Summary:

Writing every day, which is very unusual for me. Some days, it was just the Writers’ Block Detox prompt, but it all counts!

 

Monday:

I made my way to Good and Proper to meet Ann, not feeling particularly enthused. I decided just to work on one thing at a time, see how it went and not feel bad if I didn’t tick everything off my list.

I started with today’s Detox prompt, which turns out to be a good way to kick off a writing day. I might have to look into signing up for a daily prompt email from somewhere after this month is over, to cultivate a habit of freewriting most days.

Then I moved on to the next scene of Colours, which I should really have done the day before, as I tend to write them in pairs and only managed one at the pub.

I looked at my Artisan revision plan and started charting where the important turning points are, versus where my editor thinks they should be, and it ended up looking like I would have to switch part of the timeline in an impossible way. I decided I needed to spend some time creating a new set of notecards based on the current draft, to make it easier to see the book as a whole and shift things around without getting confused. Revision on this novel is taking longer than I intended and I’m really not getting on with it as much as I planned.

I typed up a set of notes on my phone from a book I read several years ago, about how to make lasting change in your habitual behaviours. It was interesting to realise that I’ve been applying the principles of the book pretty consistently over the intervening years without consciously thinking about it.

I read the next chapter of the self-editing book and made notes.

Considering I have a lot to do on my big projects, but still want to keep my hand in on shorter projects, I went through my upcoming submissions spreadsheet and picked one with a deadline about six weeks away, to see if I can write a new short story. I brainstormed around the required theme and genre for a bit, using some of the plot generation resources in my collection.

 

Tuesday:

I did today’s Detox prompt.

 

Wednesday:

I got my copy of Life Plus 2M Volume 2 in the post today, which has my short story, The Turtle, in it. It wasn’t a paid publication, but I like the editor a lot and I think his project is worthwhile, so I was happy to contribute and also buy a copy of the book.

I was suffering from a severe lack of motivation when I left work today, which wasn’t helped by discovering my usual Wednesday writing cafe was no longer there! But, I persevered, found somewhere else to park myself, and set to work.

I started with today’s Detox prompt and felt instantly better once I had a few hundred words on the page. I really do like this new habit of starting my scheduled writing sessions with five minutes of random free-writing.

I then moved on to the next Colours scene.

I started my Artisan notecards by working through the current draft and creating a card for each scene, detailing the characters, word count, setting and brief action points.

I had a long chat with Hannah after she arrived, which is always good, then did some planning for the weekend. And then, in the last ten minutes, most of the plot for the new short story I brainstormed on Monday just popped into my head, which was unexpected and awesome.

I’m so glad I didn’t wimp out on this writing date!

 

Thursday:

I did today’s Detox prompt.

 

Friday:

I did today’s Detox prompt, and also wrote a review for this year’s Wordy Birds Reading Challenge. I also thought about some fanfiction ideas that are noodling around in my head, though I have no idea when I’ll ever have time to write them.

 

Saturday:

Today was going to be a complete day off, but an impromptu catch-up with Geena turned into a writing date. So, I did today’s Detox prompt, and wrote a review for a book I finished last week.

Then I wrote a blog post I’d been meaning to get to for a few days and carried on with my Artisan notecards for a bit.

I read the next chapter of the self-editing book, which was the most interesting so far, all about ensuring you spend time and details on aspects of your story proportionate to their importance.

 

Sunday:

I went to a London writing meetup at the St Pancras clock tower for the day. We had a bit of a slow start, while the organiser got to grips with the lights and heating, and everyone introduced themselves, but it was a nice bunch of people and an interesting new place to write.

I started, as usual now, with today’s Detox prompt, then went on to more Artisan notecards. I’m really not sure how useful those are going to be for the revision, but it’s a good way to get the whole story back in my head, if nothing else, and I’m hoping they’ll help with the structural, compression and expansion aspects of the rewrite.

I planned out the next few scenes of Colours and added them to my outline spreadsheet, then wrote the next one.

I read the next chapter of the self-editing book and made notes, reminding myself of important things like not explaining the emotion behind dialogue. Then I launched into a short piece of Stargate fanfiction for Fic_Promptly, which I’d been thinking about most of the week. As usual, it was just a case of getting started, and then it flowed perfectly, and I felt good about creating something complete, even if it was less than 500 words.

After lunch, I went back to the Artisan notecards and got through to the end of Chapter Ten. It was already proving useful because I got to a couple of the parts that need work and some interesting ideas presented themselves as to how to fix some problems, so I noted those down for future reference.

I brainstormed the short story I came up with on Wednesday and firmed up the outline. It’s for an anthology submission with the theme of ‘shards’, so that’s what I’m calling it at the moment. It developed into quite a complex tale, which I’m excited to start writing. I have no idea how long it’s going to be, but I hope I can finish it in time to get some feedback on it before the submission deadline.

Then I wrote the next scene of Colours, which is still flowing quite well, though I think it’s a bit all over the place. I’m just getting the words down for now, but I think it’s going to need quite a lot of structural work at the revision stage. I’m still enjoying it, though, which is the main thing.

I finished off the day by typing up some notes from a book I read last year on dialogue and subtext, which is something the first developmental edit I got done on Artisan highlighted as a particular problem for me. So, it was useful to revisit these notes now I’m launching into proper revision on Artisan.