Writer's Update

I know, I know - I've been quiet recently in blogosphere: a few big things have shaken up my life recently - moving house, my father's dementia, and the death of a much loved friend being the three biggest things. Under these conditions, writing has had to take a back seat. For anyone interested in what I'm chipping away at, blogging is only a tiny part of the list of projects I have on the go, and these are the biggest projects - what I like to call bestsellers that nobody has yet read!

An epistolary of wisdom and general philosophies for life

A book about God, maths and the universe

A book on morality

A book about love

A comprehensive book on economics

A book about Christianity called The Genius of the Invisible God

A book about Christianity called The Economics of being a Christian

A book called Marvin The Supercomputer, based on a massive thought experiment

A book on psychology and human behaviour

A book on fundamentalism ,cults and other dangerous in-group tribalisms

A couple (maybe three) of books of essays comprising the material that doesn't belong in any of the above

I also want to write a few plays, and I have what I think is a good idea for a TV drama screenplay too - a drama about different types of genius.

The danger is, life is so short that you really need to make these projects come to pass - make them happen!! - and this is where you need a rigorous 'To do' list structure and self-discipline in not getting sidetracked.

As I only write non-fiction, I am not going to be very edifying on the literary mechanics that operate within the author's creative engine (for that you can go to my best friend, author and creative writing lecturer Ian Nettleton).

I'm also not going to be much of a mentor to anyone on the art of self-discipline within creativity - as I have almost none. My only job in the past couple of years has been to edit the books I listed above. But instead I can't turn off my gushing tap for producing new stuff (blogs, essays, contributions to debates, fresh projects, you name it) - which means I'm in danger of always having astronomically more to do than I ever get done. It often feels like trying to mop up the water from the kitchen floor after a pipe has burst. Someone needs to temporarily turn me off at the mains.

What should help is that I now work a compressed fortnight, which means I have every other Monday off. I've decided to guard that time in order to focus on my projects, and hopefully make better progress in the coming year. Additionally, I am going to be better at writing targets for myself, as a better way of putting tangible goals on paper and measuring progress more rigorously.