Summary:

I’m definitely flagging on the novel-writing front, and all my paid editing projects ended on Friday (with none booked in for next week yet), so everything is feeling a bit precarious at the moment. But winning a prize was nice!

 

Monday:

I was up and at my desk by 8:30am. I wrote the next Darkness scene, then added a few hundred more words to the one before, in order to get the manuscript up to 50,000 words! This marked the two-thirds point, both in terms of word count and number of scenes, which felt very satisfying.

Next, I started a new paid editing project, in-depth copy editing of the first chapter of a historical adventure novel, as a paid sample with a view to winning the contract to edit the whole trilogy. So no pressure there, then… 

My other client projects included editing the next section of the meta novel and also doing a comprehensive edit of a book review for another new client.

 

Tuesday:

This morning was a classic example of the ‘easy come, easy go’ nature of writing and freelance editing. I woke up to a message from a potential new editing client, saying he had chosen someone else for the huge trilogy project I did a paid sample for the day before, which was disappointing. And then I saw I had an email saying I had won the flash fiction category in the Wild Atlantic Writing Awards, which had a sizeable cash prize!

Then it was back to ‘eating the frog’ with the next Darkness scene, followed by another sample edit for a different prospective client, more commenting on the philosophy/nature book I worked on last month, editing more of the meta novel.

I also finally started editing the most recent podcast episode.

I was particularly proud of myself today, because I actually went back to work after lunch, which is quite rare! And I also set myself the task of at least starting the podcast editing, and I didn’t get around to that until after dinner! So, go me!

 

Wednesday:

I was up early on my ‘day off’ so I finished editing the latest podcast episode.

 

Thursday:

I spent about an hour going through all the submission opportunities in this month’s Writing Magazine and adding nearly twenty to my rolling spreadsheet. I decided to use some of my Wild Atlantic winnings to enter a few competitions with entry fees, which I don’t often do, hoping that my recent competition success might feed into more of the same!

I also did some more of the mindset course.

 

Friday:

For some reason, I had a really visceral reaction against the idea of writing my novel today. Since I was also struggling with the concept of getting my paid work done, I decided to be kind to myself and concentrate on the more mechanical tasks that have external deadlines, and leave the novel until next week.

I heard back from two of my earliest clients, who were ready with a new chapter of their book after a long break, so I edited that first.

Then I finally completed editing on the meta novel, even though the author wasn’t ready to fund any more of the contract yet. Since I didn’t have any more projects on, I figured I might as well clear that one off the list, to make room for new ones when they come in.

 

Sunday:

I logged on to a new writing focus session from Claire P from CP’s Day Off. It was great to connect with other writers, talk about where we were up to with our projects, then focus on a writing-related task for an hour, and come back to discuss our progress.

I’d had an email earlier in the day, saying that my annual subscription to World Anvil was due to be paid. I decided I didn’t want to continue using the platform, so I spent my hour transferring the Darkness outline off the site, so I would still have a copy when I subsequently cancelled my account.