The fact that I haven’t written a non-Weeknotes blog entry in nearly seven weeks perfectly encapsulates the theme of this one – struggling to get back into a routine.

 

I don’t think I’ve managed what I would consider my ‘proper’ routine since before my last writing retreat at the start of June. I keep thinking to myself that I’ll ‘get back into it’ every Monday and, somehow, it just doesn’t seem to happen. By that, I essentially mean actually working on my own writing projects, and novel number five in particular. (Not to mention this blog post, which has been on the list for several weeks…)

 

Take last week – at the end of the previous Friday, I had completed all my paid client projects and had nothing lined up for the following Monday. I considered I could – gasp! – take the week off from paid work, and it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I was actually rather looking forward to it…

 

Then, over the course of a three-day weekend (as I had planned a visit to a friend’s house on the Monday), I got two new Upwork projects (one from a new client who just wouldn’t take no for an answer, and one from an existing client who was ready for more input sooner than expected), I was contacted out of the blue by two non-Upwork clients (my old boss from my last office job and my now-most-frequent client, the prison memoir publisher) about chunky projects, one of the Revision Club authors asked for urgent feedback on her novel, and my next GYWO discussion post was due (this had been scheduled, so shouldn’t have been a surprise).

 

With my own projects, I needed to prepare for recording the next podcast episode (also something that shouldn’t have been a surprise), I was ready to hunt for agents for novel number three, and the final contribution to my nonfiction book came through unexpectedly, so I was able to prep that to send to my editor.

 

So, suddenly, I had vast amount of both paid and unpaid work to fit in!

 

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining. It’s all stuff I wanted to work on, and it means my September pay is going to be a lot healthier than I expected. It was just a lot to do with, after the poor chimp in my brain had started looking forward to the idea of having some time off.

 

The vagaries of being a freelancer, I suppose! And, partway through month seventeen, I’m still really enjoying and very much appreciating the lifestyle overall, so absolutely no regrets (plus, the project from my old boss really reminded me how glad I am that I don’t work there any more!).

 

However, novel number five is languishing and it’s starting to feel as if I’m never going to get back into it…

 

But I will. I know I will – at some point. Maybe even today…