I always write in my new writing diary what I would like to achieve in the coming year.  I try to achieve as many as possible but don't beat myself up on what I can't get done.  Sometimes that is because I have tried something else completely (in my case, I did this with flash fiction) and you end up going down a path that you hadn't anticipated.  In my case with the flash fiction, it has proven to be a very enjoyable path so I'm planning to stick to it!

I never set anything in stone then but am open to new possibilities.  I hope to enter more flash fiction competitions in 2018 (and submit more to online magazines I'm already involved in) but if I spot a genuine writing contest which looks interesting, I may well give it a go.  (Incidentally I always do check out the background of any competition I'm entering and look for what others have said about it, which I think is a wise idea and one I can't recommend highly enough).

So what are your writing plans for this year?  I am also hoping to start at least one longer term project in the next 12 months.  Are you looking forward to the writing you will be doing this year?  You should be! 

I wish you a very happy 2018 and good luck with the writing.

My latest Chandler's Ford Today post reviews my writing year and, while on topic, I thought I'd look at how useful reviews can be whatever you write.

Obviously anyone with a book out there, including me, appreciates reviews on various websites as they do help.  An honest one or two line review is enormously helpful so do please put them up.  (And yes, do say what you dislike about a book as well as what you like about it.  Honesty is vital.  Amazon have, understandably, clamped down on reviews they think were written by the writer's granny or by rival writers who are wielding a hatchet!).

I always carry out an end of year review and tick off the things achieved, carry certain things over (I will always want to have flash fiction work and short stories out there so this is ongoing) and perhaps look at why other things I hoped to achieve didn't happen.  I then look at whether I can do better on these ideas in the coming year or whether it was the ideas themselves that weren't strong enough etc. 

There will always be things I'm disappointed I didn't achieve, that's life, but that's no reason to NOT have another go in the year to come!

Time travel is possible....  if you're a good historical fiction writer or wonderful composer like Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is, for me, one of my favourite pieces of music and conjures up the Elizabethan world so beautifully.

As for historical fiction, my Chandler's Ford Today post this week is part 2 of my interview with Jennifer C Wilson.  She writes historical fiction crossed with ghost stories in her Kindred Spirits series.  In the interview, she shares some of the joys and woes of writing ghost stories/crossing genres and discusses the research she does for the historical side of her work.  If you are looking for ghost stories that are different, do check out her series.

Good historical fiction should make you feel as if you have stepped back in time and as if you are the proverbial fly on the wall in whatever era and setting the writer has chosen.  Can you sense the smells of that world?  Can you picture how things would look?

One thing about history I love, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, is the way it shows how others lived.  It makes me grateful for things I think we take for granted - the ability to read and write for the vast majority of us, decent sanitation etc.  It does no harm to reflect every so often how fortunate we are to have these.  They were not always a "given".

So the secret here then is to give your readers enough information so they can picture and sense your world without giving them so much, they lose all sense of what the story is.   This is true for every genre you care to name too.

My Chandler's Ford Today post this week is Part 1 (out of 2) of my interview with paranormal historical fiction writer, Jennifer C Wilson. She creates a world where the heroes are ghosts and Richard III gets a MUCH better write up than he ever had from Shakespeare!  In her Kindred Spirits series (two so far:  Tower of London and Royal Mile), she combines historical fiction with ghost stories.

Now I'm sure you'll have come across the maxim you are not supposed to cross genres but some of my favourite books do exactly that.  Jennifer's series does so brilliantly.  The most famous example of cross genre work is J.K. Rowling with her Harry Potter series - boarding school stories meet magical stories.

When done well, crossing genres can create a complete new sub-section of fiction and bring new life to the two genres crossed.  Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots feels there are only so many plots and so stories are going to come into at least one of the categories he lists in this book.  (A long read but a very interesting one and well worth checking out).

In my own case I cross flash fiction with fantasy, sometimes with crime, sometimes with horror and have a wonderful time doing so!  And, of course, there are those books which are hard to categorise but you just know you love them when you read them.

So mix away but choose your ingredients carefully!  I think it essential to have a thorough love and knowledge of the two genres you're crossing (so you could work well in either if you ever had to pick one because a publisher or agent wants you to do so.  I also think there will be a stronger element of one genre than the other in the overall mix which is where your natural preferences will take you and this could well be a good guide if you have to pick a category for your work to go in).  It will also show through in your writing that you know both genres well and, as a result, your story will be so much more convincing to the reader.).

To quote the old phrase, "It's a good trick if you can do it!". 

I don't know about you but I find it difficult to get the right balance between marketing current work and getting on with the next book.  I'm sure this is something I will get better at with succeeding books to From Light to Dark and Back Again.

I've loved taking part in the various events and signings I've been involved with this year (including last weekend's celebrations at the Winchester Discovery Centre), and obviously hope to do more in 2018, but I would've liked to have finished the draft of my second book a lot earlier than I have done.  (I'm now editing that second book.  I love editing.  The work is going to get better!).

I am hoping to increase the number of hours writing I do as from early next year, which will help, but the one consolation I think is knowing every writer has this dilemma.  We all find our own ways of getting the balance right so I'll get there.  Goodness knows when but I will get there!  (Famous last words I know...)

In the meantime, I'm off to another event in London tomorrow - the Bridge House/Cafelit/Chapeltown/Red Telephone celebratory "do", it will be fantastic to meet up with my fellow authors again and the writing?  I might get some done thanks to the marvels of the smartphone on the train.  I am getting better at using "dead" time.  When I had to take my car in for a service recently, I was almost annoyed they finished quicker than I expected as I really wanted to finish the story I was working on!!  I balanced time there well enough!

Image Credit:  Most images below taken by me, Allison Symes.  One taken by children's author, Finian Black.  Many thanks to him.