Summary:

Cafe sessions proved particularly productive this week, so I’m thinking about expanding my regular cafe days to three (or sometimes four) days per week, instead of two.

 

Monday:

Back to work after a whole week off, so I took myself to the cafe with an extensive task list.

First was transferring submission opportunities from this month’s Writing Magazine onto my spreadsheet. I don’t have a huge amount of time for writing short stories these days, but I do still want to take advantage of opportunities for publication where I can, as well as the inspiration to write new stuff.

Next, I did a sample edit for a prospective new client.

Then, I did some work on my submission for the upcoming TL;DR romance anthology.

Next up was a new paid editing project – correcting and polishing a set of investor letters, which turned out to be more interesting than I expected.

A couple of the TL;DR writers had posted short stories for feedback, so I read those and offered comments.

After lunch, I went back to Machine. I reread the opening scene to get the story back into my head, made a few amendments, and then brainstormed some ideas for the second scene.

I did another section of editing the investor letters, then finished off my session with a few submissions.

 

Tuesday:

I had a meeting scheduled with a new client this morning, so I stayed at home, but the meeting was cancelled shortly beforehand.

My marketing client was starting up his writing community blog, so I edited the first couple of posts, which was much more fun than the usual stuff I get from him.

I continued editing the investor letters, and got so absorbed in it that I got to halfway without stopping, rather than splitting that section into two sessions throughout the day. It’s very surprising that this project is proving so enjoyable, but I’m glad!

I made some notes on Machine, after the subconscious crew came up with some ideas about the layout of the city, which is the main setting.

After lunch, I started editing the novella of the client I was supposed to have the meeting with earlier – she’d moved the meeting to Thursday, and wanted me to get halfway before we discussed it, so I completed that.

Halfway through my afternoon meditation class (of course!), the subconscious crew laid out the whole of the next Machine scene for me, so I frantically made some notes to keep the ideas from disappearing.

Later, a sample edit request came through from a potential client with a series of sci-fi novels, so I did that and sent it back. I was hopeful it would turn into a confirmed project, as the writing was compelling and, if nothing else, I wanted to find out what happened next!

 

Thursday:

The novella client had cancelled our meeting again, so it was off to the cafe for a full day of writing and editing.

Unusually, I started with Machine, composing the scene the subconscious crew came up with on Tuesday, which went really well.

Then I went back to editing the investor letters and completed the next section of that. Since it was a compilation of existing documents and the client had said the content was therefore essentially set, I hadn’t been sure I’d be able to add sufficient value to justify my fee. But I found I was able to make minor suggestions that would correct errors, improve flow and comment on the way the information had been structured, all of which felt worthwhile, without interfering with the basic nature of the document.

Next, I went back to my TL;DR romance submission and revised it a bit more before submitting it for editorial feedback.

Then I went back to the investor letters and finished editing my allocated section for the day.

After lunch, I edited the second half of the novella I started on Monday and submitted it for review.

 

Friday:

I stayed at home today and consequently faffed around a lot longer than usual and eventually started work a lot later than planned.

I embarked on the last section of editing on the investor letters, completed them and submitted them for review and approval.

After lunch, I prepped for the next podcast episode and did some submissions.

 

Saturday:

I helped Bear with his post about our recent holiday.

I also wrote a blog post of my own about my favourite cafe.

Later, I edited the most recent podcast episode.

I also did a couple of submissions.