Monday started well. I was up on time and I was at my desk on time. And then I started work.
First job was yesterday’s blog post. I should have started it last Friday, but it kept slipping to the bottom of the to-do list, so I started and finished it yesterday. The second job was starting today’s blog post.
Third job was a quick and easy one, sharing the first of the two weekly Facebook posts for the gig list.
It was cold in my office, so before I did my first Pomodoro of editing, I made a hot drink and put the fire on and started my third job, which was to check the bibliography for the nasty edit. That was then sent off to the client to be set.
I collected Chapter 3 of Diary of a Scaredy Cat and uploaded it to Substack, formatted it, and posted it. I changed my annual subscription to the lowest it could possibly be. (The monthly sub was already at the lowest it can be.) Then I shared a reminder for the next Monkey Dust gig on Facebook and sent out a few invitations.
Then it was on with the nasty edit again for an hour or so. I paused for something to eat, had a bit of a break, and was back on it right after dinner. I edited around 60 pages of the pdf, adding in and cross-referencing additional material where applicable, getting into a nice rhythm, which helped me gauge how long it might take me to actually finish the job today.
The poet was home by now, but I was on a roll. He did a bit of painting in the conservatory before joining me in the office, where he did some mixing. I made us both a drink and attempted the short story I wanted to submit to a competition. I outlined the plot in Plottr, exported it to Word, imported it to Scrivener and had written almost 1,000 words by the time the poet was asking when to do tea.
He volunteered to make the pudding too, so that was one thing off my list I didn’t have to worry about. It was his first Eve’s pudding and it was very nice with cream poured over it.
The reason I export it to Word and not to Scrivener from Plottr is because it’s easier to import a Word file into my short stories document than to have a standalone, dedicated Scrivener document just for one story. I can also quickly apply my own formatting to the imported Word file rather than accept the formatting Plottr sends to Scrivener.
I finished the story and read it out loud to the poet over tea, made some adjustments, and sent it off. I don’t expect it to do very well under the circumstances, but it was a 2,300-word story I started and finished, and it was a call for submissions I answered, which were the two main objectives. It’s now also gone into cooling for when it’s rejected and I can think about sending it elsewhere.
I didn’t do any NaNo prep or writing and I didn’t start my tax return. But I did achieve a few things and managed several ticks off the to-do list.
Today, then, I have the following to aim at:
- maybe write a short story for another call for submissions that closes today (this one’s unlikely as I don’t have an idea ready formed in my head)
- NaNo prep
- tax return
- finish the nasty edit
I’m keeping it short and sweet today as I don’t have as much wriggle room.
Have a fab Halloween!
I bet you’re eager to get that nasty edit done and gone! Good for you on the short story. Sounds like you had a really solid workday that was enjoyable, too!
It’s like a bad smell that won’t go away!