Astronomer Reinvented November 21st
The usual obstacles of weather and general busyness conspired to restrict not only the writing but also the photographs I needed to have anything to write about.
I added some images of new objects during October but never got around to blogging about them!
Gamma Arietis is a double star that I managed to mis-identify before getting the real one.
I also photographed a star cluster NGC 752, which I confused with the Pinwheel Galaxy.
I added a few more deep sky objects and some lunar close-ups taken by webcam in September.
Astronomer, Reinvented September 16th
Maybe the lack of posts about my work-in-progress (WIP to writers) suggests that I had made little progress in over two months. That would be somewhat correct! Most of the writers on social media are novellists. All you need to write a novel is time, energy and imagination, not that those qualities are easy to come by. For non-fiction, the challenges are different, especially when the journey of the subject is uncharted territory. I recall, over a decade ago, I decided to observe a group of objects known as the Messier Catalogue. It consists of 110 objects, varying from the well-known and easy to the downright difficult. Many of the objects can only be seen for a few weeks every year. One spell of bad weather and, well, its was another year to wait. It took four years to finish my observations and, hence, the book:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1935694669/ref=syn_sd_onsite_desktop_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pf_rd_p=364912db-e534-48ad-9b87-1666e0a1ca2b&pf_rd_r=71TR3ATT0PFHXRJ43997&pd_rd_wg=19SZH&pd_rd_w=PgTeg&pd_rd_r=73c4afd2-7a42-42ac-a5e8-8ddafa96d7a5.
Astronomer, Reinvented follows a similar path. I am trying out new astrophotography techniques. Like my previous book, I need enough clear sky and when I'm not working or sleeping. The year 2023 was notoriously bad for weather, meaning that I had little opportunity to take the photographs I wanted or I was restricted to photographing brighter objects, such as the Sun and Moon.
Just because my progress was slow did not mean that it was zero. I had applied some of the new techniques I had used on the Sun and Moon on the planet Venus, that had emerged into the morning sky in September.
I had also revisited some constellations, trying some different camera settings.
Novellists, short story writers and non-fiction writers alike have several things in common: we don't concentrate on our WIP, we day-dream about other projects! Sometimes we end up working multiple projects but I gave that up when old age set in. I still have a day job and, maybe one day, I might make a significant astronomical purchase from the proceeds!
Astronomer, Reinvented July 2nd
As previously discussed, time to work on the book and time to do the experiments that formed the content of the book, were both at a premium. That is the reality of life for most writers, as most of us have day jobs, etc. Yet, the book had reached 37 pages. That is not a milestone but, to me, it was a sign that I had made progress. Slow progress, yes, but progress nevertheless. At this stage, I only knew part of the content I was going to write, due to the nature of the book. I knew, at some stage, there would be a time that I would have enough pages to fill as book but, how many? I think a minimum of 300 and maximum of about 400. Don't mention word count to me! Much of the book, so far and intended for the future, would consist of images. Here's some images that I have created so far.
Astronomer, Reinvented June 14th
I had another bout of wanting to be a novelist. It’s like
the old cliché of the comic who wanted to become a serious dramatic actor. Do
why can’t an astronomy writer be a novelist? The main reason they might not be
able to is that they wrote a novel and it didn’t sell. Despite a two to three
year lull, my astronomy writings have sold, not enough to make a full-time
living from them by a long shot but they have sold enough over the years to
make me think I had an audience. Yet, that same audience did not embrace my
novel. Maybe a novel with an astronomical content could work.
I am well aware of the dangers of having multiple projects
on the go, especially since I returned to full-time work.
Nobody likes to identify as a “successful” writer. It was
refreshing to read that even John Steinbeck suffered from what we now call imposter
syndrome. Yet, I have twice written books that have spent time in the Number
One spot of their genre. Better to be a successful astronomy writer than am
unsuccessful novelist, or a successful comic than a poor Shakespearian actor.
So, “Astronomer, Reinvented” hit a milestone. No, I did not
complete the first draft!. I have set no time limit for its completion. What I
did was complete the first section that describes how I managed to make a huge
leap forward in photographing the Sun. The next stage will be to describe my
giant leap with full disc lunar photography.
