This is one of my weekly updates on the progress of my debut crime novel, Safe Hands, about an ageing safe cracker forced out of retirement for the sake of his dying wife and a son that hates his guts. In last week’s post I laid out the reasons for my poor writing performance (lack…
Last week I talked about the work I’ve begun on redrafting the beginning of my novel, ‘Safe Hands’ – focusing specifically on my opening chapter and prologue. This week, the ‘plan’ was to complete the structural work on the novel – by discarding the current end section and working out how and where to add…
I have mentioned my debut novel from time to time on this blog, but it’s been a while so in preparation for my upcoming weekly updates, I thought it might be an idea to bring you up to speed with what it is and where I am. “Cracking a safe doesn’t mean dynamite. No oxecetyline…
Hosting a podcast is changing my writing life. I know, I know. We’ve been here before. Me talking all excited and motivated. Telling you about how I’ll be blogging every week. But this time I mean it. Honest. Wipe that smirk off your face and get with the programme, will you? I’m trying to be…
New Year’s Day is for nursing hangovers and banishing the regrets of last year, which is why I’m writing this on January 2nd. Yes, it’s that time again. Time to lay out my reso – NO! DON’T SAY IT! Let’s use goals, targets, milestones – anything but the ‘r’ word. Call me superstitious but any…
It’s time to give myself a stern talking to. It’s been a few weeks since my last update and that isn’t good enough. I detailed the reasons for my malaise in that post, and won’t repeat them again. In any case, it doesn’t matter. For ‘reasons’ read ‘excuses’. The time for procrastination has passed. In…
If anyone has been paying attention, you will notice I am more than a week late with this post. Life and, unfortunately, Death pushed my writing to the sidelines for a while. Sadly, my Grandad passed away on May 1st. It was sudden, unexpected and in a foreign country, which complicated things even further. He…
Let’s get straight in to it. Here were my aims for last week, along with the mixed bag of outcomes:- 1. Write minimum of 1500 words on novel – 300 words written. 2. Write minimum of 1500 words on crime story – 1100 words written. 3. Record, edit and release this week’s Joined Up…
It’s that time of week again. No excuses. Last week I set my writing goals for the week. Here’s a summary of what I was aiming to do – along with how I got on: 1. Write minimum of 1000 words of novel – ACHIEVED – 1200 words written. 2. Write minimum of 1000 words…
This is the first of my ‘Write up to date’ posts. These will be weekly updates and in addition to my regular blog posts. The idea is for me to better plan my writing activities, become more accountable and to bring you ‘Write up to date’ with my progress. That accountability is key – your…