Friday was a very, very busy day.
The biggest job was the ghostwriting gig, as the first instalment needed to be in by the end of the day.
However, I like to take a bit of a break in between chapters, and so I alternated between writing and proofreading.
The other big job was the proofreading job. I also had in an editing job.
There was no firm deadline on the proofreading job and no deadline at all on the editing, other than ASAP. But in the end, I wrote 6,411 words for the ghostwriting job and I cleared 39 pages for the proofreading job.
I finished work at about 11:30pm, fired the ghostwriting instalment off, and by Saturday morning the client had acknowledged it, sent payment, and approved the next instalment.
Not that we saw much of Saturday morning.
Saturday
Because I’d worked late, I wasn’t ready to go to bed yet, and so we went to bed late. And that meant that we got up late on Saturday too.
The intention was to carry on with the proofreading job at the weekend, and I did at least add another 18 pages to the tally. But I was so tired that I was easily distracted, and I ended up creating an ebook for the ghostwriting job I finished before Christmas.
I started off a print book too, but that will take a little longer to produce. I’m proofreading the text on my Kindle, and already I’ve spotted a couple of little things that need changing.
I’m doing this for both port-folio reasons and to prove to myself, whenever I’m feeling inadequate, that I can do it. The book won’t be for sale, and nor will it be available to anyone else. But it will always be on our Kindles, and we will have one hard copy for the bookshelf.
Otherwise, I don’t usually work at the weekend.
Sunday
We had a busy day on Sunday, so we had to get up early … Or earlier at any rate.
It was the mother-in-law’s birthday and that meant a doorstep visit (I stayed in the car and the poet kept to a safe distance). We had to pick up a few things on the way, and on the way back we had to do the supermarket shopping.
Well, I say “we”. I did the shopping, which always takes much longer on my own, while the poet exercised the dog in the woods next to the supermarket.
By the time we got home again, it was the middle of the afternoon, and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. So we pretty much called it a day and took the rest of the week off.
Today’s plan
Today, then, the main priorities are the proofreading job for England and the editing job for Hong Kong. Then, I’ll be moving on to Pakistan. (I thought they were in India. Tut, tut, bit of an assumption there!)
The Pakistan client sent me a message over the weekend to let me know that, following a bit of a recruitment drive over there, they’re now ready to pick up where we left off last summer.
I’ve been editing a different kind of article for them since November, while they sorted themselves out, and anything else they wanted to send me. But now we’re back on track and they’re going to keep me busy with 5 good-sized articles every week to edit on their SEO thing.
By the time I hit my desk today, there were already 3 of said 5 articles for this week waiting for me.
So today, it’s proofreading, editing, editing.
I’m evaluating a paid-for pdf version of Foxit for the next 2 weeks, so I’ll test that when I transfer the proofreading markups to the pdf. I would have considered Adobe, but I hate that they’re moving everything to subscription only, and I prefer to buy something once and then it’s mine. So I won’t be subscribing to Adobe.
I have a couple of days breathing space for the ghostwriting gig, which will give me chance to apply any of their beta reader’s suggestions before starting the next instalment.
The client has given me an extra 2 days at the end of this 2-week stint to get the next instalment back, and as the beta reader’s suggestions are already here, I’ll be ready to go with that one on Wednesday.
