Final post of 2019
I’m wrapping up this website slightly early this year due to the fact that December is a very busy month for me. Aside from Christmas, December is also my birthday month, I need to finish all my tasks at work and I promised my friend I would proof read his novel manuscript. I also need to submit my own manuscript to a competition in early January and plan to spend the month licking it into shape. As usual JackDowd’sWritingBlog will emerge in January, this time with a few new features…
Let’s reflect on my goals of 2019.
- Empty Nights related events
My first goal was to turn Empty Nights into an Ebook and have it stocked in my local library. I used to have a joke with the school librarian that, one day, my books would be on her shelves. Sadly none of these things have come to pass… yet. Empty Nights is not currently available on Kindle or as an E book and although I started research how to put it into my local libraries I was unable to follow through with the plan. On a positive note I have had to order more business cards because I gave away my first two hundred and fifty and I do attempt to bring my novel up in conversation.
2. Holidays
I’ve had a very successful traveling year.
In February I attended Paris for a fencing competition. If you want to know more about my journey I created a travel vlog which is on the StartingAsStranger’s YouTube channel. The video can be found below:
I also visited Gran Canaria with two university friends. I was splashed by a dolphin whilst at sea and explored two shipwrecks in a tourist submarine. That was the highlight of my year.
3 Complete a creative project
After dedicating most of 2018 to Empty Nights, I wanted to take a break from writing prose and tackle a different medium. While on my writing retreat at the south coast earlier this year, I wrote a spec script for a TV series titled Gatekeepers. It’s in the same vein as The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures (if anyone remembers that brilliant program?) and I throughly enjoyed my time on it. I’m hoping to submit this script to various competitions across the UK next year.
4. Submit short stories.
I’m ashamed to say that I have had nothing published in 2019. I’ve written ten more tales to add to my writer’s arsenal and I have also removed some old stories from circulation so I can tweak them for the new year.
5. NaNoWriMo 2019
If you’ve read my previous post then you’ll know that I completed NaNoWriMo 2019. I wrote 50,000 words in thirty days and have a rough draft of a new novel manuscript to work on in 2020
Four out of five goals. I’m happy with that.
Merry Christmas everyone. See you in the new year.
