June 2019 – Words Worth Writing

26 June 2019

Diary of a Novel: plotting the murder

I haven’t been completely idle since 10 June when I last updated the novel-writing diary. Aside from completing three large editing projects for a client, I’ve also started work on a pocket novel and joined a new writers’ group. Yesterday a short editing job arrived all the way from Hong Kong, from a new client. And this morning a longer...

Diary of a Novel

25 June 2019

Diary of a pocket novel – 1 step forward, 2 steps back

The murder board is really helping with the structure of the pocket novel. But I’ve been working recently on screen for my editing jobs and when I sat down to write the pocket novel by hand, I kept on hitting a brick wall. I need to get into my writing rhythm again for this one. Scrivener has a lot to...

writer at work

21 June 2019

My (new) fat year: weeks 3 & 4 = ¾lb loss (5¾lb)

In truth, I lost ¼lb last week, and ½lb this week, but I skipped last week’s weekly update as I was busy working (again!). Regardless, though, I still have a 5¾lb weight-loss, which is pretty good going. I say pretty good going, because I really am not starving myself at all. Yes, I’m eating foods that go well with a...

writer at work

20 June 2019

Diary of a pocket novel – getting organised

I’ve been working on the pocket novel for the past couple of days. I’m trying to write it by the seat of my pants, but I am a natural planner. So I went in to Scrivener to add a new file … and I already had one! There’s even some writing on it. So I’m going to merge that one...

writer at work

19 June 2019

My writing day

I think I’m getting back into the writing groove. I’ve designed a schedule intended to allow me to work on my own material for part of the day as well as edit for clients for the rest of the day. It’s taken quite a few years to get here, but it seems to be working. On Mondays, for example, I...

writer at work

18 June 2019

Goldthorpe Writers: “steam trains”

Last week I joined a new writers’ group over in Barnsley. Goldthorpe is about 25 minutes away by car, even if I do have to wait on two level crossings for trains. The library is really nice and one of my favourites. When I lived in Barnsley, I used to go there quite often. There were only five of us...

writer at work

17 June 2019

Diary of a pocket novel – and an oxymoron …

I’ve always wanted to write a pocket novel. There are two of our weekly magazines who publish pocket novels (PNs) – or apx. 39,000-word novellas – and as far as I know they both publish something like two PNs a month. The word-count requirement fluctuates, but they’re roughly 35,000 – 45,000 words long at one time or another, as far...

writer at work

12 June 2019

I joined a writers’ group …

I seem to be juggling several balls in the air at the moment, and on Monday I added another. I joined a new writers’ group. I’ve been looking for a writers’ group ever since I moved to Yorkshire from Birmingham in 2004. Back home I had been a member of the now defunct Birmingham Writers’ Group, I was a founder...

writer at work

10 June 2019

Diary of a Novel: advance character work done

Over the past two weeks, including the weekend, I’ve been quite busy doing a client edit that turned into a major rewrite. Writing uses up most of my creative energy. I gave up teaching because that depleted my supplies too. I try to just copy edit rather than development edit or rewrite so that I can continue to work on...

Diary of a Novel

7 June 2019

My (new) fat year: week 2 = 1¼lb loss (4¼lb)

The second week was going very well, with me taking the dog for a walk every day. Walking him every day makes me a lot more active than sitting on my bum all week, and it therefore gives me more calories to spend. However, on Monday evening the dog had a bit of a turn, and we’ve been resting him this...

writer at work