What's Next? - 2015 Retrospective & Future Plans

It's been a pretty busy year.

2015 is coming to a close, as time is passing by at an alarming rate. It only feels like yesterday that I was sitting here at the end of 2014, preparing to release my short story 'This Is Not An Exit' for early 2015, and planning for the year ahead creatively. It's now the end of 2015, and I've succeeded in the goals I set for myself, for which I honestly couldn't be prouder. Not only did I manage to release 'This Is Not An Exit' and exercise some of those creative demons so to speak, but I finally managed to release 'When Justice Comes Calling' after over two and a half years of hard work.

As I've detailed previously, I first began work on 'When Justice Comes Calling' in May 2013, and it was a far different animal than the finished product that you can read today. I became frustrated with myself and the direction the project was taking, and decided to switch gears and write a far shorter piece in late 2013 - that story would go on to become my very first published piece, '45 Days'. The follow-up piece, 'Descent Into Madness', would follow in February 2014.

My goal for 2015 started off humbly enough - I wanted to write another short piece about the difficulty in finishing (and potentially scrapping altogether) 'When Justice Comes Calling'. That story manifested itself into 'This Is Not An Exit' which I released early in the year. That was it - my small goal reached, I'd pursue other creative avenues for the remainder of the year... or so I thought.

The full-length piece continued to tug away at me, and no matter how hard I tried to go a different direction, 'When Justice Came Calling' was always in the back of my mind, nagging me. Like an itch you can't scratch, it refused to go away. Mid-way through 2015 in June, I decided to go back and slowly finish the story that I'd wanted to tell, by that point, for over two years. The first draft was eventually completed in late July... and I hated it.

I had grown as a writer and as a person so much in those two or so years that upon reading that first draft back, I didn't see much of myself in it at all. The premise was still interesting to me, but the direction of the story and characters just fell flat - it seemed that I was trying too hard to write this big, sprawling epic instead of concentrating on the finer aspects, and that is where it fell down.

I took a gamble, a huge one in fact. I decided in the beginning of August that I would rewrite the story from the ground up. It was so daunting, scary, and most of all, challenging. The characters and frame-work was there, but it needed re-tooling, re-fining and the only was to, pardon the pun, do it justice was to go back to square one. Sure, some scenes remained the same as far as purpose, location, what took place, but I re-worked everything. It became a concentrated effort on my part to streamline the story and I think I succeeded.

I am immensely proud that I managed to realise my vision for my first full-length piece which is now available on both Kindle and Paperback via Amazon. I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders - the story is complete, finally, and what a fantastic way close out the year.

As for the future? Well, in the later stages of 2015, I worked on two very short pieces, one titled 'The Conversation' and the other is yet to be named, which I had an absolute blast working on. I'd become so focused, consumed even, on writing a full-length piece this year that I'd almost forgotten how much I enjoyed writing a shorter story, and how powerful it can be despite the length. I may continue to write a few more shorter pieces this year, whether they see the light of the day remains to be seen. I might see if  I can enter some themed writing competitions this year, perhaps play to my strengths, and see where that leads.

The big project however, is still in its infancy, but I'm going to try my hand at screenwriting. A friend from work, Damien (who I actually dedicated 'Descent Into Madness' to for all his support over the years) has spoken about working on a screenwriting project with me for close to a year now, and we're finally taking the first steps into making that a reality. We begin to work on the project from the New Year onwards, and it's exciting man - it's a new medium, new territory for me, but I can't wait to get started. We're in the planning stages right now, and we will just have to see what 2016 brings.

I'm a creative person at heart - always have been, and always will be. I don't feel truly fulfilled unless I'm creating, which is why writing will always be my first love. I've loved to write stories since I was 5 years old, in A4 notebooks that I would read out loud to anybody who would listen. The technology may have changed with the advent of the internet and social media, but deep down, all I want to do is create and write a story, and have somebody read and enjoy it.

I hope whoever you are reading this that you've enjoyed following my writing journey in 2015, and thank you for the continued support and kind words, whether it be on here or Facebook; speaking of, I have a new FB page dedicated specifically to my writing which you can find at this link: William Powell - Author.

Once again, thank you so much, and I will see you in 2016!

- Will