Diary of a Tiger: Fri 14 Oct 2022

Image by Jan Barkmann from Pixabay
Chapter 42: Friday 14 October

One of the things I wanted to get ahead on again was drafting these diary blogs during the day as I work and then auto-posting them the following morning at 8am. So in between chapters of the ghostwriting gig yesterday, I started today’s post.

Some may suggest that I should work solidly on the ghostwriting gig for the entire day when I’m up against the clock. However, that doesn’t give me any down time in which to recover and recharge in between chapters. So when I finish a chapter, or if I come to the end of a particularly large section that is still not the end of a chapter, I take a break and do something else.

Sometimes this break is a food break or a comfort break. Sometimes I’ll go and do a household chore, like empty the dishwasher or fill the washing machine. Sometimes I’ll surf the internet and maybe play a game for 5 or 10 minutes. And sometimes I do a different job that uses a different part of the brain, like creating a cover for a book or collating short stories for an anthology or writing a blog post, and so on.

Of course, in an ideal world I’d sit and bash out my 2,000 words a day over the course of 10 working days and do lots of different things in between. Perhaps one day I will reach that Utopia. At the moment I seem to be writing lots of words in fewer blocks of time, often because I couldn’t get going earlier, but also because I can remember what I’ve already written more easily and am less likely to contradict something only a few pages earlier.

As I was working through the ghostwriting yesterday, I was thinking ahead to NaNo again and I’ve decided that there’s no way I can work on 2 writing jobs for clients at the same time, regardless of whether or not they’re the same kind of work (ghostwriting, editing, proofreading) or the same genre (Regency romances).

The new ghostwriting client has already asked me to start work on 24 October. I’ll just be finishing the current ghostwriting gig for the original client then and he always, always asks me for my availability going forward.

Well, depending on which one comes through first (first come, first served – the new client has to pay a deposit and set up the contract yet), I may have to tell GW1 client that my next availability is in December, 6 weeks after the new job has started and right after it’s due to be completed.

I definitely know I can’t ghostwrite 2 Regency romances at the same time. I tried it once for the original client and I got all mixed up then. But I also think one writing job at a time for clients is enough, although I can probably work on one client job and one job for myself.

I do think I can work on a different genre in the same period, such as the Regency mystery I mentioned previously, and yesterday morning my main character for this story that’s been percolating started to come to life.

However… I had to keep pushing her away as I was up against it for the ghostwriting gig. But oh, how I wanted to clear my desk and start making notes! It’s times like that I resent doing work for other people, yet other times, I love the variety.

Saying all of that, I did disconnect the laptop from the internet yesterday while I worked, and I only had to reconnect 2 or 3 times to check some facts. But in the in-between times, the breaks between chapters or large sections, I reconnected and did something else for a bit.

The poet came home from a work trip earlier than expected. He was going to pop in to see my mom on his way past, as he was in the midlands. But he’s full of flu or something, and so is one of his colleagues, so we decided that perhaps going to a care home full of flu wasn’t a good idea. We will have to reschedule a visit to Mom, but I don’t think it will be this weekend, as my throat is starting to show signs of catching whatever he’s had.

I worked through the night, finishing at 6:15am.

Today I have a short story to brainstorm for my time-travel stars Toni and Bart, I have a Wordsworth Short to prepare for publication (Book 53 of 54! – the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger…), and I have a book to edit for a client.

And I think we have the entire weekend off! Apart from shopping. And maybe putting things on walls. And perhaps emptying more boxes…

Have a goodun!


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2 thoughts on “Diary of a Tiger: Fri 14 Oct 2022

  1. I find that I need more breaks, as I get older. I need to switch to something like doing the dishes or folding laundry for a half hour or 45 minutes, and then things percolate and I can go back.

    I know exactly what you mean, that tension between working for others and working on your own work. I’m trying to make my business plan for next year and my strategic plan for the next 5 years, and keep it all balanced between short term work for others to keep the $$ flowing in and my longer term projects that will pay in the long run, but not keep the lights on while I work on them.

    Enjoy the weekend!

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