The Year of the Word

Each year begins with a challenge to myself. Read more women. Read more from around the globe. Read a particular series. Simply read. The challenge depends on how the year looks in prospect. The decision to get an Audible account made all challenges significantly easier, it has to be said, but in general reading time has been harder to come by in the past couple of years. Having a family will do that.

So what shall it be this year? Come, come, we haven't got all day to decide. What I choose to entertain myself with shall inform my choice of book.

Last year, it was the year of the classic. Dickens. Elliot. Du Maurier. Austen. Brontë. All featured highly in my year's reading. Dickens in particular found himself a staple of my... well, listening, if you must know the truth, but then Dickens should be listened to rather than simply read. You don't get the tempo of the writing, the organic nature of the dialogue, the sense of knowing characters through rambles and interactions like friends. Were I reading his work I'd probably find it insufferable and unfocused, meandering to an ill-defined conclusion. But listened to, the language sings and provides joy.

So what of this year? This year is not a year for the classics, although Audible having many from the nineteenth century available to listen to for free as part of my membership inevitably means I'll rattle through a few from Hardy, Trollope and others. No, this year is a year for something else: 500 words per day of writing.

It's a change. And yes, I'm cheating already. I'm counting these words as a part of my daily quota, so I have something at stake in making this as rambling as possible. Talking around the issue is, of course, a speciality for Dickens and there's much to be learned from the master of the meander, but I also need to ensure in my writing I have more focus.

500 words a day is hopefully less than an hour each and every day. By the end of the year, it's 182,500 words; two good novels, although I set no targets for what I write, simply the amount. Yes, I want to write certain stories. Yes, there are some things on my to-do list. But what is more important is rediscovering the habit of opening a Word document (or Pages, as it is on my laptop) and getting words on a blank sheet. It's opening a blog to crystallise thoughts - perhaps on writing, perhaps on history, perhaps on politics, perhaps on something completely different - and hold myself to account.

This year, you can expect to hear more from me. And I hope to make it interesting.