Tag: Camp NaNoWriMo

6 April 2023

Camp NaNo April 2023: Day 5

First job on Wednesday was to go and collect my prescription from the doctors. It was drizzling slightly, but the dog wanted to come with me, so he came too. I tied him up outside, where he sat good as gold, and I went in only to be told that the prescription wasn’t quite ready and I could either wait...

Categories writer at work

5 April 2023

Camp NaNo April 2023: Day 4

  Day 4 of NaNo didn’t really get off the ground until very late on. It was a bitty, busy day with me having two lots of appointments, one of which I had to go out to, as well as seeing the poet off for another business trip. The poet was only working an hour or so away at first,...

Categories writer at work

4 April 2023

Camp NaNo April 2023: Days 1, 2 & 3

We had another busy weekend. On Saturday morning I had to check what we had in the cupboards already, write a meal plan for this week, and then write up a shopping list. I’m not sure if it’s the lower carbs that are starting to have the usual early effect on my weight or the time-restricted eating (I’m currently doing 12-12...

Categories writer at work

3 April 2023

Camp NaNo April 2023: Prep work 3

First thing Friday morning I had my new-patient appointment at our new doctors. So I took some letters to the letterbox and was early for my appointment. This is the first walk I’ve done all week, and I was out of puff when I got there. (It’s less than 5 minutes away.) I am SO out of condition, and I...

Categories writer at work

31 March 2023

Camp NaNo April 2023: Prep work 2

As each day passes I’m getting to my desk closer and closer to that magical ten o’clock… I just haven’t made it there yet. First job of the day was more Camp NaNo prep (see below), which probably took less than a single pomodoro all together. I quickly shared the gig list and rattled through the competitions (I was up...

Categories writer at work

30 March 2023

Camp NaNo April 2023: Prep work 1

It was still morning when I arrived at my desk yesterday and the first thing I did was pick up the workbook I’d deliberately left there the night before and start to leaf through it. Then I got out my coloured pens and started to complete it in more detail. Read about what I was doing below. I started today’s...

Categories writer at work

29 March 2023

Wednesday 29 Mar 2023: Camp NaNoWriMo on the horizon…

I managed to get up a bit earlier yesterday, and that meant I arrived at my desk a bit earlier too. It was too cool to sit and have breakfast in the conservatory, so I was able to do the social media stuff while I ate. Aside from being a device-free zone, the conservatory is also a bit too bright...

Categories writer at work

1 December 2022

That time of year – planning!

Today is 1 December, which means for me it’s the time of year for planning ahead. And I have a lot of planning to do for next year if I want to be more productive yet stop working through the night and at weekends. I won’t do it all in one go, though. I’ll start by planning a week at...

Categories writer at work

28 June 2022

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Subscribe to the mailing list Subscribe to my newsletter and receive a free short story every month. For the month of July, there’s a weekly newsletter following me at CampNaNo. Follow this link or use the form below to sign up to the mailing list and receive your first free short story. And don’t forget, you can unsubscribe at any...

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6 April 2021

Plan for April 2021

Image by Alexander Stein from Pixabay I had a lovely Easter break, something I planned on due to being so busy again just recently. I even finished work at a respectable time on Thursday in order to enjoy the full weekend. Saying that, I did have my first Covid jab on Friday, and fortunately the only side effects I seem...

Categories plan for the month

31 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 20 (last day)

With me finishing the revisions of Twee Tales Too on Wednesday, I already had an extra hour today. Then when I checked in to the content-editing workroom, there was no work, so that was another extra hour today. I hoped that would be enough to finish today’s work. First of all I had the last 3,106 words to write for this...

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30 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 19 of 20 (in the end)

So this great plan of mine to be at my desk by 9am and write for 4 hours was foiled before I even got there. The poet was working from home and he had a Skype meeting (or a Team meeting) at 8am. For 4 hours. (FOUR hours!) I fannied around for a bit, doing what chores I could, making...

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29 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 18

As well as arriving very late to my desk this morning, I then got distracted. Three times. First of all, I saw that Martin Lewis, our money saving expert, has helped produce a textbook for schools, designed to teach kids about personal finance. The pdf for this book, and the teachers’ guide, are both free to download. Hard copies of...

