Back on the job

Today was my first day back on 'Writing Friday' after a somewhat enforced sabbatical for the last three months of '08 - a month out with illness, then a university exam, some school visits, work commitments and the annual holidays, including two and a half weeks in Thailand! However, I have been thinking and plotting during this time and was all ready to get back into it today.

I finished last year at 53,510 words of my novel which, plus the 35,000 words or so of A New Zealand Christmas that I wrote in April-June, means I managed to write nearly 90,000 words last year. Considering I only wrote on nine months of those Fridays, that means a 10,000-word-a month output, which I think a lot of writers would be pleased with. I am hoping to keep up a similar output this year, maybe even greater. I realise the (western) New Year is just a day on a calendar, a new number at the end of the row of numbers, and one that is meaningless for vast numbers of people in many other societies, but it does help to focus the mind. In a year from today, say, I will hopefully be sitting here blogging that I have finished the first draft and am well onto my revisions, and that I will also have completed a non-fiction YA manuscript in that time. Here's hoping!

I spent today getting sorted for the year ahead: tidying the desk, making up a new goals spreadsheet etc, which might sound like procrastination, but it needed to be done! I also decided that instead of just charging in and going on with the story where I left it, I should write down the results of all my recent cogitation so I don't forget what's going to happen! Yes, the dreaded synopsis.... Like many writers, I am afraid of writing a synopsis at the beginning of the project or part-way through it in case in some mystical way, by writing out the story, it will kill the book. The idea will die, or I'll realise it was a bad idea in the first place, or I will become so overwhelmed by the enormity of what I am trying to do that I will become disgeartened and give up. However, my logical side tells me that a synopsis is an extremely useful tool, and that making notes on the second half of the book will give me direction and confidence, aid me when I get stuck or am not sure where to go next, and make sure I don't leave out anything important or relevant. Just because I write it down, it's not set in stone, and I can change it later if I want to. But, like any effective goal, once it is written down I will be able to see where I am going and be able to stride confidently in that direction. Or so they say... I'll keep you posted!

Recent reading
Because it's been holiday time, I have had lots of time for reading - and my selection has been rather eclectic!

• Over the New Year break I finally finished Ken Follett's World Without End, the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth. I think it was a little over-long and I have to admit to doing some skimming to get to the end. I admire what he was trying to do but I think the story arcs of the various characters could have been wrapped up a few incidents sooner. And how come none of the main characters died of the plague?
• I also read fo the first time Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Late last year I read Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, a non-fiction work about one of the earliest Victorian detectives, upon which the character of Sherlock Holmes is said to be based. It is hard to appreciate The Hound now as the novelty it would have been when it was first released, as we are so saturated today with detective stories and mysteries, and his detection techniques are no longer viewed as revolutionary. My enjoyment of it was also somewhat diminished by the fact I was reading a textbook edition with endnotes; try as I might to ignore them, I couldn't help myself flicking to the back all the time to read the references, which disturbed the flow of the story.
• On a completely different note, I really enjoyed John Burdett's Bangkok 8. I am not usually a thriller reader, because I have a tendency to nightmares and also have trouble suspending my disbelief over some of the more outrageous crimes writers come up with (it often makes me wonder what's going on in their heads!). However, what I really enjoyed about this book was it's strong flavour of Bangkok, which I have recently visited, and I am keen to read Burdett's two other Bangkok novels, Bangkok Tattoo and Bangkok Haunts.