As it is the third Monday in January, it is officially and indisputably Blue Monday – the most depressing day of the year. The rationale for attributing this label to an otherwise unassuming Monday was scientifically proven by a travel company in 2005, who, far from trying to sell more package holidays, were simply trying…
Tag: writing
My 2023 Blogging Commitment
As it is January and thus still very much a time for making unrealistic pledges, I’m still fairly confident that I’m going to turn around my 2022 blogging slump and actually post quite regularly in 2023. However, my ambitions are tempered with a little reality – gone are the days of posting daily as I…
A Post That Is And Also Isn’t
I appear to have unintentionally had another hiatus on my blog. Having posted daily throughout November and December, I started January in a similar vein, but, as has oft been my way, once I missed a day, I just stopped entirely. I seem to be very much a boom or bust blogger. It’s not like…
Free Verse About The Value Of Money
I tried explaining That money isn’t everything That it can’t buy you happiness That it can’t buy you love That it is, in fact The root of all evil That, as much as I might try I can’t put my money Where my mouth is Because my mouth is already there And money makes a…
Flash Fiction About The Perils Of Time Travel
Damien awoke with a start to discover another person in his bedroom. At first he thought he was dreaming as the other person, though considerably older and dressed in an outlandish pink suit, looked alarmingly like…well… like Damien. “Hello,” said Damien, who in spite of this clear intrusion of his personal space, was never one…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 30
It’s the early hours of the morning as I write this, but having been unceremoniously woken up by Little Proclaims, and realising that I didn’t have quite enough time to go back to sleep before my normal, quite early ‘getting up time’ was due to arrive, I thought I might see if I couldn’t ease…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 29
It’s the penultimate day of NaNoWriMo, which I am quite glad about because, as much as I have enjoyed attempting (and largely failing) to write a full length novel this month, I could do with a bit of rest from it all. I’m set to finish on around 25000 words, which is only half that…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 28
Although I have two more days left of this challenge, today was really the last opportunity to have a big push towards the final word count. I’ll be in work after today and novel-writing while at work would probably be frowned upon. I had a couple of productive evenings after work last week but the…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 27
Day 27 and we’re 90% of the way to NaNoWriMo completion. Not that I’ll have a completed novel at the end of this, but I’ve had another productive day and I’m certainly finishing the month strongly. I’m fairly certain that my revised goal of 25,000 words by day 30 will be achieved and I’m beginning…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 26
Happy Black Friday everyone! Or should I say ‘Happy Last Day Of Black Friday’? One of the many retailers who have been emailing me all week has indeed dubbed today ‘The Last Day of Black Friday’, suggesting that Black Friday, in spite of the name, is a multi-day event. I have waxed lyrical on this…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 25
If I’m not mistaken, today is Thanksgiving. Not here in the UK obviously. I was at work as normal today, but I am aware that my readership, while undoubtedly only a small group in its entirety, is, nonetheless, global. So some people reading this will probably be celebrating Thanksgiving and it would be churlish of…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 24
After a fairly underwhelming few days of NaNoWriMo-ing, I appear to have roared back into life this evening. While the prospect of being a NaNoWriMo ‘winner’ has clearly escaped me, I still hold on to the very real dream of being, what I’m now dubbing, a NaNoWriMo ‘runner up’ by getting half-way to the original…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 23
23 days in to a 30-day challenge and it can be hard to see the point of it all. When I finally hit day 30, I’m fairly certain that all I’ll have to show for my efforts is a badly-written first draft of half a novel, and a series of prosaic blog-posts that I’ll probably…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 22
There have been a few times this month when I have almost fallen asleep while writing these posts, but tonight I’m even more tired than usual. So my usual preamble prior to revealing today’s word count, is going to have to be brief for fear that I will doze off any moment. I haven’t managed…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 21
Day 21 NaNoWriMo, and thus we’re 70% of the way there. My word count continues to flounder and not for the first time I find myself struggling to keep my eyes open as I write my end-of-day NaBloPoMo post. Last Sunday was, at the time, my most productive day so far, and one week on,…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 20
I may or may not be slightly inebriated as I wite this. I have been drinking beer, so it would be reasonable to question my sobriety, but equally I’m not currently sitting under a table in a Cardiff hostelry singing loudly and tunelessly, so I’ve definitley been more drunk in my life than I am…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 19
