The poet went into the office today, so that meant we were up earlier and that meant I was at my desk earlier.
Pomodoros
Don’t forget, these pomodoros are 50 minutes each rather than 25 minutes each, short breaks are 10 minutes, and long breaks are 60 minutes.
Pomodoro 1
A while ago I got sick and tired of the number of spam emails I was receiving from this site. I searched all over the place to find out why it was happening and in the end gave up and removed the contact form. Yesterday, when I was reconsidering my current anti-spam plugin, I discovered that the one I was using was supposed to catch all of that and that several other users had complained about it allowing far too much spam through. Of course, the plugin people denied it, blaming other software on the site. So to find out if it *was* them, I changed my anti-spam plugin and reinstated my contact form. It will be interesting to see how much spam comes through now, if any.
I don’t get any hirings from this site in any case. All of my work is word of mouth, repeat work, or I get it from a job site.
As I was doing that I also decided to remove all of the features that the (now previous) anti-spam plugin people were complaining about on this blog, just so I don’t get caught out again. And while I was doing that, I remembered to update the sidebar in individual posts by removing the Ko-Fi donation button, the ‘hire me on Reedsy’ button, and the NaNoWriMo 2022 progress bar, and by changing the copyright date to 2023, even though in the UK our copyright is protected for 75 years after we die. I’m not sure how that translates to the world-wide web, but I change it every year anyway.
The anti-spam people did get back to me on Monday evening, but I’d already deactivated and deleted their plugin by then. Had they have simply suggested I remove the ‘offensive’ content, then we might still have a relationship.
By the time I’d done all of this (ADMIN), my first pomodoro was done. So I had a break, made a drink, fed the birds, and put some washing through the tumble drier. (Towels. Towels need to be tumble-dried or they turn out all scratchy and horrible.)
Pomodoro 2
After my break, I entered the day’s competitions (FAFF), and then I caught up on my motivational Monday workshops (PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT). This session, which was all about critical voice, was the final session for January 2022 and the videos were longer than usual – twice as long, really. So that took up the rest of the pomodoro. I do take notes too, and sometimes pause the video. But generally this one was longer. I’m going to leave them there until the beginning of February now and get on with one of the other workshops for which I get to turn in an assignment.
Pomodoro 3
For my third pomodoro, I typed up another scene for Catch the Rainbow (EDITING), Scene 8, but I got about halfway through it and had to go off down a rabbit hole looking to see if I’d mentioned somewhere specific in Night Crawler. I do have a bible for Night Crawler, and it does include where Marcie Craig’s parents still live. But I had to see if I’d mentioned it in Night Crawler before I described it in detail in Catch the Rainbow…
Yes, Marcie Craig does have a secondary role in Catch the Rainbow, in which the main 1998 character is actually her friend Woodstock, who was also in Night Crawler. Because of locations in this current book, during which the dual-timeline events take place in 1974 when Marcie was ten years old, I’ve had to move Marcie and her family around the corner. Fortunately, I didn’t mention the (made up) address in Night Crawler, so I managed to get away with it.
I finished the scene and put it away. I did want to start another job in this session, but the Catch the Rainbow work took all the segment up. I added 1,248 words, including quite a few completely new ones.
Pomodoro 4
After dinner I caught up on blogs and emails (more ADMIN) and I called the friend who has taken the gig list over from us for a quick chat (I class this as CLIENT WORK now). I also nipped onto my Amazon KDP bookshelf to find that we can now archive titles from our shelves, but they still remain in the Amazon store. I clicked through, archiving all of the old stuff I had with them, leaving the only 4 live books they still manage. I’d gone in to look at my sales reports (ADMIN again), and that had all changed too. It might take some getting used to.
Pomodoro 5
Before the daylight went, we took the dog for his twilight trot, then it was back to the editing. I hard-copy edited another chapter (CLIENT WORK).
Pomodoro 6
After another very short break, I moved on to the ghostwriting (CLIENT WORK). I really struggled to get going with this and had to keep reminding myself of the morning’s online ‘lesson’: If something seems a bit overwhelming, break it down into bite-sized chunks. So I set myself some mini targets of 500 words instead of 2,000 words.
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That’s a lot to get done in a day. Sorry you’re having such trouble with your anti-spam filter, too. It’s so frustrating.
I did feel as though I’d been slacking, so thank you for that.
The anti-spam filter is working on comments, so far, but some email has started to come through that is a bit borderline. So I still have some research to do before deciding whether to leave the contact form up, take it down, or find *another* spam filter.