Summary:

Good use of available time this week, and two new cafes discovered that are okay for emergency writing sessions. I’m also doing very well on my habit pledge, as I’ve only missed two writing days in the year so far.

 

Monday:

I planned to have today off from writing, but was adding submission opportunities to my rolling spreadsheet and came across Visual Verse, a website where a picture prompt is put up every month for writers to respond to. The current picture was fun, so I wrote and submitted a quick piece, and also subscribed to their mailing list for future prompts.

I also did today’s Detox prompt, and submitted a couple of pieces for publication in various places.

 

Tuesday:

I did today’s Detox prompt.

 

Wednesday:

I went to the back-up Wednesday writing cafe straight from work but it was full so I took a wander round Soho and found Cafe Nespresso on Broadwick Street, where the tea is cheap, the hours are late, and the seats are comfortable.

While waiting for Hannah, I did today’s Detox prompt, then launched into the first draft of Shards. This flowed surprisingly easily, based on the outline I put together at the weekend.

I did the next five chapters of notecards for Artisan.

 

Thursday:

Tonight, after work, I made my way to the cafe in the lobby of the Wellcome Collection, which was bright and spacious, though a little expensive for long writing sessions.

I started with today’s Detox prompt, then completed a review of the musical we went to see on Tuesday. Then I did some more Artisan notecards, and read a chapter of the self editing book.

I finished off by writing the next Colours scene, then headed home.

 

Friday:

I did today’s Detox prompt.

 

Saturday:

Today’s Detox prompt was about building from a piece of writing from earlier in the month, and I didn’t feel like revisiting any of those. I’ve really been enjoying taking the prompt and using it to spark completely new and random writing that I don’t expect to go anywhere. So, I had a look online and signed up for Figment Daily Themes, to keep me going after the Detox has finished.

I also discovered www.oneword.com, where you are given a single word and sixty seconds to write about it. I gave it a try and it was fun, though sixty seconds really isn’t that much time!

 

Sunday:

A whole day at an Urban Writers Retreat! I made my usual list, but struggled a bit with focus.

I started with today’s Detox prompt, then caught up on my reviews. I wrote a GYWO discussion post about finding other writers to build a community (which prompted a lot of good responses). Then I got a bit distracted by a challenge on GYWO where one of the mods provided a list of ten words and participants had to write a short scene with each word included on a separate line. I had no trouble completing mine, but then felt obliged to read and comment on everyone else’s.

I drafted and posted a short fanfic based on a prompt from Fic_Promptly, which was a lot of fun.

I then logged onto Scribophile and did some critiquing to build up points for when I next have a short story to post.

I did some more Artisan notecards until lunch.

After the break, I stuck some music on and launched back in to Colours. I wrote the next two scenes with Marilyn Manson to help me concentrate, then had some cake as a reward.

Next up was a chapter of the self-editing book, and then I did some more drafting of Shards. The only thing left on my list after that, which I hadn’t put any time into yet, was typing up notes, so I picked a file from my phone and typed up the notes I took last year on a book about creating good titles.

I used up the rest of the time doing some more critiques on Scribophile and some more Artisan notecards.

So, I spent time on all my different types of writing projects today, though necessarily didn’t do a huge amount on any of them. Still, lots of work overall, and I’m quite pleased with what I achieved.