Summary:

Very busy week, demonstrating that I’m not very good at taking time off! Still, lots of exciting stuff going on with the paid editing, plus definite progress on both novels.

 

Monday:

Bit of a slow start after a late night!

My most frequent client had also sent a message to say that some of the work scheduled for September would be delayed, so I had to amend my schedule and think about pitching for more work.

I wrote a review of a ridiculous game I’d played the previous night.

Then I had a meeting with the clients on the long-term management book project, about the next chapter to be edited. Once that was finished, I set out for my favourite cafe to work for the rest of the day.

Next on the list was finishing edits on the romantic suspense novel. It was a bit sad to get to the end and know I wouldn’t be working on it any more, but I was hopeful the author might have more work for me some time in the future.

While I was waiting for my lunch to arrive, the subconscious crew came through in a big way, answering some of the bigger questions about Machine, so I added to my notes.

After lunch, I got started editing the holiday resort book, which turned out to be really fun. I felt like I was providing good value in terms of editing feedback, but that the level of work required was very reasonable for the pay, which is a very good combination for a project!

Next was continuing with the giant romance novel I did the sample chapter for the day before. I had to begin by transferring my edits on the first chapter from the sample Word document to the main Google Doc manuscript, which was a bit tedious, but then I got to carry on with the second and third chapters.

The last thing on my list for today was working on the Legacy revisions. I went through all my notes and tried to organise them better into a list I could start to work from.

 

Tuesday:

Even slower start today – it took me ages to get up, sort everything out, put together my list of tasks and actually get going.

Eventually, I got myself sorted out and reviewed the author’s comments on the first few chapters of the giant romance novel, before continuing with editing the next three chapters.

Then I went back to editing the holiday resort memoir, hit the first milestone and submitted it for review and feedback.

 

Wednesday:

It was a day off from paid editing, but I didn’t work on my own projects at all the previous day and was feeling quite enthused, so I took the long way round to the cinema and fetched up in Starbucks for a free-form session on whatever took my fancy.

I did a free-writing exercise from a prompt provided by Claire from CP’s Day Off and then did an initial brainstorm for a new short story.

After lunch, I made some more notes on Machine and the subconscious crew came through in a major way, presenting me with the answers to the two remaining big questions. This put me in the position of being able to move forwards with my actual outline, and also made me think there was now definitely enough material for a full novel from the story I was building.

I wrote a blog post about an unusual encounter that took place in my favourite writing cafe on Monday.

Then I continued compiling my notes for the Legacy revision plan.

So, all in all, a very productive ‘day off’!

Much later, a very small piece of work came through from my marketing client, so I did that.

 

Thursday:

Very full schedule today, as a new urgent project came through from a past client the night before, so I had to shift things around to fit it in.

I had to spend some time, first thing, negotiating with a potential new client and also discussing an ongoing project with a current one.

I reviewed the comments the author of the giant romance novel had left on the previously edited chapters, then edited the next section of the holiday resort memoir.

I did the next outlining task for Machine, putting together a rough list of scenes in order. It came together better than I expected, though obviously there were still a lot of gaps to fill.

I also organised some more notes for the Legacy revision plan.

The discussions with the current client about the continuing requirements of his project went on for some time, eventually ending up with me needing to edit the start of a new version, go through the proposed changes with him on a call, and then edit the rest again, based on our conversation.

I managed to edit one more chapter of the giant romance novel in between times, and then decided to call it a day for paid editing. I rearranged my schedule to bring Saturday in as a partial working day, and shifted everything around a bit so it wasn’t so compressed. Then, I made a plan to get up early and get into the cafe at opening time tomorrow, to blitz as much work as possible, in order to avoid working too much on Saturday after all!

After I’d supposedly logged off for the day, my marketing client popped up with a short blog post for editing, so I knocked that off in a few minutes.

Later, I did the prep for the next podcast episode.

 

Friday:

My plan to get to the cafe early and do an intensive day’s work went awry when I arrived and it was closed!

I went on towards Starbucks at the cinema, before realising it wouldn’t open for another hour.

So, I paused in a nearby park and did some more hard-copy notes for Legacy and Machine, before hovering outside the cinema for a few minutes, waiting to gain access!

I finally settled down to some paid editing and reached the halfway mark in the holiday resort memoir. I also completed the first third of the relationship guide that had come through from my previous client earlier in the week.

After lunch, I switched locations and addressed the new comments on the giant romance novel, as well as editing the next chapter.

Lastly, I edited the first section of a new project – a fantasy novel by a first-time writer, which ended up taking longer than I anticipated so I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped.

Much later, I did a requested sample edit for a potential new client.

I also re-jigged my schedule yet again, to be able to take tomorrow off from paid editing, as I was knackered!

 

Saturday:

Of course, I woke up this morning feeling obligated to do the paid editing work I’d already told my clients I would do today – and also feeling somewhat refreshed and re-enthused!

So, I edited two more chapters of the giant romance novel, and also dealt with the comments and queries the author had added to her manuscript overnight.

Later, the next section of the long-term management book project was ready for editing, so I did that as well.

We also recorded the next episode of the podcast and I did a few submissions.

The last thing on my list for the day was to work on creating some new story generation picture grids for additional genres. I completed a sci-fi one to add to my collection, and it was really fun.