Despite the title, this year's list isn't comprised solely of books. At the start of the year I made the conscious effort to read more short stories. In fact, with the exception of non-fiction and audiobooks, I read just one novel in the first five months. The rest of my reading time was focused on … Continue reading My 2020 in Books
For a year that has been spent mostly indoors, baking various revamped banana breads, quizzing virtually with friends, spurring across sweeping vistas in Red Dead Redemption 2 (I was late to the game, literally) and, of course, writing short stories, time certainly seems to be going fast. Here's what I've been up to recently. MY … Continue reading My Second Short Story
The question I'm most often asked when I tell someone about my writing is "So when will it be ready?" It's a fair question, though it smacks of a misconception: that writing a story is as simple as putting down one word at a time until you have enough. It suggests, among a thousand other … Continue reading After The First Draft: What Happens Next?
As the title suggests, I discovered more than five things writing the first draft of my short story. No, I didn't discover these later on. As with the original intention for the Hobbit films, it made sense to split the post in two. 1. PLANNING SHOULD BE ORGANIC "No matter how much planning you do … Continue reading 5 MORE Things I Discovered Writing the First Draft of my Short Story
At the start of the year I set aside my novel to focus on writing short stories*. This decision was based on a three-pronged approach: To complete the process start-to-finish on a micro level To prove to myself that I can do this To aid world building I've now finished the first draft of my … Continue reading 5 Things I Discovered Writing the First Draft of my Short Story
The idea for my first short story came to me in December, during an Alter Bridge concert at the O2 that I was attending with my dad and a close friend. A weird time for inspiration to strike, I know. Ghost of Days Gone By had just started pummelling my eardrums when, out of nowhere, … Continue reading My First Short Story
Let me take you back to last December and the decision I made. Over the Christmas break I decided I would start 2020 by shifting my writing focus away from my novel and towards short stories. Having spent so long writing the novel, the idea of taking some time away from it was appealing. In … Continue reading New Year, New Stories
A question I'm often asked is, "Tom, how many books do you read in a year?" Whereas I used to guess an answer, I'm now organised (read: sad) enough to keep a list, and have done so for the last three years. When I looked back on my 2018 list, I was somewhat disappointed with … Continue reading My 2019 in Books
This post continues on from Part I. FEBRUARY After three months, I resumed writing. It felt good to have planned the more immediate chapters and it was reassuring to know where I was going. While I'd set myself up well, I was also setting myself up for a fall. I'd become so focused on working on … Continue reading My 2019 So Far, Part II
We're four (!!!) months into the new year, and a lot has happened. It doesn't feel good (particularly in my fingertips) to be cramming four months' worth of updates into two posts, but the reasons for this will become apparent... DECEMBER [I'm aware this month falls under the old, bin-bound calendar, so try to think … Continue reading My 2019 So Far, Part I
Stories are important for a number of reasons. They allow you to look inside yourself by living the lives of others, while helping you to empathise with those you once failed to understand. They educate without lecturing, lend a voice to the voiceless, and make thoughts fertile—even rampant—when previously there were none. A good story … Continue reading My 2018 in Books
Allow me to start off by saying this is less of a post (OK, much less) than usual and there are two good reasons for it. I've not long returned from my brother's wedding and Texan road trip. While I loved my sojourn across the pond (my premature Christmas-chub and newfound love for country music … Continue reading October & November
If this blog is the young boy with the floor-bound stare, then punctuality is the girl he is very cautiously overcoming his shyness to approach. Give him some time. Having learnt that thoughts of 'you still have plenty of time' are in fact lies, I've at least published this month's post a whole span [that's … Continue reading September
If this blog is the young boy with the floor-bound stare, then punctuality is the girl he is too shy to approach. I aim to publish posts within the first half of the month. (Ahem, or the first half of the second month). Doing so takes time away from my actual writing, which is something Emily … Continue reading August
This post continues on from Part I. WRITING ROUTINE Having made no conscious effort to adapt my writing routine back in April, I once more made no conscious effort to adapt my writing routine in June and July. (Here, adapt is the key word. Whether it's conscious or not doesn't matter.) Time and space away from … Continue reading June & July Part II
I was about to write my June update when I realised it was some-magical-how already mid-July. It seemed, according to the sensible (rather, lazy) part of my brain, to make sense that I wait two more weeks to write another zeppelin-bloated post split across two parts covering both months together. This seemed to make even more sense considering I'd had … Continue reading June & July Part I
This time last year I was starting to feel increasingly more stuck with my writing. That stickiness eventually hardened into an unplanned, protracted break. If it wasn't for the love and support of those closest to me, I would have given up on Everborne. Now that I have a year-old retrospect of that time, I can view … Continue reading May
This post continues on from Part I. REDUCING MY FEAR OF INADEQUACY "Get to the end of your manuscript and THEN worry about the quality. If you can master the art of powering through to the end of your story, you are on your way." ---Hugh Howey Writing with less structure has helped to reduce … Continue reading March & April Part II
As you can probably tell from my photo of neatly piled books, I've finally managed to work out the ones that I read over the previous year. I didn't keep a list tracking my progress, so I was surprised to discover that some of the books I thought I'd read were actually from two years ago---how … Continue reading My 2017 in Books
