Yesterday was such a good day, starting bang on time over a dirty cuppa. I had my reading half hour and a housework half hour then took the dog for his half-hour walk. When we got back I did my daily words, I updated the 36-project spreadsheet, I chose a picture for yesterday’s blog post, published the post to here, to Patreon, to Medium and to Instagram, and then I managed an hour of client editing. Or a single 50-minute pomodoro.
After my midday breakfast I went straight into another 2 hours of client editing, again split into two 50-minute pomodoros. There aren’t many employees who go out to work every day can sit and edit a job for 3 hours solid. I reminded myself of this each time I stretched and rubbed my eyes. I firmly believe that freelances spend more time at the coal face than PAYE employees. But I couldn’t face any more after 3 hours without missing important mistakes.
Once this particular editing job is done I have 2 proofreading jobs with the same client already in and 1 proofreading job with another client. I’m awaiting a proofreader’s report for another client edit, but this particular client publishes so many books, hundreds and hundreds, I expect the other editors and proofreaders have work backing up as well. The office staff are probably on a well deserved Easter break too. They all work very hard, and while they probably do have lots and lots of lovely authors who are a dream to work with, I’d bet there’s the odd one in there too who will be remembered for another reason entirely.
I love working for this client and have done so for about 15 years now. Wow! Where did that time go? And when I was an author with them as well, I hope I was one of the lovely ones. I mean, I did send the (my) commissioning editor chocolate with my initial book proposal…
But my eyes were tired (still breaking in new specs), and after I had my afternoon meal I admit I didn’t go straight back to work, even though another client was pencilled in, I decided to push that one back until the sun went down and I sat in the sunny conservatory while the dog played outside on the grass. It was a beautiful day and I caught up on some of the reading I do for book reviews.
One of the big decisions I made over the previous few days was to treat myself as my own client as well. I still have deadlines of my own and other obligations and one of those is the Take One Idea… story I do for the writing prompts. People are waiting for these articles, and I do earn from them as well. But the next one was already late and I’d promised myself (my client?) I’d do it yesterday.
So when I came in from the sunny conservatory into the cool of the office, and the puppy was fast asleep at my feet, I quickly rattled off today’s blog post thus far and then started the Take One Idea… story, which goes up on my Patreon and my Medium as well as into the file for the writing ideas book, currently pencilled in for(checks ‘digital’ planner…) September 2026… 😱 Actually, the Take One Idea…articles will be going into the second volume in…October 2026! And there may be a third volume yet, on where to send them.
Aside from the bookazine and 3 short stories due out in April and May (also 2026), these are my next publications.
I wrote the first draft of the Take One Idea…article and left it to cool overnight. I collected together a set of pdfs from the ‘digital’ planner ready to print off and work backwards to see when all the writing needs to be done by. And I finalised today’s post and scheduled it to publish.
I was late finishing in the end, but I only had a quick tea to prepare for myself as the poet was away, salmon, potatoes, peas and corn, with meringue nest and fresh berries for pudding.
This post appears on Words Worth Writing, Medium and Patreon.
