Summary:

The end is definitely in sight for the Colours first draft and I had lots of interesting and useful writing experiences this week.

 

Tuesday:

I met Kate at Highbury Fields and was interviewed for The Book Club Review podcast, then made my way to Canada Water and The Lodge Cafe to use the rest of the day for writing, before a film night at a friend’s house nearby in the evening.

There was a fair amount of faff to begin with until I eventually settled down to write Sunday’s two Colours scenes.

I did this month’s GYWO discussion post, wrote a blog post about the difficulties of first drafts and reviewed the book I finished over lunch, then went back and did the first of today’s two Colours scenes.

Aware of the approaching deadline, I spent some time on my WIP Big Bang story, completing the initial rewrite.

Then I started reading my next writing craft book.

 

Wednesday:

Not enough sleep and lots of effort yesterday left me very unenthused today. But I had arranged to meet Hannah after work so I dutifully turned up and made her my accountability partner, promising that I would complete my scheduled two Colours scenes before being allowed to go home.

The subconscious crew were on fire and had provided me with the bones of the next scene overnight so I ploughed on and completed both scenes with no problem, so then I carried on and did a third to get back on track with my schedule.

 

Thursday:

I wrote a rather pitiful review of a film.

 

Friday:

I wrote another rather pitiful review of a different film.

Then it was off to Mslexicon for the weekend! My workshop today was about Ikigai, the Japanese concept of finding the intersection between what you love, what you’re good at, what you can be rewarded for, and what the world needs. My intersection was on writing and sharing (ideas, life lessons, experiences, stories), which felt right and is encouraging.

 

Saturday:

The morning talk was about plot and pacing and had some useful advice. The afternoon workshop was about concealing rather than revealing, which was also interesting and resulted in me writing the start of a short story I might pursue.

Later, in my room, I wrote the next Colours scene, which was scheduled to be completed on the train yesterday.

 

Sunday:

As I lay in bed this morning, the whole of the rest of Colours suddenly slotted itself together in my head, which was rather wonderful. So I got up and rejigged my outline to fit the new plan, so I wouldn’t forget it.

This morning’s flash fiction workshop mostly made me think that I don’t work hard enough at my flash fiction and that I’m not as good at it as I previously thought. However, I did also write one piece I was really happy with and will submit somewhere – and I also picked up some useful advice on improving my work.