A year in Compendia, July to December
Take a look at the rest of what you might've missed last year!
Hi!
It’s been a busy year for the Compendia community, so I thought for my final posts of the year I’d offer a wrap up of the highlights of 2023. But before we dive in, just a gentle reminder that those who subscribe to Compendia get a whole host of benefits, and all for around £5 per month. These include news, articles, essays, fiction and a whole host of insider gossip about the publishing industry. You’ll get advice and support about writing and getting your work published, plus guest posts and interviews. Plus, in 2024 I’ll be introducing a monthly Writing Group and regular Ask Me Anything chats, plus exclusive behind-the-scenes posts as I write, edit and prepare to publish a new novel. Phew! I hope you agree that’s pretty good value. Why not take a look?
Here’re the rest of 2023’s highlights…
July
If I were to tell you how many words I’ve scrapped over the years, I’ve no doubt you’d be horrified. In any case I can’t, because if I were to work out an exact figure I’m sure Iwould be horrified. But it’s a lot. The ‘I’m sure I’ll use this someplace’ file on my desktop bulges with thousands and thousands of words that I’ve excised from my work in progress, either scene by scene or chapter by chapter, but it also contains at least two almost complete novel-length works that eventually I decided weren’t good enough or just weren’t working.
August
After the escapism of the last year or so, many of the books I’m reading at the moment (mostly out recently or due to come out soon) have swung back round to dealing with the Covid Pandemic, but with one crucial difference. There’s a distance there now, a solidity to them. This is no shock. It’s difficult to have any kind of rational, considered thought about what’s happening while you’re in the middle of a crisis, and this is doubly true when the crisis is chronic and ongoing. But now that we’re (hopefully) over the worst, people are reflecting on the events of 2020-22 from ground that’s more solid. These books are written with an assuredness, and when Covid-19 is mentioned it is neither diminished nor given centre stage. Instead, authors seem to have found a way of talking around the pandemic, and examining it from different, more interesting, angles.
September
It started with Wordle. Remember when we were all playing that? ‘I’ll get out of bed when the clock hits a nice round number’ turned into ‘As soon as I’ve figured out this five letter word I’ll go and make coffee’. It took a few minutes. Can’t hurt, right? But then Wordle quickly escalated to Wordle then Framed, then I added first Heardle, then Countryle to the mix. So now my morning routine was wake up, Wordle, Heardle, Countryle and Framed. After that I just had to post my ‘Good morning xo’ tweet (yes, I do this from bed, the photos I include are usually from the previous day), then add the same photo to my Instagram story. Check texts, then check emails. THEN get up (having first checked if anyone has liked my photo yet, and also seeing whether any of my friends who also did World, Heardle, Framed and Countryle have sent their results.)
October
So, even when I do know my stuff, I tend to be so hesitant about it that my answers are often ignored. But a week or so ago, I was invited by a fairly new friend to join his team at Cuckfield Literary Festival’s annual quiz. ‘A literary trivia quiz,’ said James. ‘Come on, you’ll be great!’
Now, because this is my year of living uncomfortably (my way of saying I don’t want to spend my entire life inside my comfort zone, because what fun things happen there?), I only argued a little bit.
‘I’m not good at quizzes,’ I said. ‘They’re not my strong point.’
‘But it’s a literary trivia quiz.’
‘I know, but—’
‘Literature. Books.’
‘I’m still not good at quizzes.’
‘You read.’
‘But—’
‘Not that it matters anyway. I’m sure you’ll know some of the answers. It’s just a bit of fun.’
November
Have you ever been to a loud concert, or to a nightclub, and experienced the phenomenon in which the low, bass sounds, sound abnormally loud? Sometimes it can sound like the sounds in the middle, which is where the vocals and melodies reside, are being drowned out almost completely1 by a too-loud, thumping bass. It’s particularly obvious in a club, where a familiar track is being played at a much louder volume.The music can sound quite different, the balance completely off, sludgy where it ought to be clear.
To understand why this is, we have to first remember what sound actually is — a wave-like disturbance in the air that hits our eardrums — and then look at something called equal-loudness contours.
Let’s dive in.
December
Straight away, let’s dispel the myth that blurbs are paid for. In my experience, this doesn’t happen. Now, maybe I’m missing a trick here, and there are authors out there who don’t think twice about taking a backhander to puff a book they haven’t even read, but I have never heard of this. Not in the UK, anyway.
But, are they done as favours? This is a bit of a grey area. Or maybe it’s not, and I’m kidding myself. Maybe it’s not grey at all, and the answer is ‘Yes’.
You've conveyed, in this two part end of year post selecting one post from each past, an enticing slice of the variety of interesting reading and genial provocations to write that is Compendia. Thanks from a relative newcomer and here's to the year ahead.