Book365 – A retrospective

The end of another year and I have now completed my 365 day art project - ProjectBook365 (https://www.facebook.com/ProjectBook365)

Around about this time last year I was mulling over a mechanism by which I would make myself do something creative every day in 2013.   

I needed a theme, and as I was writing the last few chapters of a novel, ‘books’ seemed to make sense.

Part of taking on a project like this is that you need to share it with others, if you don’t, there is no accountability, except to yourself, and that’s not enough to stay motivated.  I started a Facebook page for the project and it’s amazing how encouraging it is getting likes and comments on your work, it kept me going. Here are a couple of my favourite days:

Day 228 - I call this one 'Cultivating Innuendo' It's amazing the suggestive phrases found in a book on garden machinery!

I also reached a couple of milestones in the year:

• Day 330 - Finished NaNoWriMo (nanowrimo.org)

But the most exciting of all was finally realising my dream of seeing my first novel in print

• Day 197 - I am a Published Author! The Bronze Box is now available in paperback from Amazon: http://amzn.to/132zwk3

•  I also started writing my next book - Solomon's Secrets (http://bit.ly/1avRoUv)

My house and garden have bunting draped all over the place

Day 230 - Outdoor bunting made from a book on caring for roses

I have little piles of homemade books dotted everywhere - there's never a shortage of note paper in our house!

 

Day 82 - Notebook

 

The problem with doing something like this, however, is not so much finding the energy to do it, but spending the last few days wondering what project I’m going to do next year.

I’ve been giving it some thought – here were some of my ideas:

• 'A Book in a Week’

I keep saying I should read more and I never allow myself the time.  It’s also a bit of a challenge, read a book every week.  However, realistically, I decided that I would have to sacrifice too many other activities to do this as I’m quite a slow reader

•  ‘A Fiver a Week’

I had this idea about having a fiver every week and in that week I have to convert that fiver into more money by doing something entrepreneurial.  I decided that this didn’t inspire me enough and would involve a lot of energy and time 

•  ‘From idea to publication – a novel in a year’

I’ve already started my next novel so this was a bit of a cheat

But I have since made a decision about what my next project will be.

If writing is something I am serious about, and one day I’d like to make a living from it, I need to put more energy into it – So my 365 project for 2014 will be:

Operation Author: 

A daily commitment to succeed as a writer with 365 actions

Wish me luck and watch this space…