September is usually a really good month for me and my work and my productivity. September 2026, however, had other plans.
The poet was quite poorly, causing us to come home early from our holiday, and he ended up being hospitalised. It was while he was in hospital that I succumbed to a shocking cold that had been nagging at me for weeks. Shout out to both sons for stepping up with the visiting and giving me the chance to spend a whole day in bed! That helped a lot.
I did a lot of running around while he was in hospital, and when he came home he needed looking after as well, even though by now I was poorly as well. The dog didn’t understand what was going on and he was a bit of a handful. And I fell behind on a lot of work.
Once things got going again, KDP then threw another spanner in the works by reducing the number of new books you can publish there from 10 a week to just 2 a week, which had a knock-on effect on the carefully planned weeks and weeks of republishing.
A workshop I thought was going live didn’t go live, and I really couldn’t be arsed to find out what that was all about.
And finally, I found out that Yahoo was jumping on the same bandwagon that Word has and allowing its AI to scrape anything we do on there.
By the end of the month I truly felt like giving up entirely on work and writing. It wasn’t a case of the don’t-wannas, more a case of the can’t-be-bothereds or what’s-the-point?s. It had all dragged me down.
During a long dog walk the poet and I discussed it, and I also watched a 6-week-long workshop on killing critical voice. The upshot is, while I didn’t end September on quite the positive note it usually begins with, I did end it feeling slightly more positive than I had in previous days, and I’m trying to adopt a new mantra: make it fun again.
I’m now close to the end of my working life, not where I started more than 40 years ago. I don’t need this hassle. I don’t need to compensate for every other curveball that gets thrown at me. I just have to enjoy it, take my time, and do what I can.
With that in mind, the new month will start with positivity again.
September wrap-up!
Here, then, is how September panned out in the end.
- create graphic for Hello, September ✅
- create graphic for September wrap-up ✅
- have a holiday ✅
- start live 9-week writing workshop ❌
- start posting premium stories to Patreon and Medium ❌
- make new covers for the next 34 book republications (only managed 9) ✅❌
- republish 33 short stories (only managed 10) ✅❌
- republish 3 collections of 10 short stories ✅❌❌
- hair appointment ✅
- 1x client editing jobs ✅
- write 4 brand-new short stories ✅❌❌❌
- daily dog walk ✅
- daily exercises ❌
- daily household chores ✅
- daily reading hour ✅
- daily blog post ✅
- weekly backup ✅
- weekly finance work ❌
- update word-count tracker spreadsheet (week) daily ✅❌
- post daily to Patreon & Medium ✅
- monthly schedule planning for October ✅
- advance finances for October ✅
Extras
- watch alternative archived 6-week workshop ✅
- return 2x revisions to client ✅
- 1 week sick ‘leave’ ✅
How was your September?
This post appears on Words Worth Writing, Medium and Patreon.
You did really well this month. I think we really need to think about saying eff the industry, and let’s start doing what we want and help it find its audience. Theatre went through the small theatre movement when people were sick of Broadway and playwrights like Susan Glaspell and Eugene O’Neill started, and they helped change the industry (I think it might be cycling back to that). Indie film in the late 20th century did that. I mean. all of them went mainstream eventually, but I think it’s starting to happen with writing (again). In my area, people are putting out their own small run print hand-made zines and selling out. Are they making a ton of money? No. But they’re getting paid, and some of them are starting to pay for work. And some of it is really strong. A friend of mine has gone back to printing her books on an old-style press and selling them at the local independent bookshop. She also makes beautiful journals. There’s a lot of self-generated work happening (much of it offline), with local areas supporting their artists and then expanding outwards, in a response to the crap that the corporations are doing. It takes a long time, but I see the similar cycle that’s played out historically in the arts starting again over here. Where I am now, at my friend’s, it’s very much the same. Artists and artisan craftspeople and tradespeople are all working together so sustain each other.
I wish we had the same kind of artisan vibe that you seem to have where you are now. We have a couple of farm shops near us and that’s about it. At the weekend, we couldn’t even identify a country park that was close to us now, whereas we had a few at our last place that also had gift shops, or at least a café that sells locally produced arts and crafts. In Birmingham, the council used to run lots of local events where we could have stalls or sell things. But it’s going to take some research and more local exploring to find them here. The farm shops might work. We’ll just have to open our eyes, now we know what we’re looking for as Ian could also sell his artwork and his photography if he put his mind to it. It would be easier at the seaside…