The 2022 Daily Round-Up
- Paddy Dobson
- Dec 31, 2022
- 4 min read
Greetings.
Another year, eh? And as with so many years before, I hope to go into the next one armed with a little self reflection, to avoid the things that undercut me this year.
I can't dress it up, 2022 was not a good year for me. Good things happened, certainly, but not nearly enough to outweigh all the bad, which seems like an increasingly universal experience. Problems both personal and global have eaten away at a lot of us, and left us feeling that nothing good can come around the corner.
But sticking your head in the sand and hoping things will get better by themselves only gets sand in your ear. Better, I think, to have a look at yourself, what you've done, how you can do it better, and then make sure that yesterday doesn't take up too much of today. I think things can get better, if you make them. If we make them.
As such, I'll be doing what I did last year. Compiling a list of dailies from each month that I particularly liked for its je ne sais quoi. It's nice to look back, criticise, cultivate, and celebrate what I've done, even if what I've done amounts to a daily scrawl.
So here they are, one for each month, and one for the year overall. Tell me if you like them, hate them, or feel entirely indifferent to them. Tell me why. Or don't, I'll still be your mate.
January
15th - Work Detail
I like satire, especially the dry and absurd brand you get with Douglas Adams or Kurt Vonnegut, which I was unconsciously channelling in this daily. The only thing more ridiculous in a ridiculous system is our unwillingness to change it.
February
23rd - What Could Go Wrong?
Gotta love a pulpy, ridiculous sci-fi concept. Often we see the ragtag gang trying to undo the mess some mad scientist has made, so we don't usually get to pull back the curtain and watch the idiot land themselves in a whole heap of trouble. We, as writers, are too preoccupied with things 'making sense' in fiction. When things 'make sense', you miss out on Zombie T. rexes.
March
6th - Ghost Sword
Perhaps not well written, but I do like the idea, enough that I can day dream about doing a longer story on it. Not usually on the nobles' side in fantasy but this gal gets a pass.
April
22nd - A Barber and His Client
Sometimes it's good to keep it short and sharp. I'm a big fan of these kind of standoffs, where only words stand between one dire consequence and another.
May
24th - Quarantine
A lot of hard sci-fi this month, some a lot darker than others. Having an impossible scenario where the reader and the characters understand all the rules can make for some satisfying plotting. This could work as a cold open.
June
7th - Oh, Margret
Sometimes it's the voice of the narration that really sells an idea, or sets a mood, or gives all the charm. Sometimes the absence of voice, sometimes its the overwhelming character of it.
July
6th - Supple
Channelling Pratchett and his displeasure for sleezy fantasy tropes. This particular one does my tree in no end.
August
21st - Girls' Names
See? It's not all dinosaurs and existential dread.
September
11th - A Flash of Neon
It's always fun to meld the contents of the text with the elements of it. A bit of Gibson-like cyberpunk (this was before I saw Edgerunners).
October
20th - Cow on a Submarine
My mate, Tom Lee, gave me the prompt for this one. Need I say more?
November
6th - Granax
I'd like to see what the far future holds. Imagining it is the second best thing, and imagining other people wanting to see it is third best.
December
11th - Collapse
Machines are envious of the cold calculus of man.
2022
24th April - It Burns Brighter Than The Sun
There were a few contenders this year for my favourite daily, and I wouldn't say this is definitively the best of them, but It Burns Brighter Than The Sun just clicks for me. I can't give you a good reason why. It just does. And sometimes, that's how it goes with writing. You can't apply reason to everything, sometimes it just feels right. And feeling, rather than knowing, is what separates us from machines.
So that's it for this year!
Writing can be a brutally lonely endeavour. If you took the time to look at any of my little works this year, I am immeasurably grateful, even if I don't know if you looked. Just the idea that someone, somewhere, has had a look at something I made, keeps me content.
And that's a lesson I'll take into the next year: The world is arbitrary, and, to us, that seems cold and unrelenting. It can get you down.
But you always have your people. I happen to have very good people around me. The best, actually. Friends, family, and, always, Sophie. It's your people who'll carry you through the gauntlet, again and again.
So thank you, friends, for all your love.
See you in 2023.
Paddy
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