Summary:

I feel really good about what I achieved this week, both on the paid front and the personal projects front (after a slot start to the week on my own writing) – lots of exciting stuff going on!

 

Monday:

I had big plans to get through a big list of stuff today – aaaaand… I did okay.

I made extensive developmental comments on a novel from one of the writers I met on retreat back in June, which was my main focus for the week, because the deadline is Sunday.

I also edited more of the ‘supernatural’ thriller, which turned out not to be supernatural at all – in a good way!

So, good strides on the paid work front – but not so much on my own stuff.

I did set up a focus session for tomorrow with one of the Revision Club writers, so I was hoping that would help.

 

Tuesday:

Work came in from a new client late the night before so I had to rejig my schedule.

I added a ton more comments to the retreat writer’s novel and also completed an in-depth review of a romance outline and opening chapters.

That took me all the way through to the end of my focus session in the afternoon, so I didn’t get round to any of my own projects today, either…

 

Wednesday:

I was going to work on my own projects but I just ended up watching reality competition shows all day… Ah well! Sometimes, it’s okay to have a break!

 

Thursday:

Today was the day! I got up at 7:30am, made it to my usual table at the cafe by 8:15am, with the plan of staying until nearly closing time (since I was going out in the evening and figured I might as well use that as motivation to do a proper day’s work on ALL THE THINGS!).

I started with more comments on the retreat writer’s novel.

I wrote my GYWO discussion post for the month, then went back to the next section of the retreat writer’s novel.

Then I wrote some scripts and blog posts for Stanley the bear.

Next was editing the not-supernatural thriller for a bit, with a break for lunch in the middle.

I decided at that point that I’d done enough for one day (even though it was only 13:30), so I went home…

Later, I went through feedback on the robot stories and put the whole book together.

 

Friday:

I finished all the developmental comments on the retreat writer’s novel and send all the feedback to her for review.

 

Saturday:

I attended a freewriting workshop with Claire P from Write For Your Life all about confidence, which was very enjoyable and helpful, as ever. It got me all excited about Wizard again – so I decided to take the plunge and start outlining, rather than trying to put it off until after revisions to Darkness.

My rationale is that I’ve signed up to Revision Club from 24 October (running until mid-February), which will give me some external structure and motivation to get Darkness revisions done. So – I might as well use the four weeks leading up to that starting to crack on with outlining Wizard. Then, I can launch into a first draft in 2024, once the next draft of Darkness is done and I need a break from that. Yay for rationalisation that lets me do what I wanted to do all along!

I did a lot of good prep work on Wizard and the subconscious crew came up with some great extra ideas for it as well.

Later, Dave and I talked about Darkness, his feedback on it, my revision plans and how I might be able to approach improving on some of the habitual weaknesses in my writing.

 

Sunday:

I went through Dave’s top-level report on Darkness and cemented my realisation that I’ve got a lot more work to do on it than I was hoping…

The Wizard outline prep was now at a good stage to take a break from it, so I decided to spend the rest of the time before the start of Revision Club going through all my Darkness feedback and putting together a comprehensive plan so I could launch into actual revisions once the external structure was in place.