Mantra

And, just like that, the curtain is slowly coming down on 2017. Usually time’s indifference is our disquiet but for me at least I feel at ease. There’s a calm that year 30 has brought that I wouldn’t have expected at this point some years ago.

In this last quarter of the year, I entered the Children’s Bath Novel Award where the submission limit is 5,000 words – essentially 3 chapters from my story. What I hadn’t realised early enough, though, was that the judges would ask longlisted authors for their full manuscript. While I had a finished manuscript it was still mostly in first draft form. Cue a busy October/November where I redrafted sections and tightened/sense checked other things.

Of course the chances that I made the longlist were slim but I had to be prepared nonetheless. While I didn’t make the longlist for the Bath Novel Award, what I do now have is a completed second draft manuscript. I’m having another break from the project over the Christmas/New Year period to finish a music project. Then in January I’ll proofread once more and wait for beta-reader feedback before trying to find an agent.

It’s been one of the most interesting years of my adult life, largely because so much has been unpredictable. One thing I am really happy with is that I’ve managed to complete the manuscript I started on in January, and to do so while working a full-time job. It’s proven to me that with the right work/life balance I can apply myself. I’m writing like I’m running out of time. Or perhaps I’m making up for lost time. Whatever it is, I have found the things in life that are making me happy and the results are showing because of it.

In 2018 the aim will be to try and find agent representation. I’m better placed now, with this second manuscript under my belt, to make that happen.  Aside from that I’ll have time to write more short fiction and enter some competitions to stay sharp. My own writing group, that I started at my place of work, has flourished this year seeing almost 100 submissions from colleagues who joined, since the group began in June. We’ve even had our own company-wide Winter themed short story competition, which saw nearly half of the entries from employees that weren’t even members of the group! My mantra from these past few years remains the same: keep doing the things you love in life and only good things can happen.