Summary:

The start of the week was all about forcing myself to stick to the schedule, but the end of the week was all about enthusiasm, all thanks to a new course I started. So, yay for self-reflection, encouragement and community!

 

Monday:

I did some submissions.

 

Thursday:

I scheduled my usual writing time and my plan of spending the first hour on Colours, but I really wasn’t feeling it when I sat down at my computer. I couldn’t focus on the text on the page and kept skipping through scenes I knew needed revision, so I stopped trying. Instead, I read through my antagonist arc notes again, noted down some important questions I hadn’t answered yet, and set my subconscious crew the task of percolating on them, asking them to come up with some new ideas for the next session on Saturday.

Then I turned to Artisan, figuring that proofreading should always be possible and that an external deadline was more important than an arbitrary personal one. I proofread the next three chapters.

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

 

Friday:

I finished a book and wrote my review.

 

Saturday:

Today was the first day of UWR’s This Is Not A Course About Writing! I watched Charlie’s lovely welcome message and filled in the pre-work questionnaire, which was all about where I am with my writing, how I feel about my writing, and where I want to be with my writing. Even that short exercise brought up some interesting things that will definitely require additional thought – which is what the course is all about – looking at your mindset and the things you put in your own way, and working towards developing tools to identify why you write and to rediscover your joy.

Then I went back to Colours for a bit and forced myself to think clearly and carefully about just one scene so I could tell myself I had at least made some progress…

Next came another chapter of proofreading on Artisan.

And then it was time for the first live TINACAW Zoom call, which was really great! It was full of freewriting exercises and self-reflection. It reintroduced me to Captain Bear, my inner mentor, and had me visualising my resentment as a sulky teenager I pushed into a swimming pool! And it was great to spend time with other writers and hear about their experiences of the workshop at the end. I’m really looking forward to the rest of this course.

 

Sunday:

I woke up with a scene of Colours writing itself in my head, which hadn’t happened in a very long time and was a welcome development. I made some edits, then proofread another chapter of Artisan.