Chapter 52: Saturday 5 November
For the duration of NaNoWriMo, Diary of a Tiger will go back to weekly posts, appearing on a Saturday with a round-up of the week. I’m posting daily updates for NaNo on weekdays only, the morning after the pertinent writing day.
Tuesday
I had a lot to do on Tuesday as it was the first day of NaNo. I should have done all of the prep work before then, but I’d been really busy with not one but two ghostwriting jobs, and I’d worked all weekend on those too. So although I had a whole year knowing NaNo was on its way, I wasn’t ready.
Because I was working solid all day on Monday, on the ghostwriting, I hadn’t done Tuesday’s Diary of a Tiger, so I dashed that off really quickly and no doubt forgot to include a load of stuff.
At the start of the day I was umming and ahhing about doing NaNo first or ghostwriting first, and I ended up doing NaNo.
Then I went off to find a word meter I liked because my little man from Writertopia stopped working at the same time that Flash stopped working (or is it Shockwave…?). I found one and had to manipulate it quite a bit because the coding was wrong, and because I’d had to fix the coding, I did a really bad thing: I accidentally removed the credit for where I found it. I remember this being a problem before and I didn’t use it as a result. But I fixed the bug and it’s in the sidebar now on individual posts and at the bottom of the NaNo posts.
- I tweaked and played with my online diary on ClickUp.
- I did some navel-gazing, wondering whether to post my NaNo progress at the end of the pertinent day or at the start of the next day.
- I played with the calendar some more.
- I emptied the dishwasher and filled it up.
- I fed the
slugsbirds. - I cleaned the cat litter tray.
- I played a game or two.
- I went out to bring the bin in, but came back empty handed because the dustmen hadn’t been yet.
- I marvelled at how dark it was outside and remembered the clocks had gone back on Sunday.
- I tidied up my critical data/live working folder on the laptop.
- I thought I heard thunder so sat and listened for a while, only to realise it was the dustmen on their way.
- I went out to fetch the bin again…
And when I had run out of things to procrastinate with, I went back to the ghostwriting. Eventually.
This is why I need a break from the ghostwriting. I’m doing anything but at the moment, and then having to work through the night to meet my deadlines. Unfortunately, the new client hasn’t yet given me a firm deadline… No doubt she will learn…
I finished the bonus short story, adding 3,232 to my overall daily wordcount, and sent it off to the client. Then I created the multi-project word-count spreadsheet for November and updated it with the day’s word-counts.
With NaNoWriMo (50,000 words), the new ghostwriting gig (40,000 words) and Diary of a Tiger (7,000 words), plus today’s 3,000 words, that’s a monthly target for November of 100,000 words…
At least Diary of a Tiger is drafted first on the blog, eh?
Wednesday
First thing Wednesday morning, the email arrived confirming that the ghostwriting client had approved payment for the final instalment of Book 11. I don’t know yet if or when I can do another one for this client. I do love the work and I enjoy the working relationship. He’s a great boss to work for. But I’m feeling a bit burned out now and, so far, he hasn’t asked me about my availability going forward, and I’m not prompting him yet.
A delivery arrived of author’s paperbacks, but they were for A History of Cadbury rather than The Life of Richard Cadbury. I did let them know and I’m deciding whether to return them or buy them at an author’s discount. The reason I haven’t had the Richard Cadbury paperbacks is because they haven’t been printed yet. I think that will be to do with the worldwide paper/book shortage rather than anything else.
Because I tidied up all of my critical data folders on the laptop, the quick start file manager was next to useless. It took me a little longer to find the files I needed on Wednesday, but at least then the latest versions were at the top of the quick start list.
The next thing I did was go and collect all of the Diary of a Tiger posts for the last 2 weeks or so and paste them into the Word file. When this year is complete, this diary will go on the pile of diaries already waiting to be read through, re-written, have exercises added, and proof-read. I’m way behind on the Diary… schedule. I’m currently proofreading Book 2, Diary of a Pussycat, and Book 3, Diary of a Cool Cat, is awaiting the first read-through.
I was late to NaNoWriMo, but I finished work at just after 6pm, moving everything else not done to tomorrow.
Thursday
On Thursday I managed to do some screen editing for the history book as well as the day’s NaNoWriMo. I also wrote up Thursday’s NaNo blog post, which was shorter than usual, and I updated what I could remember of today’s blog post.
The poet had band practice, which gave me some extra time to work.
Friday
Friday morning we had a gas engineer coming ‘after 11am’ and he arrived ‘before 10am’ but stayed for a Very Long Time. The poet was already on a Teams meeting so it was muggins who had to entertain the engineer instead of work. Then we received a cheque that needed to go into a bank. Then we decided that we may as well go to the bank and pay the change we’ve collected in as well. And then we decided that as we were going out anyway, we may as well do the shopping…
So Friday and Saturday were swapped around. Errands on Friday and NaNo/Work on Saturday.
I made a decision about a job that was ‘blocking’ me, wrote up today’s blog, and switched the office off for the day.
Next week
Next week I must finish the electronic edit of the history book and start the new one. And, of course, I’ll be carrying on with NaNo. I also have a remembrance day story publishing on Monday.
Have a great weekend!
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Wow! Sounds like a productive week!
Welcome back!
Definitely sounds like you need a break from the ghost writing. Is it possible to take a leave of absence, for say, three months or so, both financially and contractually? That might help.
We’ve been discussing it and thinking perhaps I could just do 4 a year or something. But the client hasn’t asked me yet, and I’m still not prompting him. I do think I need a break, and my contract is book by book.