Summary:

Busy, busy, but all good. Lots of interesting paid projects, and also significant progress on my own writing projects. So a great writing week all round!

 

Tuesday:

Back from holiday and eager to get back to work!

I started out by editing the next section of the Haitian drama, then did the next bit of the romantic suspense novel.

After lunch, it was time to give some attention to my own novels. 

I went back to The Great Machine and continued with my initial outline, then went through all my existing notes for Magic’s Legacy and highlighted all the bits I want to work on in the revisions..

 

Wednesday:

I helped Bear with his post about our recent trip to the Isle of Wight and also wrote a review of an audiobook I finished the day before.

 

Thursday:

I started out today with a sample chapter edit for a prospective client, then went back to complete the Haitian drama.

Then I went back to editing the romantic suspense novel and completed the next section of that.

I completed a draft of my own psychological horror short story I’d started the week before.

I also added a bit more to the outline for Machine.

 

Friday:

I started out by working on a short story from a client, then went over my own short story from the day before, revised and submitted it.

Then it was back to my most frequent client for developmental editing of a new contemporary romance outline.

I got the end of the romantic suspense novel through from the client so started editing that, then realised I was missing several chapters from earlier on, so contacted the author and requested them.

I heard from another new Upwork client regarding a non-fiction editing project about adventures in running a holiday resort. There’d been some technical difficulties in getting the contract set up but we figured them out and the client briefed me on the project and we discussed deadlines and logistics.

My own editor had provided her developmental report on Magic’s Legacy earlier in the week, so I printed it out and went over it in detail, making notes to form my revision plan. As expected, she had spotted all the problems I already knew existed and hoped she wouldn’t notice! But her feedback was really helpful and gave some clear directions for revisions, which didn’t feel too overwhelming.

Later, I brainstormed some of the questions I’d put together for the Machine outline – so many unanswered questions!

I nudged a current client about payment for work already completed and he responded with more work! So, I did that and we worked out the payment as well.

 

Saturday:

I was due to take today off, but a client asked me to do a sample edit for a very big book, so I edited the first chapter to demonstrate the service and gauge the amount of work involved, so I could propose a fixed fee for the whole manuscript.

The client was very happy with my sample and agreed to hire me for the whole book, which was great! But, because it was such a huge book, it added considerably to my September workload, so I spent some time rearranging my upcoming schedule.

There were a couple of paid projects I wanted to complete and get out of the way, so I decided to work on those today after all, to clear the decks a bit for launching into new big projects next week.

First off was completing edits on a short story, which I’d finished correcting earlier in the week, but still needed reducing by about 300 words. So I went through it again and trimmed where I could before sending it back to the client for review.

Then I completed the penultimate section of the romantic suspense novel, which the client had sent to me after I alerted her to the gap.