Summary:

No writing at all until Thursday, but then I made up for it with four great writing days in a row. Dedicated writing time away from home is always good for me.

 

Thursday:

Big plans for my writing session with Ann.

I started out with a couple of reviews, then wrote my GYWO discussion post for the month. It was a good topic, so I then expanded the post into a possible article for Writing Magazine, before turning back to another planned article and working to bring that one up to the desired word count as well.

I also put together a clear and comprehensive list of all the things I want to work on during my self-directed writing retreat over the weekend and used some Urban Writers Retreat worksheets to schedule my available time.

Then I went through this month’s Writing Magazine and added relevant submission opportunities to my rolling spreadsheet.

There’s a fantasy story I wrote nearly three years ago and have sent out multiple times for publication. It got shortlisted for an anthology once, it got actually accepted for an online zine once (but I subsequently heard nothing further), and the full manuscript was requested by a magazine based on the first 500 words. So, I knew it was good, despite it never actually seeing the light of day. But, today, on its fifteenth submission, it’s been accepted for a themed anthology. Here’s hoping this is really its moment!

 

Friday:

I made my way to an Airbnb in Maidstone after work, in an effort to focus my mind on writing, rather than being distracted by domestic stuff at home.

By the time I’d had dinner and watched a bit of TV, I was actually raring to get started, so I worked on the scene list for Beneath the Tree for a bit, then broke out my coloured notecards and transferred all the planned scenes onto those. Then I played around with the order until I’d got something that worked.

 

Saturday:

I started early by going through Amie’s developmental edit of Colours and making copious notes about all the bits that need work. Then I addressed all the little specific one-liner amendments.

Next on the schedule was Broken Succession, a short story I started a while ago, which I decided to work on for an upcoming submission opportunity. The structure and arc came together in my head as I was writing the next scene, which was very pleasing.

After lunch, I put fingers to keyboard and actually started writing Beneath the Tree, based on my scene card structure from the night before. I really didn’t feel like it, but I had booked a weekend away specifically to make progress on this story, and I had a schedule to stick to, so I forced myself to get on with it. It was tough going, but I got over 600 words down in an hour and felt pretty good about them overall.

According to the schedule I was then due to come up with ideas for a new short piece for an upcoming submission opportunity, but I thought of an old story that might work, so dug it out and gave it a polish instead.

During the evening, I received publication acceptance for a short story I submitted a while ago, so I reviewed the proofs and sent back confirmation.

 

Sunday:

I ignored the planned schedule this morning and spent a couple of hours completing the first draft of Broken Succession, which gave me quite a sense of achievement. I posted it on Scribophile for feedback.

Later, instead of more writing, I did a couple of Scribophile critiques to get my points back up.

In the evening, I wrote a bit more of Beneath the Tree, then wrote a blog post about my retreat experience.

I also heard from a print magazine that they’re going to print one of my favourite flash fiction pieces in their next edition.