February 2020 reflections: my writing
By the end of this year I will be in my fifties. This milestone in my life has inevitably resulted in me evaluating what I have achieved in my life. I don't really want to go into details of my own personal life here in my blog. I will however, reflect on my very slow progress as an aspiring writer.
Like most people I've had my ups and downs. I've got a loving family with two young daughters and three grown up step children. I can just about afford to keep a mortgage and household running although in my permanent job I work four days a week. Luckily, I can also work as a freelance exam marker and that can make up some of the shortfall in my income.
For years I have harboured a desire to become a writer. Indeed back in 2004, I took a Creative writing course at College with view to pursuing a writing career. However, at that time I was settling down with my wife and Step children and found myself a Head of Department at the school where I work at. I threw myself into my teaching career and for a long times abandoned all ideas of becoming a writer. From about 2004 until 2017, I managed to write one Doctor Who short story for a Big Finish short story competition, I published it on this blog many moons ago, and a scrap of an idea for a story which recently I have typed up. Re- reading the Doctor Who story a while back made me wish I had time to proof read and edit it as it badly needed it and is a bit cringe worthy in places.
From 2017 onward, I have slowly but surely started to write more. I started off by writing a tine travel audio script which I sent off to a small audio company but it didn't get anywhere and then I have tried writing two more entries for the Paul Spragg competition for Big Finish over the last few years. I think my first entry broke their rules, of the time, of not including established villains as my idea revolved around the Eighth Doctor and the Master both chameleon arched working for an agency linked to UNIT. My second entry, featuring the Seventh Doctor, had a similar story line to one which had already been used on the TV show, so upon reflection, it was hardly surprising that neither entry got anywhere. However, there was a certain amount of satisfaction from enjoying writing the story particularly the second one as I managed to complete it. I may complete the first one one day. I may upload the completed one onto here.
I have written a horror short story which reflected my preoccupations of the time: Horror short stories, particularly 'Blood on Satan's claw and Ghostly Tales Audible 2017; Anglo-Saxon History and Ben Aaronovitch's rather excellent 'Rivers of London' book series. I completed redrafts of it last September but I am unsure how to go forward with it: Do I self publish? Do I try and get it published on one of the various online Horror magazines? Who knows but I'd like people to get an opportunity to read it one day.
I have tried writing for the Professor Howe parody book series and would like to return to the project one day as I have enjoyed reading the books. I have two projects on the go at the moment. One hasn't got very far, Lichfield Prime, and is taking a back seat whilst I embark on my Fantasy trilogy aimed at 9-12 year olds and five short stories, which act as prequels, to the series, aimed at younger readers 5-7 year olds. As I am writing the story, I find I have enough material to create either two short story prequels or prequel novels. I have posted a prologue to the first novel on here a few months ago. Unfortunately, the post is going to need reformatting as transferring to another Blog template has messed the formatting up and I posted my attempts at writing a blurb for the first volume. I'm really enjoying the creative process for writing this series: creating a fictional universe for the characters to live in with its own creation myths and mythology has been fascinating. Additionally, planning and mapping out the story and then writing the actual events has proven to be a great hobby for me. I think as it is a series of books aimed at different target audiences, I'd like to try the traditional publishing route which is proving to be a somewhat daunting experience.
What other things would I like to do? Well on a practical level, I'd like to become a freelance Copywriter writing web content for companies whose first language isn't English and would like to explore this further. As usual time is a factor but it is something I'd like to explore further. I may also try and submit jokes and sketches to current affairs radio programmes. My main desire, though, is to enable people to enjoy my fiction writing.
Like most people I've had my ups and downs. I've got a loving family with two young daughters and three grown up step children. I can just about afford to keep a mortgage and household running although in my permanent job I work four days a week. Luckily, I can also work as a freelance exam marker and that can make up some of the shortfall in my income.
For years I have harboured a desire to become a writer. Indeed back in 2004, I took a Creative writing course at College with view to pursuing a writing career. However, at that time I was settling down with my wife and Step children and found myself a Head of Department at the school where I work at. I threw myself into my teaching career and for a long times abandoned all ideas of becoming a writer. From about 2004 until 2017, I managed to write one Doctor Who short story for a Big Finish short story competition, I published it on this blog many moons ago, and a scrap of an idea for a story which recently I have typed up. Re- reading the Doctor Who story a while back made me wish I had time to proof read and edit it as it badly needed it and is a bit cringe worthy in places.
From 2017 onward, I have slowly but surely started to write more. I started off by writing a tine travel audio script which I sent off to a small audio company but it didn't get anywhere and then I have tried writing two more entries for the Paul Spragg competition for Big Finish over the last few years. I think my first entry broke their rules, of the time, of not including established villains as my idea revolved around the Eighth Doctor and the Master both chameleon arched working for an agency linked to UNIT. My second entry, featuring the Seventh Doctor, had a similar story line to one which had already been used on the TV show, so upon reflection, it was hardly surprising that neither entry got anywhere. However, there was a certain amount of satisfaction from enjoying writing the story particularly the second one as I managed to complete it. I may complete the first one one day. I may upload the completed one onto here.
I have written a horror short story which reflected my preoccupations of the time: Horror short stories, particularly 'Blood on Satan's claw and Ghostly Tales Audible 2017; Anglo-Saxon History and Ben Aaronovitch's rather excellent 'Rivers of London' book series. I completed redrafts of it last September but I am unsure how to go forward with it: Do I self publish? Do I try and get it published on one of the various online Horror magazines? Who knows but I'd like people to get an opportunity to read it one day.
I have tried writing for the Professor Howe parody book series and would like to return to the project one day as I have enjoyed reading the books. I have two projects on the go at the moment. One hasn't got very far, Lichfield Prime, and is taking a back seat whilst I embark on my Fantasy trilogy aimed at 9-12 year olds and five short stories, which act as prequels, to the series, aimed at younger readers 5-7 year olds. As I am writing the story, I find I have enough material to create either two short story prequels or prequel novels. I have posted a prologue to the first novel on here a few months ago. Unfortunately, the post is going to need reformatting as transferring to another Blog template has messed the formatting up and I posted my attempts at writing a blurb for the first volume. I'm really enjoying the creative process for writing this series: creating a fictional universe for the characters to live in with its own creation myths and mythology has been fascinating. Additionally, planning and mapping out the story and then writing the actual events has proven to be a great hobby for me. I think as it is a series of books aimed at different target audiences, I'd like to try the traditional publishing route which is proving to be a somewhat daunting experience.
What other things would I like to do? Well on a practical level, I'd like to become a freelance Copywriter writing web content for companies whose first language isn't English and would like to explore this further. As usual time is a factor but it is something I'd like to explore further. I may also try and submit jokes and sketches to current affairs radio programmes. My main desire, though, is to enable people to enjoy my fiction writing.
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