well go back to having a proper job. My writing is now beginning to sell enough to generate a pleasant side income, but it’s never going to produced the sort of money that I got when I was working. In fact, it doesn’t produce the sort of money that I get from teaching the occasional tango lesson. (Feel free to ask me to teach you!) So my writing goal is to finish the third draft of Burke and the Lines of Torres Vedras and produce something that can see the light of day in the first half of the year. After that, I’d quite like to write another Galbraith & Pole book, but first I’ll have to have an idea for a plot and, so far, I just don’t.
I am going to try to do more about selling the books I’ve written already, particularly the John Williamson Papers. People who read them generally like them, but the never took off the way the Burke series did. It would be nice to see more people reading and enjoying them. I keep being told that the answer is a newsletter. I dohave a newsletter (you can sign up at the bottom of the page) and I’m going to try to give people more good stuff if they sign up. Keep your eyes peeled!
What else? I’ve no idea really. Outside of writing I’ll be doing a lot of dancing and I’ve already booked to watch other people dancing right through to August. Once it gets warmer I’ll be putting on my skates again. (I haven’t been skating since a madcap run round Buenos Aires in October.). Mostly, like a lot of people right now, I’ll be concentrating on not needing to go to hospital and not making any plans that involve railways.
What are you planning to do?
