Diane Wordsworth: freelance writer ● novelist ● editor ● ghostwriter ● book reviewer ● member of the CWA ● world-famous nutter-magnet
To the outsider, it may look as though I had the last 4 days off. And I did have a 4-day weekend. However, I was working solidly on Saturday and Sunday, and I finished work at 2am on Monday morning. I did this so that I could have a good couple of days off with the poet. Monday morning we were a bit tired (he stayed up with me), but we did go to the seaside and we had a […]
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By the time Day 11 arrived, I was more than a thousand words over where I should be if I’d done 1,667 words every day, and that was before I even did Day 11. Before then, though, there was gig list admin to do. Because the poet came back from his business trip a day early, he was able to do all of the gig-collection and posted it to the website, and he managed to share the list to everywhere […]
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(Image by Mystic Art Design from Pixabay) Friday 20 August 2021 Friday was one of those busy days where you don’t stop all day but by the end of it you don’t know what you’ve done. You have nothing to show for it. I deleted the paid-for newsletter on substack (not the free one) because by the time I’d filled it with about 50% of the material for the first issue, I was getting a warning that it was too long. Apparently, there […]
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(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay) (I love this artist’s work!) Not a rabbit hole this time, but it does feel as though the week has vanished down a dark hole! Anyway, look at this! I’m creating my first regular blog post on the new site and I didn’t have to make sure I selected ‘classic’ from the menu first. That’s not going to take as long getting used to as it did remembering to choose it before. Thank you […]
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(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay) Friday afternoon/evening (13 August) On Friday afternoon, I disappeared down another rabbit hole. This one was a holiday rabbit hole after I realised that we hadn’t been on holiday since April 2019. That was almost a year before the pandemic and lockdown, and nearly 2½ years ago. We did say that the next place that we went would be Northumberland. But we also revived the alphabet adventurers on Sunday with L (or part 1 at least, […]
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(Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay) I love this picture above. It’s the feature picture I use on Trello for my NetGalley board. Friday 13 August 2021 On Friday I forgot to mention Slimming World. It was only another flying visit to get weighed, but I’d lost a pound, bringing the current loss to 6½lb. Just half a pound more (or less, whichever way you look at it) and I’ll have lost my first half a stone (7lb). In real life, […]
Read moreImage by LukasBasel from Pixabay Monday evening finished on a bit of a surprise when the ghostwriting client sent an email asking two things: Could we make the new story 80,000 words instead of 60,000 words? Would I be able to write another one concurrently? The first one was a bit of a surprise because I’d already said that the outline needed a bit more substance. But if that can be remedied, then yes, I can do 80,000 words instead […]
Read moreThis week I’ve tried to do a bit of my own work in the mornings and client work in the afternoons. I kept on being distracted by colourful sparkly things, though, and it became a bit of a chore to drag my attention away from that and back to the job in hand. Monday was mostly faffing with book covers and flyers and other PR and marketing material. I gave the blog a facelift, and I wrote a blog post […]
Read moreSo, after my little tantrum yesterday, Amazon have now accepted Diary of a Scaredy Cat. Draft2Digital did their thang, and they got it through. At the time of writing, they’re still working on getting Twee Tales Twee up there, but at least Diary of a Scaredy Cat is there now. You can by the ebook here, in multi-format, and from here, on Kindle, directly from Amazon. Project reboot With the end of full lockdown, I seem to have found a new energy. We […]
Read moreImage by Comfreak from Pixabay The plan was to have a weekend off and maybe catch up with some reading or sewing. I did manage to read a few chapters of a book I want to review soon, but I didn’t do any sewing. Walking However, on Saturday, after we’d done the shopping – early for a change – we did finally manage our first walk since the new year. It’s still very busy in the village, and we’re still […]
Read moreI am such a tease, knowing that the title will irk at least a couple of my friends when they see it! I can hear them now complaining about the “novelling” verb. 😱 The above picture is yet another view of Hatfield Moor. We couldn’t get across to this part as there’s a massive dyke along most of the path and there was no crossing place nearby. In the distance, along the top of the picture, you can just about […]