Due to the nature of the book, the final contents will not
be known until I continue to complete my experiments until I have enough
content for a book.
June 13th The Grapes of Wrath
I had heard of the John Steinbeck novel for many years but
had neither read it, nor seen the film. We studied “The Pearl” at school and I
had recently read “Of Mice and Men”.
What struck me was that the edition of the book I had
borrowed had an enormous volume of front material. As a reader, I would have
skipped over it and gone straight to Page 1 but, as a writer, it intrigued me,
even though I only got halfway through it. Many writers I know talk about the
pressures of being a writer in the modern world., yet Steinbeck and, perhaps
others, had written diaries about their writing! The only difference is that he
did not put them on blogs. His diaries were published after his death, maybe
future reading. In the preface to this book, it is noted that he suffered the
same sort of doubts that writers express on social media platforms all the
time. Initially, Steinbeck had day jobs but for less than a decade. There are
very few writers that I am in contact with that don’t have a day job. From what
I had read, Steinbeck was both skilled (despite his self-doubts!) and lucky
enough to make a full-time living from writing, although there was no
suggestion that he led a “celebrity” lifestyle. He spent most of his time
isolated in a small room and sometimes travelled to research his books. It
seemed that this isolation was one of the main causes of the breakdown of his first
marriage, ironically one in which his wife, Carol, was a major
contributor.
In addition to day jobs, most writers have romantic
partners, usually non-writers. This can cause a lot of friction. More on this
later but I was trying to finish a section of my latest work-in-progress before
bedtime when my wife instigated a conversation about a domestic purchase and
told me off for being stuck to my computer. Whilst most writers would feel that
she should not have done this, I did not communicate that I was writing. She
has not explicitly stated this but her attitude seems to be that I achieved my
goal of being a published writer years ago and that I should just tick the box.
Yet, I have to admit she is right, in a way. The amount of income by writing
contributes to the household income is insignificant and only pays for one
weeks’ worth of grocery out of 52. I would make more per hour if I had an
evening cleaning job. Probably most people reading this would envy me for
having any writing income at all. The main point is that unless one’s writing
income is hitting double figure percentages of the household income then it is
only a hobby. The fact that I have difficulty completing any sort of task
if interrupted is my problem and not the rest of the world’s. It seems that
Steinbeck had similar problems, even though his writing was his only source of
income.
The final point about Steinbeck is that although he never
completed a degree, he studied creative writing at university. People in the
writing world know that I have enjoyed some success as an astronomy writer but
my only novel flopped. Is it possible, or even likely, for someone to write a
novel without some sort of formal training? For a while after reading, I
daydreamt about a second novel that was going to establish myself as one of the
great writers of my time, like Steinbeck, Shakespeare et al. Then I realised
that the reality was that I was going to write an astronomy book that would end
up being self-published and scrape into the top 100 000 sellers on Amazon!
Astronomer, Reinvented May 9th
This will be, whenever and if it ever gets finished, an account of how I started to make a significant leap forward in astronomy, hopefully without spending a lot of money.
I wrote the introduction, then promptly deleted most of it! The angle was that sounded that I was being driven purely by my perceived popularity as an astronomer and writer. Of course, that is part of it but, I wanted to produce better images and better viewing experiences, even if I never sold another book.
Hiatus May 8th and from here?
I never intended to stop writing forever. I noticed an approximate doubling of engaging on my online content, averaged over most channels. During my break, I had started posting on Mastodon, Pinterest, Tiktok and Reddit. My Astronomy Shorts were getting noticed on TikTok, with a few likes on YouTube.
I had some increase in sales during April and early May 2023 but this could have been just a normal variation, as I have had some fluctuations up and down in my sales figures. I hadn't gone viral but who knows? Maybe? One day?
In the meantime, I had a maelstrom of possible writing ideas. It was impractical to do them all, especially as my writing time had been somewhat limited. Yet, as long as I did not have the ambitious writing schedules that a traditionally published book would entail, I had a great idea for a project, or did I?
