Summary:

Getting excited about completing novel number three now! Plus, also doing good work for interesting clients. Can’t believe it’s September already, though – where has the year gone?

 

Monday:

I was going to have today off, but I was feeling enthused, so I finished editing the fantasy novel and sent it back to my friend. I really enjoyed it overall, but also felt I provided some useful comments that I hoped she’d be receptive to. I will very much look forward to seeing what happens with the book – and will hopefully get to read/work on the sequel too!

I also started developmental edits on a new book about ADHD and felt I came up with some useful feedback.

I also finished the audiobook version of Nora Roberts’ The Becoming and wrote my review. This was the second in a series I started (in text form) earlier in the year and it was a lot of fun to revisit this world.

 

Tuesday:

I read and commented on the rest of the ADHD book and sent it back to the author for review and approval.

I also started copy edits on a training manual (though the client later decided he wanted to take a different approach, so the rest of the contract was cancelled) and developmental edits on a memoir about being raised in a fundamentalist cult.

Later, I remembered a couple of ideas I’d had for Darkness over the weekend, so I added them to my notes (why not involve tea?). Then I went back to the flash piece I started in the session with my dad on Saturday, finished it off and submitted it. I got a rejection within just a few hours, so now my dad and I are rejection buddies – and I joked that taking a piece of writing from conception through to rejection made him a proper writer!

 

Wednesday:

I did a sample edit for a prospective client with a massive project – so fingers crossed! Since my current client projects were due to come to an end on Friday and I didn’t have anything else lined up for September, I was really hoping I’d win this one.

I also edited the latest episode of the podcast, which was a bit painful, since I’d chosen Adventures in Babysitting to talk about, a firm favourite from my childhood, and a 2022 rewatch wasn’t kind to it…

 

Thursday:

I was planning to go to the cafe today, but I decided to stay at home instead. That turned out to be a good thing, since I got a call from one of the marketing people at Go Get Organised, to discuss a review of my website and potential future work on marketing my novels better, which was interesting and I hoped would turn out to be useful.

Once I was ready to start my work day, I went through a set of children’s stories for a new client. They wanted me to actually implement any developmental ideas I had for the stories, as well as copy editing them, which was a new challenge for me, but very interesting.

Later, I went back to the cult memoir and made comments on the next section. It was a compelling tale, but a bit jumbled, so I focused on providing feedback to help the author clarify and organise the information into a cohesive narrative.

After lunch, I went back to Legacy and worked on the next couple of scenes, based on Amie’s awesome feedback on the latest draft.

Later, I gave up on the book I was reading (a chunky fantasy epic called The Ruin of Kings), but still wrote a longer review of it than I would usually, as I had a lot of thoughts about it. I found it very amusing that a lot of the reviews on GoodReads said a similar things to me – that it wasn’t a bad book at all, just not my thing, but I was sure there would be readers out there who would love it.

I also received this month’s issue of Writing Magazine and discovered I’d been shortlisted in their Supernatural Short Story Competition, which was a complete surprise and very lovely!

 

Friday:

I started back in on the cult memoir, trying to get as much editing completed before the weekend as possible. This was my only ongoing paid project, though, so I decided it wouldn’t matter if it needed to be finished next week, since the deadline wasn’t until next Friday.

I actually finished my feedback on the whole book, because it was so compelling. So, I went into the weekend with no work obligations hanging over me – but also with no more paid work on the docket…

After lunch, I read through the website analysis report I’d received from Go Get Organised the day before, and also worked a bit more on Legacy. I was still really enjoying reading through it again, and the revisions thus far hadn’t felt onerous at all.

I also did some submissions, including a couple for Legacy, as I felt the opening sections were ready.