Objectively, 2020 has been a terrible year. We all know why. Covid-19. I will spare you my extended thoughts on the sociopolitical discourse which followed. However, I will say I oscillate wildly between anger and despair at the actions of a government who are incompetent and cruel.

That said, I wanted to take a look at my creative successes and failures throughout 2020.

In early 2020 I started writing a novella. The story is one I’ve attempted to write several times before and the initial idea is over a decade old. If you were to compare the original idea to the one I set out to write this year, you would find very little in common. It’s been through a number of iterations, and I’ve made a couple of failed attempts previously. However, this year when I sat down to start work on it, I told myself this would be the time I finished it.

After writing a third of it, I stopped. It was too hard. It was a case of self doubt. It was boredom. I have told myself this story so many times it seemed too much effort to actually write. Whatever the reason, I walked away.

April saw the release of Arterial Bloom which features my story Dog (Does Not) Eat Dog. I know – I’m like a broken record. I’m sorry to the friends and family who’ve had to endure my shameless promotion. That said, it remains a story I’m proud of and I’m honoured to be in an anthology with such heavyweights.

I did a short interview with Tabitha Wood as part of her Ginger Snaps series over at Ginger Nuts of Horror. Go check out the archive.

Though I wasn’t writing much, I did write three reviews for Ginger Nuts of Horror. The Shadow Booth Vol. 4 edited by Dan Coxon was the first. The second was Kit Power’s collection, Voices, from Black Shuck Books and the third was for C. S. Alleyne’s debut novel, Belle Vue.

I was also intervied by Janine Pipe over on her blog. Janine is a champion of horror fiction so to be featured on her blog was a fantastic opportunity. Take a look at her site here.

My story The Forest Abyss was published in the August issue of Aurealis. A horror story set in a haunted forest in Poland.

August also saw a good friend and I dust off an old script of ours and, over Zoom calls, polish it up. We were surprised to find that much of it we were still happy with. We also learned how quickly technology moves (we had a scene featuring a CD player in car for example). Now, we have a final draft of the first episode of a comedy-drama that we’re very proud of and we’re steadily working on the rest of it. So, if there are any producers from Netflix or the BBC or Channel 4 reading this, get in touch.

In October, I started writing again (you can read about my approach here) and returned to the novella. I recently finished it and, though it’s a very short novella, it came in at 16,500 words.

I’ve managed to write every day since the 12th of October which, as of today, puts me at 74 days in a row. I’ve finished a short story and I’m currently working on another.

Most recently, my flash piece All We Endure came joint first in the November Flash competition over on the Crystal Lake Publishing Patreon and will be released in a future volume of Shallow Waters – their flash fiction e-book series.

There has been some dissapointment. My submissions have slowed down somewhat and I’ve missed the deadlines for several open calls this year, but writing every day has softened the blow just a little.

At least I’m writing.

Finally, for the two of you who care, my list of stories I loved in 2020 will be up in the new year. If you’re interested, you can take a look at last years recommendations here. If you read just one of them I would consider it a success.

As the year draws to a close we start looking towards the next. I have resolved not to make any resolutions. They’re crippling, at least to me. It’s just a list of stuff I should be doing or should have done. Taunting me…

To end, it seems only fitting to quote pop heavyweights D:Ream,

Let’s hope so.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.