Where do I go from here?

The terror and possibility of an empty schedule

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

As you may have gathered if you read my previous post, the audio sitcom I’ve been concentrating all my efforts on for the past couple of years¹ has now finished, except for possible future specials. For the first time in ages I’m not working out plot-points as I wash up, or feeling guilty for not getting on with the next script, or shuffling all the writing and recording time around in my diary to take account of other commitments and delays.

Some of you know that my mum was in hospital for most of September, and moved to a care home at the start of October. For a long time I didn’t have the time or headspace for writing², and in any case it seemed trivial and inappropriate when we were being encouraged to brace ourselves for her imminent demise. There is an argument to be made, that such a time is entirely appropriate for writing and it could have offered me an important non-parental focus, but in any case I wasn’t doing any. Then I started writing the odd post here. Now she seems to have stabilised and I feel like I can return to ‘proper’ writing if you will, by which I mean fiction.

Writing and recording the sitcom didn’t leave me much time for other writing except my blog, which I moved from Wordpress to Substack in October 2023. I haven’t entered any writing competitions, sent a short story to a magazine or a manuscript to an agent, or applied for any commissions since April 2023 when I entered a script — unsuccessfully — for the BBC’s Alfred Bradley Bursary Award. I think I’ve forgotten how it all works. Luckily I’m subscribed to a couple of newsletters that tell me what’s out there:

Unfortunately, I’m not sure what to work on. Do I delve into my ‘unfinished’ folder and complete a half-written short story to give myself a new first draft? Or do I take an old draft, polish it and send it out? Am I in the mood for something completely fresh? In which case do I start from an orphaned paragraph, lightly-sketched character or vaguely-noted premise in the usefully named ‘bitsnpieces’ file, or an honest to goodness blank page? And am I writing flash fiction, a short story, novella, novel, or — just maybe — another audio script?

I have to admit to feeling slightly daunted by all this choice. ‘A or B’ I can manage (on a good day) but faced with choosing from a set of paths labelled from A-Z I freeze up with indecision. In the meantime I’ve read the almost-complete draft of a PG Wodehouse-style comic novel set in 1920s Northumberland that I apparently last opened in February 2023, and I’m quite pleased with it. Maybe that’s as good a place to delve in as any.

1. Lee-Ann’s Spare Fridays, available in the usual places or at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jysaville

2. I did release some posts I’d written for a rainy day, to bridge the gap