At the end of the day on Monday I dug out each and every notebook or piece of paper or printout that has anything to do with The Beast Within. I stripped out the writealong parts of Project Management for Writers: Gate 2 – Who/Where? and saved them in their own file. I printed that off too. By the end of it I had a small stack.
The idea is to consolidate everything I have so far into one place, starting with my new favourite tool, the A5 plotting journal. It means some duplication, but I’m sure it will save a lot of time in the long run. And, of course, everything will be in once place.
We’ll no doubt see how that goes.
Tuesday started on time, sifting through emails and social media, with one of my first jobs chasing a payment. The client in question promptly sent me a new contributor form, when I’m already a contributor…It’s been a long time since they bought anything of mine, though, and I believe their payment system had changed. It took longer than necessary, though, as I couldn’t sign it electronically. I had to print it, sign it, scan it and send it back.
The People’s Friend writing hour was on X between 11am and noon, and I was able to join in with that from start to finish.
A friend let me know that she’d downloaded the new project management box set to her Kindle, reminding me that I have book 3 to write. I went to Amazon and downloaded the sample to make sure it’s clear about the duplicate parts, and it is. Then I read the first two instances of said parts and started to think that, actually, this might be a book for me… I wrote the book I wanted to read!
Doing this served as a refresher ahead of when I start writing the third book, which should be today onwards. I hope the rest of it lives up to the opening for buyers and that people find it useful at least.
I opened up the September wrap-up post so I can fill it in as I go along. It sits side by side, next to the current blog I’m working on so I can tick or add things as I do them or think of them.
The reading list for the romance ghost writing workshop still isn’t up, and nor is anything else at the moment. I moved the reminder to check for the list along on my calendar on ClickUp. While I was in ClickUp, I created a new project for the magazine, Words Worth Reading, adding in the first two issues, and I copied across all of the pertinent tasks.
I brainstormed the story for this week’s 12 Stories in 12 Months (deadline today…), created a cover so I have artwork with which to illustrate my submission, and then scribbled out an outline, leaving it to cool overnight. I’ll write up the first draft today, check it once, and post it. Then it will go into the machine and onto my power board for when I’m ready to revise it and send it to market.
Then I created the A5 plotting journal for The Beast Within and started to fill it in with initial plot notes and current character A to Z list, and I colour code it using little sticky tabs in the corner of the pages:
- black = overall plot notes
- green = character notes
- blue = outline
- red = rewrites & edits
Oh, it felt good ticking a few things off the to-do list.
I’ve removed the subscription forms from the bottom of posts now. If anyone wants to subscribe, use the links in the side bar (at the bottom on mobile devices).
You are getting so much done.
Meanwhile, my day has been chaos!
Oh no! I hope you were able to see wood for the trees in the end…