Plotting My Way Into 2024

Happy New Year one and all. Here’s to a productive 2024 for writers everywhere!

While Christmas Day might be lauded as the bit of the holiday season we’re all supposed to cherish, it’s actually the time between Boxing Day and New Year that I enjoy the most. It feels like fallow time, a breathing space in which to plant seeds for the coming year, a time to regroup and dream. That always excites me far more than closing off the year that was.

To be fair, 2023 was a good year. My novel, The Bycatch Principle, came out with Hermitage Press and I’ve been getting some heart warming feedback on it, so that’s been very satisfying. You never really know whether what you’ve written is any good until a reader gets their hands on it and tells you, so thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to let me know your thoughts.

Alongside that, we’ve been super busy over at The Writing Retreat, where myself and founding partner, Jane Moss, have run numerous online and offline courses, day retreats and residential retreats. I’ve provided numerous editing and mentoring services to some wonderfully creative writers, who have all been a genuine pleasure to work with. So, yes, it’s been a good year.

But, as I said, it’s the coming year that always excites me most. With work still taking up so much of my time, I’m determined to be more ‘planned’ with my own writing this year, and I’m now chomping at the bit to see how that will pan out. I’ll be sharing my outline plan for the coming twelve months on my blog soon. Putting my goals for 2024 out there in writing is my way of committing to the process.

As the year trundles on I’ll keep track of my progress via My Blog and we’ll see where I am by the end of it.  All being well, and the plan being followed, the idea that is filling my writer’s head with fizz right now will be transformed into a completed novel by this time next year. Watch this space. Better still, subscribe to my website and I’ll keep you updated on how it goes, warts and all. It’ll be good to keep in touch.

Best wishes for 2024, and keep writing.