Category: writer at work

23 October 2023

Monday 23 October 2023: A 4-day week

The rain came on Thursday night and stayed all the way through Friday and into the weekend. I had to go and collect our prescriptions on Friday morning and I got drenched. It was too windy to take an umbrella, so I just went for it, got wet, and changed as soon as I got home again. While I was...

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20 October 2023

Friday 20 October 2023: Ahead of the storm

So I’m back to writing up the blog post in real time and scheduling it to post the next working day. Let’s see how long it lasts… I updated my word and page count spreadsheets with the projects I decided to keep. Two editing projects for the rest of October and three writing projects. (A writers’ guide and two short...

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19 October 2023

Thursday 19 October 2023: One project at a time

The last thing I did at my desk before closing down yesterday was create the cover for the NaNoWriMo diary. I’m writing a diary by hand as I complete each day’s session and the plan is to get the diary typed up, with exercises for readers to try for themselves, and perhaps the finished product as a bonus. All being...

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18 October 2023

Wednesday 18 October 2023: Floodgates open

Once I’d wiped the slate clean yesterday, the floodgates opened. I started to work on just one project of my own, and that project was The Secret of Whitehorse Farm for NaNoWriMo 2023. After tea I sat down to scribble in my journal. I scribbled and scribbled and scribbled and came up with the names for the members of the two...

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17 October 2023

Tuesday 17 October 2023: The art of not finishing

Well, I call it an ‘art’, but really, and as I was reminded in my Zoom class last week, not finishing things is a very bad habit, and I am clearly getting into a Very Bad habit. I have all of these good intentions and I plan them all meticulously in my diary and then… I don’t finish any of them....

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16 October 2023

Monday 16 October 2023: A bit green around the gills…

We didn’t move any furniture at the weekend, or swap any rooms around. We did the shopping and the band had a gig. But we didn’t do much else. At about teatime on Friday I suddenly took ill, and I got steadily worse as the weekend progressed. We don’t know whether I’d eaten something, picked up a stomach chill, or...

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13 October 2023

Friday 13 October 2023: Friday the 13th! 😱

  I don’t actually mind Friday the 13th at all. To me, it’s nothing special. It’s just another day. I know people who fear it and I know someone who welcomes it with open arms. But to me, it’s just another day. I was up bright and early yesterday, so I was ready in good time to join the Zoom...

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12 October 2023

Thursday 12 October 2023: Free images

Cinnamon is poured into a cappuccino cup – depositphotos.com I’ve been toying with taking out a subscription to DepositPhotos. I know a lot of other writers who use them and I do like the selection they have. While I’ve been umming and ahhing, they’ve sent me several special offers, one of which I may actually accept. But yesterday they also...

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11 October 2023

Wednesday 11 October 2023: Reading and writing

I was up bright and early yesterday, getting up when the poet left for work. Before breakfast I played one of my side hustle games. Over breakfast I read more of Write Novels Fast. By 10am, I was at my desk and working on The Secret of Whitehorse Farm, watching Jessica Brody’s course on writing a novel in 15 beats for...

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10 October 2023

Tuesday 10 October 2023: Some stuff done + Book review

Yesterday’s jobs started with me finishing the latest book for NetGalley. I wrote and posted yesterday’s blog post and opened up today’s blog post to get it started. Then I opened Canva to create the ‘book review’ graphic for today, and the ‘currently reading’ graphic for tomorrow. I updated my handwritten notes in my NetGalley exercise book, and started work...

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9 October 2023

Monday 9 October 2023: a new week

I spent a lot of time on Friday revisiting my workload and my diary. I’ve been filling my days with so much stuff, I’ve not been starting all of it, let alone finishing any of it. So now I’m dedicating mornings to writing, blogging, admin, etc, and the afternoons to the last client I chose to keep, household chores, etc....

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6 October 2023

Friday 6 October 2023: The weekend already…

So the weekend has crept up on me again and I’ve hardly done any of the things I hoped to do this week. I did manage to compose and send out a newsletter. I thought my last one was in July, but it was in June. The July newsletter on file was just a template I’d saved for when I...

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5 October 2023

Thursday 5 October 2023: “Have you written anything?”

Him: “Who’s the musician in the house?” Me: “That’s my husband.” Him: “What do you do?” Me: “I’m a writer.” Him: “Really? Have you written anything?” [beat] Me: “What do you do?” Him: “I’m a building inspector.” Me: “Really? Have you inspected any buildings?” Him: [nervous laughter] Me: [Smiles sweetly] And that, folks, is how my day started yesterday. Honestly,...

