Summary:

I kept myself to my new writing plan and made good progress on all fronts, working on three different novels throughout the week.

 

Monday:

I stated my goals on the Urban Writers’ Retreat online session page, then cracked on with editing the last two chapters of Artisan.

And I finished! And sent the final manuscript back to the publisher! It was all very exciting and I felt a real sense of accomplishment. The editor’s comments were really great – constructive, reasonable, helpful and encouraging. The editing process was easy and fun, and I feel like the novel overall has been improved a great deal.

Next, I did a few reviews and then went back to editing my friend’s novel.

 

Wednesday:

I watched a film and wrote my review.

 

Thursday:

Today was the day to implement my plan! Back to three scheduled writing sessions per week, with the rule being that at least the first hour each time has to be dedicated to Colours. I was up really early, so aimed to start at 8am, and it was amazing how many other things seemed way more important at 7:45am (scrubbing my teapot, clipping my toenails…) but I got dressed in my favourite writing t-shirt, sat down at my desk at 8am and cracked open my Colours notebook to remind myself of the next set of revisions on the list.

I just about managed an hour, and ticked off a whole section in the plan, which felt good – though it was tough going.

Then I did my GYWO discussion post for the month and wrote a blog post.

Later, I did a bit more editing of my friend’s novel.

 

Saturday:

Artisan came back from the publisher for final sign-off already! I had been expecting a break of a few weeks to focus on Colours but suddenly Artisan was back on the list, requiring a close proofread…

Even though I didn’t actually want to work on either novel today, I still started my scheduled session with an hour of Colours, then went on to proofread the first three chapters of Artisan – because I persuaded myself my long-term goals were more important than my short-term desire to watch TV all day.

The Colours amendments went okay (progress made, at least, which is the main thing) and I actually enjoyed starting to read Artisan yet again.

I edited another couple of chapters of my friend’s novel, to round out my novel hat-trick for the day, then called it quits.

 

Sunday:

I did a mini novel hat-trick again – brainstorming on Colours, proofreading another chapter of Artisan and editing some more of my friend’s novel.

This is apparently my life now – which isn’t a bad thing!

I also wrote brief reviews of a couple of books I abandoned in the last week.