I’m not getting very many longer segments of time in which I can focus properly on a job that needs a lot of concentration at the moment. So I’m doing what I can when I can. Fortunately, the blocks of time are getting longer again. But for now, I’m doing little jobs or admin in the short windows of time and doing the heavier stuff when the poet finishes work and can take over dog duties for a while.
Yesterday, we were up early because the poet had to go ovver t’hill (over the hill, cross the Pennines) for a couple of meetings. I did go back to sleep for about an hour after he went, but the dogs soon had me up again because they, you know, need feeding every so often. Once I was dressed, I took the wheelie bin out, I emptied the dishwasher, and I played with the dogs in the garden.
Over my dirty cuppa, I did a couple of assignments from the creative writing course book. At my desk, in between dog duties, I finalised and published yesterday’s blog post and then I did some short story markets work.
I created a spreadsheet for all the open calls for submissions I keep missing, with things like opening and deadline dates, word counts, themes, remuneration, contact details, etc. Then I went and found 1 that’s due on 1 December, and 5 that are due throughout 2026. Not bad, 6 in my first session.
I input the details into the spreadsheet, then I opened new individual text files in Scrivener and copied and pasted the entire submission details for each one, adding a column in the spreadsheet for Scrivener. Finally, I moved a record of submissions spreadsheet onto a new page in the new spreadsheet.
And then I sat back and admired it all for a few precious moments.
I was sent the code to access the lifetime workshops subscription from WMG Publishing’s Teachable and I had a scroll through the 92 courses already included in this bundle. In the new year, I intend to join some live workshops, and I have to request admission to those. Otherwise I’ll still see them once they’ve been archived.
To say I’m excited about doing these workshops is an understatement. I love learning and studying, less keen on exams. Even if in some cases I’m being shown how to suck eggs, it’s still good to (a) get someone else’s perspective, and (b) know that others agree with me.
The poet says that since I’ve been doing these workshops, he thinks my writing has got better, in some cases a lot better. And once I looked at him slightly askance and questioned whether or not my writing was already great 🤔, I must admit I agree with him. When I come back to an assignment I’ve done for one of these workshops, I’m amazed at how the story still drags me in and how little I have to do to it to make it better… 🤔
I did manage to do some editing throughout the day, but the bulk of the work had to wait until the poet was home, by which time the light had gone again. No worries, though. I have my daylight floor-standing lamp and I was able to spend a good, solid couple of hours on that.
I was a bit annoyed that of the 3 ‘new’ chapters the author sent, one of them was actually the next chapter already in the file. I was editing these new chapters on screen to save me printing it all off again. It’s a lot quicker to do the screen edits when I’ve already got the hard copy markups.
For a change, I managed to close everything down before tea was on the table this time, and I was glad that I did at least get some good work done.
Sounds like a good day’s work, even with all the interruptions.
I’ve been building the interruptions into the schedule, so they’re not as disastrous as they were, say, last week.