When I wrote up yesterday’s blog post, yesterday, I couldn’t remember what I’d spent most of Wednesday doing. And then I remembered. It was budget day in the UK on Wednesday, and I took time out to follow that.
It was a bit of a ball-ache in that our internet is next to non-existent at the moment, and I had to keep refreshing the screen and rewinding. But when it got well and truly stuck, I gave in and went and watched it on the telly. I did take a sandwich in there too, so I could eat while I watched.
Most of yesterday was spent planning for the month ahead. I have a novella schedule now and I wanted to make sure I was pre-writing for 2 weeks, writing for 4 weeks, revising for 1 week and proofreading for 1 week for each month. Meaning pre-writing the new novella for 2 weeks and revising and proofreading the previous month’s novella also for 2 weeks.
Then I had to build in study for the month, and I decided to move non-fiction to January. This means I’ll have 2 novellas in progress, 4 or 5 short stories (depending on how many weeks there are in the month), and either a non-fiction or a daily study hour. The 4 or 5 short stories will include the Deadlines for Writers 12 Stories in 12 Months challenge plus 3 or 4 additional stories.
It’s going to be busy, but I’ll make sure I have every weekend off to recuperate. And anything outside of what has to be turned in each month (i.e. 1 novella and 1 short story). if it ain’t finished then it goes to the bottom of the pile until I get around to it again. So that’s things like Catch the Rainbow and the writers’ guides. If I run out of time in the day, then the first thing to go will be the study hour.
I also have to build in admin, like finances (I want to do these as I go instead of save them all until October next year!), diary work, planning work, market work, publishing, cover designs, book reviews, (ergo, books to read,) the newsletter, blog posts, etc, etc, etc.
Incidentally, whilst today is the first of the month, I won’t officially be starting my Great Novella Challenge until Monday. I’m doing the pre-writing today, but I start the writing on Monday. For 4 weeks.
Hello, November!
Here’s how my November looks:
- create graphic for Hello November ✔️
- create graphic for November wrap-up ✔️
- new word-count spreadsheet for November ✔️
- Writing Prompts for May 2025
- 2 book reviews
- newsletter
- revise Rainbow Chronicles #1 (Catch the Rainbow)
- write Nettie Campbell mystery #1 (Great Novella Challenge #1)
- pre-write Lady Matilda investigation #1 (Great Novella Challenge #2)
- 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS
- 7 stories over 5 weeks (inc. 12 STORIES) (3 are revisions/proofreading only)
- client proofread: Holocaust book
- (week) daily blog post
- (week) daily tech declutter
- weekly diary work
- weekly finances
- weekly market work
- monthly date work
- Monkey Dust admin
- Diane’s gig list admin every Thursday
- 2 Monkey Dust gigs
- Darts gig (the band, not the sport)
- monthly schedule planning for December
- advance finances for December
- update 12-project spreadsheet (week) daily
- finish focus study bundle #1 on writing with depth
- start focus study bundle #2 on writing with depth
- hair appointment
- dental appointment 😱
- hospital appointment (dermatology – the one they said I wouldn’t get until well into next year…)
- grand-doggy #1 coming for 2 weeks
- grand-doggy #2 coming for a weekend (at the same time…)
How’s your November looking?
That is a busy month!
I’m not doing any of the replacement Nano challenges this year; I have too many deadlines to juggle, and I’m pitching for other freelance work.
Enjoy the dogs!
I’m not doing anything remotely NaNo either and I’ve unfollowed them everywhere. I have enough to do without making it even harder for myself!
We have one dog this weekend. The other one is coming next weekend…I think…