It’s Friday, which is never a bad thing. I have the weekend ahead of me and I’m very much looking forward to not being at work. Whether I will use the time available to work on my NaNoWriMo project is anyone’s guess, but, almost three weeks in, I’m no longer so naive as to expect…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 18
One of the more recent November phenomenons is the UK’s adoption of Black Friday. It’s quite a strange concept that a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving should so emphatically embrace Black Friday, when there is no obvious rationale for doing so. Well there is one ratrionale and that is to sell stuff to people…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 17
This is the second time I’ve attempted NaNoWriMo. The last time was in 2014. I didn’t do very well that time. I’m not sure when I gave up, but I think it was long before the 17th November. I didn’t have a child back then though, so I think I made better progress with the…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 16
When I started doing this challenge I knew it would be pretty tough to maintain the novel-writing bit of it. What I hadn’t anticipated was quite how hard the blogging bit would be. I’ve maintained many a blogging streak of 30+ days in my time so I presumed this bit would be easy. The plan…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 15
Day 15 of NaNoWriMo and this is officially the halfway point. At least it is in terms of days. I’m not even close to the 25,000 words that would allow me to say that I am halfway towards the 50,000 words which will permit me to declare that I’ve written an entire novel in a…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 14
I’m officially 2 weeks in to my NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo adventure. It’s not exactly the halfway point, but it feels like a milestone of sorts. I’m now very firmly of the opinion that attemptng to write a whole novel in a month is madness, and I’m quite certain that I will not succeed in achieving that feat.…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 13
Despite keeping up the pretence, even to myself, that I will make up the defecit caused by my feeble efforts on work days, by fully committing to going above and beyond on weekends with my novel-writing, I appear to have squandered another Saturday and the target of 50,000 words on or before the 30th November…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 12
It’s Friday evening and therefore the weekend. I don’t have any half-marathons to run this weekend, though I think it’s fair to say that I’m still feeling the effects of last Sunday’s endeavours on that score. Still I am fairly optimistic that I’ll find some time to write over the next two days. I’m less…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 11
Irrespective of how good my novel is (and it really isn’t), I can’t help but feel that these accompanying posts are a little prosaic in nature. Were I just completing the NaBloPoMo challenge on it’s own, I might have mixed things up a bit. Or more likely descended into posting endless haikus. As it is,…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 10
Day 10 of this NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo journey means I’m a third of the way there chronologically. In terms of NaBloPoMo, I’m ticking all the boxes, but my NaNoWriMo journey is still some way short of close to being on target. Nonetheless, I remain very much in the game and today I have once again written some…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 9
Day 9 of my thirty day novel-writing challenge and progress is slow. I’m falling asleep as I write this, which is less than ideal, and I experienced a similar affliction when I attempted to work on my ‘masterpiece’ earlier. I did, nonetheless, manage to write some words today. 265 of them to be precise. This…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 8
It turns out running a half-marathon is tiring. I already knew this, because I did run a few in the noughties, and indeed one in 2014, but yesterday’s efforts still took it out of me more than I expected. Perhaps this is because I’m getting older, perhaps it’s the added challenge of being a parent,…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 7
In a change to the usual format (of this relatively new thing I’ve been doing), I’m posting today’s NaBloPoMo effort before I’ve even had a chance to start working on my NaNoWriMo effort. Given that the two ‘projects’ are inextricably linked (just look at the title of the posts) this may seem like an odd…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 6
As I stumble to the end of day 6 of this folly, I am sad to report that I have not had the productive Saturday that I might have anticipated. I chose, instead, to spend much of the day entertaining Little Proclaims in various endeavours. She has, I think, had a good day, and I…
The James Proclaims NaNoWriMo/NaBloPoMo Adventure – Day 5
It’s the 5th of November and here in the UK it’s the day of the annual pyrotechnical festival known as Guy Fawkes Night. Or Bonfire Night. Or Fireworks Night. It’s also Friday, which means that the weekend is here, and that always brings a smile to my face. I didn’t watch any firework displays this…
James Proclaims! 