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28 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 17 + How to calculate your hourly rate

Although technically I wasn’t at my desk at quite 9am today, I was still working. I was doing my daily email declutter, responding to emails and turning down work. I had around half a dozen work invitations in my inbox this morning, and not one of them was suitable. Apart from being topics of no interest to me when an...

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27 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 16

Oops, skipped a day … From this week, my 10-project writing planner has a new project attached. It’s a proofreading job, and I want it finished by the end of Friday. Next week, I add a different project to my planner. This week’s proofreading job means I’ll have 2 projects on the go at the same time for the first...

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24 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 14

After quite a bit of rigmarole (see yesterday’s post) I finally started work yesterday afternoon. I was keen to do some work for the client as well as some writing for myself. So I allocated us both at least an hour each. I wrote 1,908 words and my average speed stayed at 26 words per minute. I couldn’t spend a...

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22 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day off (rant alert)

Time was already tight this week with so many errands and deliveries booked in, so when the internet fell over – yet again – yesterday morning, I was not a happy bunny. Every time the internet crashes, which is around twice a day at the moment, it takes time out of my already busy schedule. It takes time while I...

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21 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 13

On Saturday we managed to get out for another bit of a drive. We ended up in Lincoln, as I’ve never been before. We had a lovely meal at a pavement table, as we had the dog with us, and even the slight drop of rain didn’t spoil it. We’d managed to sit at the only table that was sheltered....

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20 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 12

After all of my bluster about starting the day writing, on the very first day I failed spectacularly. Friday was a Very Busy Day. The poet’s car was due in for its MOT. I had a hair appointment. And it was deadline day for the Greek client, and he’d asked for an early submission if possible rather than a later...

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17 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 11

Leaving my own work until the end of the day doesn’t work. It doesn’t get done. Especially if I’m busy on client work that has a solid deadline. Soft deadlines work for other people. They don’t work for me. So I need to do my writing work first – or at least ‘my own work’, whatever that may be –...

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16 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day Off

The day started on time yesterday, but much of the morning was spent on admin. I checked in with the content editing job first thing, but there was no work waiting for me. They did this a couple of weeks ago too. I checked in at the start of my designated time, three times in the week, there was nothing...

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15 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 10

The poet went back to work on Wednesday 1 July, his furlough over for now. Within 7 days of him mixing with people again, we both had signs of a cold. I’m about 2 days behind him. I work from home anyway and have done for a long time. This means that I’m not mixing with many people, catching their...

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14 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 9

After a weekend that didn’t feel like a weekend, I was hardly raring to go yesterday morning and I was later to my desk than I would have preferred. It wasn’t so bad, though. My Monday morning check-in didn’t have any work for me, so there was an hour saved. Before I started writing, I checked the job board and...

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13 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 8

I didn’t get a lot of my own work done on Friday. In fact, I didn’t get any of my own work done on Friday. I was finishing a client edit that needed to be back by teatime as I didn’t want to be working on it until 11 o’clock on a Friday night. So as soon as I was...

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10 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 7

Admin time was a little longer yesterday, 25 minutes instead of 15. I stopped when I started to get distracted again, and I closed down social media and webmail. I don’t have notifications for my webmail anymore, and I never really had notifications from social media. Sometimes, when an app is updated on my phone or if I get a...

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9 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 6 (of 23)

Yesterday I started the day with just 15 minutes of admin before hurling myself into the novel. I wrote for just over an hour, and I added 1,956 words to the mix against that daily target of 1,860. I’m really happy with the way it’s going. I added two additional scenes that weren’t in the plan, and two additional characters...

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8 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 5

I say Day 5, but is it really Day 7? It was certainly Day 7 of the month, and it’s probably Day 7 for a lot of other campers. But I’m not doing a 31-day writing month. I’m doing a 23-day writing month. Because I don’t work at the weekend. Monday was a Very Busy Day. Tuesday was slightly less...

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7 July 2020

Camp NaNoWriMo – Day 4

We had a good weekend … apart from the dog not feeling very well. He has a bit of a garbage-mouth, so we’re not surprised when he gets the runs every once in a while. We are keeping an eye on him, though. The intention was to do some work on Saturday if I could, and I did manage an...

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