Saturday 6 July 2013

Time for a mid-year reflection

I can't believe it. Somehow or other, six months have just slipped past, and before I even had time to breathe, I suddenly find that we've passed the halfway mark for the year.

At times like these, I feel like sitting down, pulling right back on the silly, and having a good old reflect on the year so far, and particularly where I am with my writing goals.

It's been a busy one. With the multiple projects (and their multiple deadlines) at work, and everything that goes with family life, sometimes I think it's a wonder I get anything done on the writing front at all. And yet, amazingly, I've actually managed to reach a point where I'm quite advanced as far as those goals go.

At the start of the year, I gave myself two primary goals:
  1. Complete and publish my third Neville Lansdowne story
  2. Complete a full rewrite of the detective story I originally wrote a first draft of many years ago.
So where exactly are we at?
 
As far as goal 1 goes, pretty good. I managed to complete several drafts of the Neville story and sent it out to beta readers. Feedback is just starting to dribble back now and it's looking pretty positive. Taking into account time for subsequent revisions as well as a proper edit and proof, I should definitely be on track for a 2013 release.
 
As far as goal 2 goes, the news is even better. Just past the halfway mark for the year and the rewriting is almost complete. I should be able to get chapter 16 done this weekend which leaves just one last chapter to go. At this stage, this means there's a good chance I could have it ready for beta readers by the end of the year (I'd like to do one additional rewrite but this won't be as involved) and maybe even have it ready for release in 2014.
 
So I'm pretty pleased with my writing progress in the first half of 2013. Here's hoping that the second half can be just as fruitful.
 
In the meantime, I do have something else in the pipeline for early 2014 that looks exciting. I can't say too much for now but hopefully all will be revealed soon.
 
Hope your latter 2013 is also a good one.