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I've set myself a challenge for February.


Every day of this month I'm going to complete 15 minutes of copy work. Not a lot of time really but by the end of the month that will be 7 hours spent copying the work of writers I admire.


I've done odd bits of copy work before and have found it a useful exercise. It's a great way of close reading. I find it almost like a cheat: like I'm hot-wiring the ability to engage deeply with a text. All I have to do is copy it out and I automatically start noticing things that I can simply take note of.


I've started this morning with Gabriel Josipovici's short story, 'Christmas'. It's a great story that's heavy on dialogue. Narration is striped down to the bare minimum to keep us moving forward.


Already there is so much to be gained from this story:

  • Its ability to draw attention to facets of the story's background with little more than a few well chosen words in a line of dialogue

  • How little narration you really need to progress a scene

  • The way it builds tension and intrigue by withholding information to make the reader a part of the story's creation

  • The way characters become defined by their relationships and interactions with one another.


Day 1 done. 27 more to go.

I hadn't realised I'd not posted so far this year. With January coming to a close tomorrow I guess this is a good time to evaluate how the first month of a new year has gone.


All in, I'd say pretty well.


Yesterday I submitted a short story to the Parracombe Prize. Which makes the 3rd story I currently have out in the world that I'm awaiting a response on. That's the best position I've ever been in in terms of getting stuff finished and sent out. The story I submitted I ended up titling, When The Day Was Enough. It's a story about a pattern of generational violent behaviour, a sons concern as to whether he can escape that pattern of behaviour, and one day on a beach in Cornwall that offers an alternative way forward. I was as happy with it as I could be with the deadline looming. If it gets chosen for something, great. If not, I'll have more time to work on it, which is also great. Well, good if not great.


The other highlight of the month is that I finally got around to attending the local writers group. Words Out Loud are a Chichester based organisation and they run a fortnightly writers workshop/social just a 10 minute bike ride from our house. It was a very informal meeting but everyone seemed nice and it was good to talk shop with people who share the interest. I'll definitely be going along again.


So, a short story out into the world and a new writers social meet up in the calendar. I'd call that a good start to 2025.


I submitted a flash fiction story to a competition run by Fiction Factory yesterday. That makes my 2nd piece of fiction submitted this year. Given the fact we're almost in December I doubt I'll be adding any more to that total. 2 in a year does seem a bit pitiful. But it's 2 up on last year so there's that.


The story I submitted was a 1000 word story I ended up calling The Apron. A title taken in inspiration I think from Lydia Davies great story, The Sock. My story is about a girl who goes back to her childhood home because she is worried about her fathers ability to cook for himself since her mother who was an amazing cook passed away. There's a lot of personal influence in there from my partners Mum in terms of the food and links to the Netherlands so that was nice to write.


I should hear back in February whether I've had any success. Until then, onto the next thing.

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