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4 October 2023

Wednesday 4 October 2023: Hiding at the back

One of the best things of taking part in something online, preferably without cameras, is that when you’re late you can sneak in the back, hope no one notices, and still be in your dressing gown. I was so carried away with some Probate stuff yesterday morning, that I first forgot to go and get dressed, and then I forgot...

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3 October 2023

Tuesday 3 October 2023: The month ahead

After a lovely week off where we actually had some quality time off together, it was back to work for both of us yesterday. It was the first working day of the month, so that meant new spreadsheets. I also scheduled the next three books I’ll be publishing, between now and 1 January. The January publication will be the next...

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2 October 2023

Monday 2 October 2023: Publication Day!

It’s publication day today for the rebranded and reissued Words Worth Reading. When it originally came out in October 2021, it was numbered issue 1. This time it’s been numbered issue 0. Words Worth Reading is my new quarterly fiction collection. In the near future it will include at least two brand-new short stories, a brand-new novella, the second part in...

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30 September 2023

Saturday 30 September 2023: September wrap-up

We had a week off at the end of September but before we broke up, I didn’t have time to write up the wrap-up. In any case, I did plan to do some work while we were off. However, the magazine took a lot of time and effort and turned out to be the only thing I worked on during...

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22 September 2023

Friday 22 September 2023: Where’d the week go?

Whoosh! And another week went by, just like that… How can it be Friday already? Well, actually, it’s still Thursday for me as I’m writing this yesterday. Even so… Yesterday started with me printing off the three lots of additions the author has sent, post-first-proof-pdf, for the client edit. I negotiated an extra fee for the extra work, for which...

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21 September 2023

Thursday 21 September 2023: A bluff old cynic? Moi?

We’re both full of cold at the moment and the dog woke us up several times during the night. I still managed to get up on time, though, which was a small miracle, and only half an hour after the poet left for work. I have to say, the dog doesn’t wake us throughout the night because he’s ill or...

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20 September 2023

Wednesday 20 September 2023: I made a magazine

I was up early again yesterday but instead of getting to my desk earlier, I was embroiled in house sale stuff that’s pretty much down to solicitor incompetence. I can’t go into detail here. Instead I bombarded my sister with a load of ranting texts, which she laughed at. She needed cheering up. She’s leading a walking holiday and there...

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19 September 2023

Tuesday 19 September 2023: A new gadget!

I spent much of the weekend trying to focus on what work needs doing when. I spent a lot of time last week learning how to publish a magazine in Affinity. The first part of the week was learning how to make a pdf. The second part of the week was learning how to export the pdf so that it’s...

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18 September 2023

Monday 18 September 2023: Learning a new skill

Thursday and Friday last week were both spent learning. I learned how to create a magazine pdf in Affinity and while I still have a lot to do before the end of this week, I’m feeling a lot more confident about it. The ebook will be issued in the same way, I think. The pdf will be available to paid...

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14 September 2023

Thursday 14 September 2023: Priorities

“Who are you and what have you done with my wife?” That’s how the poet greeted me yesterday morning when I bounced out of bed at the crack of dawn with him. He was off on a long-haul drive across t’hill (over the Pennines). It was 7am, so not that early. Even so, it was Very Early for me. However, since...

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13 September 2023

Wednesday 13 September 2023: Still tidying books

I seem to be spending less and less time on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) just lately. I wouldn’t mind, but I’m not sure what I’m doing instead. I’m still tidying the books I uploaded to Google Play Books, deleting duplicates or failed uploads, and replacing any I’ve changed, such as found a cover instead of the generic ones and...

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12 September 2023

Tuesday 12 September 2023: Online workshops

The first thing I did after hitting my desk yesterday morning was, well, hit my desk. It was so untidy I took a picture of it to remind me not to leave it like that ever again. It really has a negative effect on me and is something I’ve always disliked in all my working years. Perhaps it was brainwashed...

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11 September 2023

Monday 11 September 2023: Anatomy of a messy desk

So this was the sight that greeted me when I went into the office this morning. I can’t stand an untidy desk and I can’t work at one. But this is how I left it on… Wednesday last week. Yes, Wednesday. And not a single item has moved. Why? Because I fell down a complete rabbit hole and stayed there...

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6 September 2023

Wednesday 6 September 2023: Ticking jobs off

At the end of the day on Monday I dug out each and every notebook or piece of paper or printout that has anything to do with The Beast Within. I stripped out the writealong parts of Project Management for Writers: Gate 2 – Who/Where? and saved them in their own file. I printed that off too. By the end of it...

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5 September 2023

Tuesday 5 September 2023: A slow start

I had so many good intentions but when I woke up on Monday I was still really, really tired. On Saturday night I went to bed on drugs as it seemed as though I was coming down with a cold. I slept like the dead and it was the poet who was woken up by the dog two or three...

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