Hiatus May 8th Website: Key Additions
Long before my hiatus, in fact years ago, I had a lot on my website about equipment reviews and astronomical objects. By checking the statistics, people were only visiting my home and index pages. As I started hosting much of my content externally, people started to visit it but, before the hiatus, interest dropped off.
I don't think I have over-saturated my website with my books but have included more about them and put links to the book information in strategic places:
I don't consider myself an interesting person, Indeed, the image of authors being hunched over typewriters (well, laptops these days), fuelled by coffee, is not entirely inaccurate. However, that is only part of a writer's life, as most of us have partners, children and jobs. Yet, people are naturally curious about the person behind the book or magazine article and this is my attempt to shed light on my life behind the computer screen:
I have added an astronomical calendar, showing not just astronomical events but world, major national and religious dates:
The final major addition is of the monthly summaries since January 2023:
Hiatus May 8th Website
Unless writers have become legends, they need to promote their writing. The how, where and why of this, depends very much on what you are writing about. In my particular case, I am an astronomy writer. In order for people to be interested in me as a writer, they must also know me as an astronomer. Love it or loathe it, astronomers need to engage with the general public and other astronomers though images. My website has always had a lot of images but, during my hiatus, I improved the number and quality of images on my website. I also started to refresh my background images more frequently, to stop my website from going stale.
I have drop-down menus to access my most frequently-visited content (such as my blog and photo gallery) and another for external content (such as the BBC site and NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day).
I have 3 background "decoration" photos: non-astronomical, solar system and deep sky.
Finally, under the Announcements heading, is a list of recent additions to my content.
A full menu of content is available on my Master Index:
Hiatus May 7th
I had not been totally idle during my hiatus! I decided that I would continue to record astronomical objects that changed a lot (like the Sun) or were transient events, such as meteors. I would abandon frequent, low quality images and replace them with less frequent, higher quality images, aiming to get the best I could from my equipment. I also vowed to experiment a lot.
Not only was this to stimulate interest in my online content but I had even felt that I was stagnating. Yes, I proved I could photograph the Moon with a DSLR camera without a telescope but did people REALLY want to see hundreds of such images. No, people want to see lunar craters in detail. They want to see clear, sharp images of sunspots, not blurry, indistinct ones.
I had also decided to improve the volume and quality of my online content. To date, I am getting more hits, likes and positive comments.
Details to come in future posts...!!
Hiatus May 6th (Coronation Day)
I'm expecting a lot of opposition, lots of agreement but probably more writers will sit back and think. There has been a lot of debate in the past that writers should write every day. There is nothing inherently wrong in writing every day. If it works for you, do it and I have no desire to stop you!
But I see it as too difficult for most of us. Even the lucky ones of us to be published and receiving an income from writing, have day jobs. As writers, we are also people and people have families, often including caring responsibilities, we have friends, we have household chores. Small wonder that many writers give up. The image of the writer as a solitary figure, usually female, middle-aged and unmarried, is a very worn cliche. I also see it as a terrible offence to women, especially women writers! Many are young, have full-time jobs and children.
No, males and females of all ages and marital status who write must accept that it is something that has to be balanced with the other components of our lives. It is that difficulty that prompted my hiatus. Although it officially started on December 31st, it had started a few weeks before hand. Between 2018 and 2022, I wrote annual summaries. Having completed the 2022 one up to September, it would have seemed a shame to abandon a project so close to completion.
From late summer 2022, I was facing increasing difficulties in work-life balance and simply lacked energy. Now, of course, I could have cut down on other activities to accomodate my writing but therein lies the other part of the problem! Like it or not, the world of the modern writer is dictated by clicks, likes and best sellers' charts. Whilst we know that popularity is neither the sole nor the most accurate criterion for judging the quality of our writing, it is the most readily-available barometer of our success.
The sad truth is that my sales figures had plummeted and people were not engaging with my online content. Had I suddenly become a bad writer overnight? If I was a bad writer, then I was already. My sales figures were affected by the general economic climate but also, my relative rank had also fallen.
So it was that I decided to take a break from writing, so I could not only get my breath back, literally, but so I could re-invent myself as an astronomer and writer. At least in the eyes of the public, I had gone stale and I had to do whatever it was, much as I had few ideas.
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