The Month That Is; How I Wrote Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective - January 1st 2012 - A

It's 4am in morning and I can't sleep.

The reasons are pretty simple: It's January 1st 2012, and I've had an idea.

In 2011 I finished writing my first novel, and it was long and intimidating, and at this point I still haven't worked up the courage to send it off to publishers. I'm a writer, I procrastinate, so sue me (please don't).

Anyway, I've had an idea. This year, I want to achieve something. I don't want to have a resolution, because we all know that if you resolve to do something on January 1st you pack it in within the month. Hell, I've had resolutions barely last the day! Eat less: "One bag of tortillas can't hurt..." Drink less: "Pub? Pub!" Resolutions are fads and fads are for the populist mainstream's lowest common denominator, for weekly rag magazines that include true stories about how husbands turned out to be mad axe murderers, quizzes that tell you your man is cheating on you because he's being too attentive and professes his love to you too much, agony aunts who give the worst possible advice... I hate New Year's Resolutions. There's a passion behind that hate. The same kind of passion behind my hatred of weekly rag magazines but I digress.

I am going to write a novel this month. If I fail, I fail, but God knows I'm going to try not to. I have enough ideas, I have enough research material and stuff down already, all I have to do is put it together. I've never been one to subscribe to the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) school of thought (a proper novel takes longer than a month to write, right? Right? Anyone...?), but the plan is this: Write 50,000 words in January. I'll be updating the blog along side it, airing my grievances, sharing stuff that inspires me and helps me get stuff done. I might soundtrack the process too (I want to make this as invasive and involving as I can. I wrote 3,000 words today whilst listening to Bad Company again and again and again, I should probably stop that). I'm considering dragging in friends for "guest entries" but I don't know if that's viable enough. You'll soon find out.

The endgame here is that on Tuesday 31st January I will have a novel. A beginning, a middle and an end. Not only that, but I'll have a making of series, too, compiled from all my frenzied blog entries. February will be spent looking at sites like Blurb and seeing where would be best to self-publish. The final package will include everything. And I'll be talking about it non-stop for the rest of the year.

So, wish me luck. I'll need it. But hey, look at me, I just wrote nearly 500 words in half an hour. I can knock out 50,000 in no time at all (he said, optimistically) if I can just keep myself moving in a straight line. Right, see you on the other side.

Oh, and on a related note, the novel will be the first Richard Faraday, Ghost Detective story. I've nattered on about it for most of 2011, about the ideas I've had for the character, for the stories around him, so I can do this. I can totally do this.

This entry was written whilst listening to Rives' TED talk "Is 4am the new midnight?" (what? I needed to get into the mood) and the Battles album Mirrored (I got to the end of Tonto and then realised it was gone 4am and I should probably sleep).