2024 has been a funny old year for my writing. In fact, it’s been a year of so much upheaval and change that, looking back from the tail-end, I can’t believe it’s all happened in the space of twelve months. I look at my reading list and can’t believe I read The Goldfinch and books by Merisha Pessl and Katherine Min so recently. They feel like they belong to another chapter in my life. As does so much of my writing. Let me walk you through my 2024.
New Digs 2024
The Lady K and I made the decision to relocate early in 2024 and things moved at record speed – we moved from Brighton to Salisbury in April. I love Salisbury. I grew up on Salisbury Plain and I’m thrilled to be back. But there was a complication. We moved in April and the academic year finishes in July. I chose to teach at my Sussex-based school until the academic year was done. There were a few reasons. I didn’t want to have the extra pressure of joining a new school in the final term and I didn’t want extra change at a time of so much upheaval. Mostly, I really enjoyed my school and wanted to finish up properly with a class I’d really bonded with. Of course, for twelve weeks, I’d be living and working two hours apart.
I stayed with family and occasionally friends for three months, travelling back to the Lady K and Toddler T at weekends. Sometimes I’d be back once or twice in the week and staying away just wasn’t worth it, so I sucked up the couple hour commute. It was exhausting! But I got through a ton of audiobooks to supplement my reading, resulting in a record year for Books Read.
Writing Far from Home
To the point then: writing. Fact is, it doesn’t look like I’ve done a lot this year. I finished one (long) short story, The Infernal Idol – a tale I’ve been picking at since my PGCE year. I wrote a handful of poems: my favourites were Queen of Keyholes, which was purpose-written to be a performance piece, and The Dragon and the Cross, which you can read here. Other than that, I didn’t finish anything else. But I started something. Started and nearly finished.
In those three months away from my family, I knuckled down and novelled. Once all the marking and lesson planning was done (usually by 9 at night, and more on that in a minute), I wrote. This project will remain nameless for the moment, though the letter V is a theme and forms part of the working title. It’s very different to my usual output and if (no: when!) I finish it, I’ll be seeking representation under a pseu-diddly-udonym. It’s directly inspired by contemporary authors like Eliza Clarke, C. J. Leede and Chelsea G. Summers. I can’t wait to continue writing it. But.
Between the Hammer and the Anvil
I’ve two obstacles to writing. One: Toddler T. Toddler T does not sleep. Or rather, he does not go to sleep, doesn’t stay asleep for long, and wakes early before sunrise. Doubtless this is due to the year we’ve had – before moving, the Lady K and I did a bang-up job of sleep training, and all was well. But mornings and evenings are unrealistic for writing, on account of the curious miniature human poking the keyboard and generally demanding attention. Which I love to give.
Two, the greater of the two: teaching. I don’t know if anyone’s ever done the maths on teaching. Arrive at school at 8 o’clock, set up classroom for kids’ arrival at 8:30. Teach all day – until 3:30. Now if I spend 1 minute marking each of 30 children’s maths books, then English books, then history/geography/RE/Science books etc. that takes me to 5 o’clock: a 9 hour day, less an hour for breaks (though these can be spent on break duty).
This leaves no time for preparing lessons, meetings with other staff, meetings with parents, analysing assessment data, writing up safeguarding reports, writing up behaviour incidents, preparing resources, preparing documents for the subject you lead, differentiating work for specific pupils, writing personalised learning plans for pupils, creating and putting up displays for the classroom, writing risk assessments, planning trips and events… And the only time to do all of these tasks is outside of working hours. What I used to call writing time.
Teaching is a wonderful job and one I take a lot of pride in. But it is a job that demands a lot. A lot. And I can’t see that changing. This isn’t supposed to be a blog post about my day job – it’s meant to be about my writing – but at the moment it’s the day job that’s dominating. If I want my writing to occupy a consistent and substantial part of my life, I’m going to have to find a way to balance it with my career and, of course, with spending time with my amazing family.
Networking
Teaching has introduced me to wonderful people though. I was lucky enough to work with someone this year who not only writes (Victorian-set) novels, but also plays drums. Fortune smiles. I’ve learned lots from having a fresh perspective on my writing and from proofreading someone else’s writing too. I think it’s a friendship that will survive the move to Salisbury.
I’ve also begun performing at poetry events in and around Salisbury. It’s brilliant to meet other inspiring writers and to push myself to deliver performances that catch the attention of new crowds. I can’t wait to see what next year will bring for my writing.
Onto my reading pile then. See you in 2025.
