Summary:

I’m a bit worried that my work ethic has been rather destroyed by not having much paid work recently, but I’ve done a lot of other writing and podcast stuff with the extra time!

 

Monday:

I didn’t get started on anything today until after lunch, but that was fine.

Overnight, I heard from one of my earliest clients, whose book (which I had been editing chapter by chapter) had stalled nearly 18 months ago, with a new chapter! So, I edited that first.

I also did a second sample edit for the client whose travel memoir I had been hoping to start proper work on this week. We’d hit a (hopefully small) roadblock over the weekend, though, relating to dual first-person perspective. I offered a solution and redid the original sample edit to demonstrate my idea, hoping this would clear the roadblock and allow the project to start.

 

Tuesday:

Still no paid editing work (though three projects should be coming by early next week – fingers crossed!).

I worked on my current CIEP proofreading course for a bit, wrote Stanley’s blog post for the month and also completed a draft of the next short story for my Dixit deck collection.

Later, I finished listening to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and also finished my podcast script about it.

 

Wednesday:

I spent most of the day having an extended lunch with a good friend.

But I also finished my latest book – Opium & Absinthe, which was surprisingly good – so I wrote my review.

I also set up the script for my next Reviews Revisited podcast episode, on Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson.

 

Thursday:

I headed into town for a full day at the BFI, discovering as I had expected that the building was open shortly after 10am, even though the cafe didn’t open until 11am.

My most important but most dreaded task for the day was to attempt the first assignment for my current CIEP Proofreading course. It involved checking a revised and redesigned leaflet against the requested changes, marking up any mistakes and then also proofreading it for any other errors or issues. What I was dreading was that I had to do it manually on a printout, using the archaic BSI proofreading symbols.

I did a version using my own notations first, just to mark all the issues I spotted. Then, I transferred my amendments onto a clean copy, referring to the resources provided to identify the correct marks to use. It didn’t turn out to be as hard as I expected, though it did require an intense level of concentration. I think I did okay – but I’ll have to wait to see what grade I get from the tutor!

Then I went back to my Dixit stories and wrote the next one.

I went over the scripts for the two Reviews Revisited podcast episodes I’m planning to record tomorrow. By this point, still with nearly four hours to go before my physio appointment, I was already struggling and didn’t think it would be a good idea to start a complex and involved paid editing project. So instead I edited the last main episode of the podcast, which had been lingering on my list for quite some time.

My writer friend Stephen turned up when I was getting near the end of editing the podcast (and also rather losing the will to live) so it was great to have a break and a catch-up. We then worked together for about an hour, which was also lovely.

 

Friday:

I submitted my first CIEP Proofreading assignment – fingers crossed I did a good job!

Then I recorded and edited the next two Reviews Revisited episodes of the podcast. Which was a lot to do all in one go!

I found an old piece of flash fiction that fit the next Dixit card prompt really well, so I pasted it into the book – it’s not cheating because there are no rules!

 

Saturday:

I wrote a couple of reviews – one for a play we went to see on Thursday and one for the book I DNF’d on the way home.

I also went to A Write and A Pint workshop for the day. As always with Sean’s workshops, it took me to some interesting and unexpected places and I wrote several pieces I was really happy with that I would never have written otherwise.

 

Sunday:

I went through the latest issue of Writing Magazine and added a few submission opportunities to my rolling spreadsheet.

I also started reading Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson for my Reviews Revisited podcast series.

Later, I rather skimmed my way through the rest of the book I was reading and wrote my review.