Summary:

I’ve somehow managed another seven-day writing week! And my brain is really running away with the idea for my next novel, even though I’m not supposed to be starting work on it until next year…

 

Monday:

I sat at my desk and did paid client work all morning – additions to a self-help memoir I edited months ago, a tax-related e-book, the family history novel and the latest prison memoir. A good morning’s work.

In the afternoon, I started doing some research (yes, research – me!) for Wizard by reading a book about non-standard relationship styles.

Later, I finally got around to doing some more work on the robot stories, coming up with ten characters and ten outcomes to go with the ten setups I put together some time ago.

 

Tuesday:

Back at my desk, I tried alternating client projects with my own, which has always been the best way for me to get everything done.

I edited more of the tax books, then submitted Legacy to a few more agents.

Next was more comments on the family history novel, followed by editing the next few chapters of the prison memoir, because I wanted to carry on with paid work.

Later, I did manage to work on the robot stories and also do some more Wizard research. I decided not to carry on with my current book and wrote a DNF review.

 

Wednesday:

I did a good chunk of paid work this morning – finishing both the tax books and the family history novel and editing the next couple of chapters of the prison memoir.

Later, I wrote my second robot story and did some more reading for Wizard.

Over dinner before the pub quiz, the subconscious crew came up with an absolutely stonking bit of plot for Wizard, answering the two main questions I was struggling with in one fell swoop! I made some notes on my phone – and then some more when they also came up with more ideas for the central relationship. I wasn’t planning on starting proper work on Wizard until much later in the year – perhaps even January – but apparently it’s what my brain wants to be working on at the moment!

 

Thursday:

I copied my phone notes from the day before into the Wizard outline and added some more.

 

Friday:

It was the day of Stanley’s next email newsletter and he had an idea for a different blog post to the one that was already prepared, so we worked on a new one together and got the email sent out to his subscribers.

Then it was back to paid work, continuing with edits to the prison memoir. I also started copy edits on the paranormal detective novel I provided developmental feedback for a few weeks ago. It was really interesting to see what the author had changed, based on my feedback – but I had to keep reminding myself that the big-picture decisions had now been made, and my new job was to offer suggested amendments at the sentence level.

I also did my prep for the next podcast episode.

 

Saturday:

I attended the Write For Your Life Jane Austen virtual retreat with Claire P, and finished my current book, so I wrote my review.

We also recorded the next podcast episode.

Much later (after 10pm) I did some work for my website client because she had a tight deadline.

 

Sunday:

The website client had some queries on the previous night’s work, so I went back and forth with her quite early in the morning to sort them out.

I wrote a review for a film we went to see the night before.

Later, I joined Claire P’s focus session with the usual attendees – it was great to catch up with everyone and I wrote another robot story. I also used the time to work out how many and which scripts and blog posts I need to complete for Stanley’s social media content to last to the end of September.