Towards the end of 2022 I realised that to be a writer, I actually had to write. I mean, I’m a truck driver because I drive trucks every day, but am I a writer if I only write once in a…few years? Alright, technically that’s not true. I wrote a short story for an anthology recently, but, my lord, it took me forever and cutting it fine with a deadline. But it reminded me that to be a writer, I had to get words down that people would read.

When I was young, if I read a book that really caught my imagination, I would then copy that book, word for word, into an old writing pad. One was a Terrahawks book, of all things, but others included The Hardy Boys, and I remember copying down Treasure Island as well. It was my way of breathing stories in, absorbing them, and by this osmosis, I learned how to form sentences and paragraphs, dialogue, characterisation, and I’d use this new skill to write some really fucking awful stories of my own. But I wrote. Every day. And when I didn’t write, I read. I read everything; books, comics, leaflets, and when mum made me breakfast, I’d sit and read the back of the cereal box.

So what changed? Well, mum doesn’t make me breakfast anymore, but I still read like a librarian on steroids, except now it’s reddit, internet posts and articles, as well as books, books, and books. But I’m not writing as much as I should be. So towards the end of 2022, I promised myself I would start to blog again in the new year, every week, without fail. But about what? Well, as kids, many aspiring writers are told to keep a diary, which helps them to write consistently, to flex that fledgling writing muscle, So I’m gonna go back to basics, start over, right from the beginning, and post a blog diary every week of my life, boring, exciting, sad, happy, whatever.

This is my challenge to myself. To remind me of who I am and what I can do. And hopefully this will get me going with the two books I’ve got to finish…should have finished years ago. And I also decided I would blog on the first day of 2023 and I’m already late and cutting it fine! But as long as I can get one down a week, then I’m doing what I set out to do.

So, here’s to me and 52 blog posts this year.