1st March, 2025 - that was a quick month

I sat down to do my copy work this morning and realised I've already completed my challenge. I've clocked in my 420 minutes (7 hours) of copy work for this month. I've really been enjoying it actually - I'm tempted to continue for another month.

So far I've copied out:

• Christmas by Gabriel Josipovici

• Sheba by Ben Pester

• Mother's Son by Tessa Hadley

• Resting Bitch face by Lucy McKnight Hardy

• You Can't Be Too Careful by Claire Keegan

• and Rostrum by Eley Williams

It's a great and varied collection of stories and what I've found is that doing the copy work makes it much easier to spot the craft techniques I'm learning about. Right now for instance I'm reading up on dialogue. One of the simplest things I've learnt (which seems insane that I didn't already know) is the different forms dialogue can take: Summary, Indirect Speech and Direct Dialogue. As a writer I currently lean into direct dialogue a lot more than I maybe should so starting to utilise the other forms will help me a lot I think. The copy work has made it much easier to spot instances of these techniques.

I think I'll finish up my copy work by doing 1 more story as I've already sat down at my desk with it. I'm going to finish up with 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates. After that I'll go back to focusing on my craft notes for dialogue and maybe diving into a writing project to apply what I've found.

1st February, 2025 - a challenge for the month

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.

30th January, 2025 - first of the year, and new meetings

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.