Summary:

It was a pretty heavy paid editing week this week (hurrah!) but also a significant milestone in completing the writing accountability course I’ve been on for the last six months.

 

Monday:

I started the week with a goal-setting workshop for creatives at a co-working space in town. The main purpose for me was to meet other freelancers, exchange ideas, and then have a great space to work in for the rest of the day – and it definitely delivered on all those counts!

Afterwards, I put together feedback for another member of my writing group, in preparation for our final workshop at the weekend.

Then I went back to editing the Regency romance novel that was my main paid client project (though I also secured two more small paid editing projects during the day).

I also completed one of the small jobs – editing website text for the client whose relationship journal I worked on earlier in the month.

Later, I finished a book on the way home – The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo – so I wrote my review.

 

Tuesday:

I was up super early today so thought I might as well get some work done, since things are picking up in that area – hurrah!

I finished editing the Regency romance and sent it back to the author.

It turned out to be good that I got that done early, since another client came back to me with a project (a book about financial management) I’d expected to receive last week, which now had a much tighter deadline than expected, so I had to prioritise that for the rest of the day.

Later, I finally got around to designing the agent letter workshop I’m running on Saturday, which has been on my list for weeks…

 

Wednesday:

I finished another book – One Hundred Names by Cecilia Ahern – so I wrote my review.

Dave and I also recorded the next episode of the podcast.

 

Thursday:

I had a lot of paid work to complete today and a limited amount of time to do it in, so I thought heading into town early would be a good plan. It very much reminded me how lucky I am to have a flexible schedule now I’m freelancing – because I’d forgotten how awful the trains and Tube are at rush hour!

Still, I started work in Starbucks in Waterloo at 9am, completed a short editing task for my new website/journal client and also did a chunk of the finance book before relocating to the lovely BFI cafe.

I carried on with the finance book and completed it (a day early on the tight deadline), so I sent it back to the client for review and approval.

I also completed developmental feedback on a dark fantasy novel opening for a new client – which was really, really good! I was a bit worried because I didn’t have that much to suggest in terms of improvements, but I was hopeful the author would appreciate my comments on the positives as well as the few small changes (which he was).

The reason I went in early was because I was hoping it would mean I’d have a couple of hours to work on my own creative projects after completing my paid work, but the work filled all my time before my physio appointment.

But a member of one of my writing groups posted that he was planning to write at the BFI tomorrow, so I thought I’d join him and concentrate solely on my own stuff for a change.

 

Friday:

My BFI plan collapsed when I didn’t get to sleep until 6:30am and subsequently failed to get up in time for the train – apparently, it’s not a good idea to drink a lot of black tea just before midnight…

One day, hopefully soon, I will get back to my own writing, but it wasn’t going to be today.

I did, however, set up the script for my next Reviews Revisited podcast episode and started listening to the selected book – The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley.

I finished two books – one audio (The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal) and one text (The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard) – so I wrote my reviews.

 

Saturday:

Today was the last face-to-face workshop day of The Book That Needs To Be Written course I’ve been a part of since the Somerset retreat last July, run by Sean from A Write And A Pint.

It was so great to see everyone again, all in the same place – there were wonderful gift exchanges, lots of gratitude and gushing, I actually cried…

We also talked about our progress, our obstacles, our hopes and our fears for our writing. We worked on synopses and agent letters (I led that part of the workshop!) and interviewed each other about our projects.

I finished the first draft of my current novel during this course – but I probably would have done that anyway. It wouldn’t have been as fulfilling and enriching and supported and transformative an experience, though, without all these wonderful people being along for the ride.

It’s definitely not the end – we have another online get-together planned, plus my Monday afternoon focus sessions, and hopefully Thursday and weekend writing days in London for whoever is able to make it. Plus potentially other workshops and retreats and maybe even some non-writing-related outings!

I was looking for more great people to make deep connections with, particularly related to writing – and these people have more than fulfilled that longing. It would be great to know that I’ll be seeing them all regularly and frequently – but I’m happy to do the work to make that happen.

Also – during the writing gaps in the workshop sessions, I completely ignored the tasks of working on a synopsis and an agent letter – and actually brainstormed and wrote the next story for the collection I’m working on, based on Dixit cards! I hadn’t actually written anything new for three whole weeks (since finishing the novel) so it was great to get some sudden inspiration and have the opportunity to see it through to a completed first draft of a new story (even though it wasn’t remotely related to what I was supposed to be doing at the time!).

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