Summary:

Back to reality after being on retreat – always a difficult transition. But softened by having interesting paid work to do and being enthusiastic about embarking on the first draft of my new novel.

 

Monday:

It was back to reality today, after a glorious week away on retreat.

I had plenty of paid editing work to get on with – a new piece from my regular blog client, copy editing the second half of the volunteering book, a new horror short story from my mastermind group editor friend, and a kids’ trivia book from a repeat Upwork client.

After lunch, I faffed like there was no tomorrow – then made a deal with myself. I am not putting a deadline on completing the first draft of my next novel, A Wizard Calls My Name – but I am committing to working on it at least three days per week – though ‘working on it’ has a very broad and generous definition in this context…

I eventually knuckled down, reviewed the notes on the first scene in my new outline, reread what I’d already written of it some months ago, and added 1000 new words to the manuscript…

Later, I helped Bear with his post about our recent writing retreats in Somerset and Ireland.

 

Tuesday:

I did more client editing of the volunteering book and the kids’ trivia book.

I also worked more on the opening scene of Wizard, expanding and deepening the narrative, so as to be able to make the first draft as good as it could be.

I wrote reviews of all the books I finished while I was away the previous week, too.

 

Wednesday:

I decided to give up on an audiobook and wrote a brief review.

 

Thursday:

Back to Shoreditch for the freelance co-working day and I was in my usual seat by 9:45am.

I almost finished editing the volunteering book and also the kids’ trivia book (apart from one short section the client was intending to revise).

I freeglanced a long blog post for Dave and wrote a blog post of my own about my new (new, new, new, new, new, new) approach to novel-writing…

 

Friday:

As I’d essentially missed two (self-imposed) client deadlines yesterday, I decided to finish them both off today so I edited the last section of the volunteering book, as well as the revised section of the kids’ trivia book.

Later, I wrote a review of a book I decided not to finish.

I also did some freewriting based on some prompts Claire P sent me related to her new book.

I started reading The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and taking notes on it for my five-star book search podcast episode, but gave up on it very quickly.

 

Sunday:

I wrote a couple of reviews – one of an audiobook I finished and one of a new board game I played.

I started reading The Ferryman by Justin Cronin for the podcast.

 

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