Summary:

I came up with yet another new plan for ensuring I make progress on my novels, as well as fitting in paid editing work.

 

Monday:

Got my Covid booster jab this morning, then went on to the cafe for the first time in two weeks.

I started with a sample edit for an Islamic self-help book, which was really interesting.

A previous client had popped up again over the weekend, so I did a short editing job for him.

Then I went back to the fatherhood book and completed editing the penultimate section.

After lunch, I started editing part two of the productivity book.

Later, I did a sample edit for a potential new client.

I reached the end of the day, having not found any time at all for my own writing projects, which didn’t feel great.

 

Tuesday:

I decided to prioritise my own writing today, so I started by reviewing the book I’d finished the night before, and then completed the next scene for Machine.

Then I went back to the productivity book and edited the next section.

I completed editing on the fatherhood book and submitted it to the author for review and approval.

After lunch, it was the first Zoom call for Revision Club, the revision version of the Six Month Novel Programme, which I’m helping to test out. The whole group met for the first time, we went through our vision and our goals for our books, and we set targets for the next couple of weeks. It felt quite overwhelming, because I have ambitious goals for both Legacy and Machine in the next three months, but it was great to have an external support and accountability system, and a clear path ahead. 

Based on my experience of trying to fit my own writing in around paid editing, I decided it would be best to allocate two ‘own project’ tasks to each ‘work’ day, and to always do them first, then use the rest of my time to complete paid editing tasks. That way, I’ve got no excuse to give up for the day before getting to my own novels/stories, and I’m likely to work for longer, as the paid stuff has external deadlines.

So, I made a new plan, wrote it down, and we’ll see how it goes…

By that time, it was nearly 3:30pm and I still had a ton of paid work to do, so I cracked on with the rest of today’s allocated section of the productivity book.

My plan didn’t quite work, since I did have other paid editing work on my list for today, but I rejigged things so I didn’t have to work after dinner. I knew it would likely have to be long work days for the rest of the week, though.

 

Wednesday:

I was up early (but not too early) and at my desk by 8am, ready to start the long list of tasks for the day!

I stuck to my plan and put my own projects first. So, today was the day that I finally broke new ground on the edits for novel number three, Magic’s Legacy! I wrote a whole new scene and it felt really good to be getting back into the story.

Next on the list were some submissions whose deadlines were fast approaching, so I did the most urgent ones of those. The plan of putting my own projects first on the list definitely worked in getting stuff done that I probably wouldn’t otherwise have done. But it did make me feel rather under pressure, not starting the paid editing until after 10am…

My marketing client popped up overnight after a long silence, so I edited an article for him as my first paid project of the day.

Next, it was back to the productivity book to edit the next section of that.

I did a section of the leadership book, then completed my assigned amount of the productivity book for the day, then went back to finish off the leadership book for the day.

 

Thursday:

I was planning to go to the cafe today, but just didn’t really feel like it when I got up. I also wasn’t feeling particularly friendly about the novels, first thing, so I did some calculations and determined that my overall goals would not be affected by me taking a day off from them both.

So, I started by editing a newsletter for one of my regular clients, then did the scoring for an Ink & Insights competition entry for the first time in a while.

Then it was back to alternating between Part 2 of the productivity book and the toxic leadership book, until all the editing was done on both and I submitted them to the authors for review and approval.

I had an exchange of messages with the client for an upcoming project about deadlines and my current capacity. I had been intending to give developmental feedback on his epic fantasy novel by the end of the month, but we decided my skills and time would be better suited to copy editing the next draft, which I was much happier about and also meant my schedule for the next couple of weeks was less pressured.

In order to also take the pressure of our imminent long weekend in Edinburgh, I then completed feedback on two more TL;DR romance submissions.

 

Friday:

I had the whole train journey to Edinburgh to work on my own projects, so I started with the next scene of Machine, then went on to do some revisions on Legacy.

I wrote a blog post, did some more prep for the next podcast episode, and started reading a novel from one of the TL;DR writers, who had asked for some feedback.

 

Saturday/Sunday:

I kept an eye on potential new paid editing jobs and pitched for some projects on Upwork, but I didn’t do any proper work, or anything on my own writing projects over the weekend, except reading some more of the book for the next podcast episode.