Summary:

Ah, Stickwick! The writing retreat of champions! Five new short pieces completed, lots of brainstorming and a ton of structural work on the second novel. A very productive week.

 

Monday:

I was up early so I found homes for a few unassigned pieces, sending them back out into the world for judgement.

On the train down to Devon, I finished reading my comparison novel in preparation for the Six Month Novel Programme, and completed the worksheet about it.

 

Tuesday:

First full day at Stickwick!

I started with a couple of reviews to ease myself in gently. Then I drafted my GYWO discussion post for March, then wrote a blog post for my website.

I collated all my Colours notes into a central plan, getting my ideas about the story back into my head again ready for intensive work to begin next week.

In the evening, I thought about what I might write for this year’s WIP Big Bang and made some research notes.

 

Wednesday:

I woke up bright and early, keen to be productive. 

I reread the last 50 pages of The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet and made notes for the first of my Space Swap assignments. Then I moved on to this week’s prompts from The Common. I really liked the short piece I came up with so I found somewhere to submit it.

I went back to my Space Swap notes and wrote a first draft of the Long Way piece.

I did another Scribophile critique to get my points back up to where I can post again.

I got some feedback on a recent short story from a fellow writer, so I made the requisite edits.

Just before lunch, the introductory Six Month Novel email came through so I worked through all the information after lunch, then went back to my Colours notes and did some more planning.

I did some ideas generation for a couple of upcoming submission opportunities.

 

Thursday:

I felt very keen again this morning and started with a list of planned objectives for the day.

First up was going back to the first half of Colours and making the specific changes suggested by the editor who looked at it over Christmas. Then I went through the scenes on my new plan and put together an order for what I already have and identified where the gaps are that need to be filled with new scenes.

I did the required research for my second Space Swap assignment and put together a first draft of that. Then I found an old flash fiction piece and adapted it to fit an upcoming competition. The results of another competition I had entered came out and I hadn’t been successful so I edited the story from that to be submitted elsewhere.

I brainstormed this week’s Fandom Weekly entry and eventually came up with an idea so I wrote and posted it.

 

Friday:

The four-hour train journey home seemed like a good opportunity to maintain my writing productivity for the week, so I wrote the first draft of a new story for a competition.

Then I reread some old fanfiction and made notes for a possible WIP Big Bang entry.

 

Saturday:

I posted a new story onto Scribophile and did a couple of critiques to earn more points.

I completed a raft of submissions.

Then I spent a couple of hours working on my new Colours plan, tying my brain in knots trying to figure out the new structure and how it affects the already complicated timeline.

 

Sunday:

I reordered the scenes in the existing Colours manuscript, ready to crack on with the rewrite.