Read moreFor more than 3 months, this country has allegedly been on lockdown. Although, if you see how many people have been walking past our remote bungalow and how they walk right at you when you’re out, it’s understandably difficult to believe that anything changed. My work didn’t change. If anything, I became more busy. But wages did slow down in some areas. Fortunately, the poet was furloughed and has been doing all of the household chores, allowing me to just […]
Read moreOur prime minister’s full formal lockdown instruction didn’t come until Monday 23 March. However, we suspected it was on the way and so we did our regular shopping early, ensuring we had sufficient – or so we thought – stock cupboard items and anything else we might need to keep us occupied for however long it takes. I work from home anyway, but the poet was still working as usual right up until Friday 20 March, although unnecessary travel for […]
Read moreThe last few months of the last year were very busy, one way or another, and I didn’t have time to catch my breath. We’re already into the third week of the new year (or the second full week), and this time I’m sticking to the plan as much as I can. I want to concentrate on just a few things while I get started. First of all, I’m awarding myself stars. Gold stars for turning up and writing on a […]
Read moreI have three items of news to share with readers. The first is that there’s a new post up on the Alphabet Adventurers. Please follow the link to see K is for … the Kilburn White Horse. The second piece of news is that the Richard Cadbury book is finally done. It was submitted before Christmas, but I still had a few things to send over, such as the jacket blurb and the author bio and a few other bits. […]
Read moreI’m late to my desk this morning, following last night’s terrific storm. The dog didn’t stop shouting at the shouty sky until looooong after the sky had stopped shouting, and that disturbed the night really. (The poet was away.) I did enjoy watching it, though, until the lightning got too bright and I had to pull the blind and draw the curtains. That means my writing work today will be at a minimum as I need to crack on with the […]
Read moreI got through quite a lot of work in a short time yesterday. It was a busy day. First of all I read the last few chapters of the NetGalley book. That means there will be a new review posted in the next few days, hopefully tomorrow (Wednesday). I wrote 816 words for The Fool into the original Scrivener file. I have a Save the Cat template set up on Scrivener now, but I’m still transferring the old version of […]
Read moreMuch of Friday was spent finishing the client edit, and I did, and I submitted it, and he cleared payment. It will be in my bank on Wednesday. How cool is that? I read two more chapters of the NetGalley book, and I wrote a blog post. And that was Friday. We had a fairly busy weekend. On Saturday, during the day, we finalised the video for the latest alphabet adventure and I wrote the blog post up direct to screen. […]
Read moreIt’s great being able to turn up to work wearing whatever you like. Yesterday it was shorts and t-shirt again before I had to “get dressed” to go out. The first hour of the day was spent reading three chapters of the NetGalley book. I also did a tiny bit of gig list admin (shared this week’s gig list and then scheduled a post asking for next week’s gigs). I remembered to start my Pomodoro tomato and I spent the […]
Read moreYesterday’s writing attire of choice was a more respectable shorts and t-shirt, but when the rain came and the temperature dropped, I dressed myself properly once again. I didn’t get much writing work done. I managed to read another chapter of the NetGalley book, I wrote a blog post and I did a chunk of admin. But the rest of the day was spent editing. I meant to put my Pomodoro tomato on so that I could work in bursts […]
Read moreEvery so often, generally about once a year, I give the blog a bit of a facelift. This is mostly to keep it looking up to date. Recently, I changed this one to one I wasn’t 100% happy with, but it did seem to give the place a more modern feel. However, the posts were a bit choppy and it wasn’t easy to see what order they were supposed to be in. Last week, I changed the alphabet adventurers blog […]
Read moreWe finally caught up on “I is for …” yesterday, for the alphabet adventurers. It’s been a long time coming – 6 months since our last outing – and, boy, could we tell. It was already a struggle getting up, as the poet’s band had a gig the previous evening, and that usually means a late night. We could have quite happily stayed in bed, catching up on missed sleep. However, we forced ourselves to get up, pack a picnic, […]
Read moreI didn’t do any more work on the novel on Tuesday, so I wrote the grand total of 197 words, bringing my running total to 464. Instead, I carried on with the edit that I’d started on Monday. I worked on that all day Wednesday as well, and most of Thursday, submitting it yesterday teatime-ish. Before I’d finished that job, a new job came in from another client, and I was printing that off yesterday as I was finishing the […]
Read moreThanks to everyone who took the time to reply to last week’s post – here, on Facebook and elsewhere. The general consensus is that I finish the book and, on the whole, I agree. But while the case continues, I think I’ll leave it on ice. I have other stuff I can be getting on with and if someone pips me to the post, then I’m a firm believer that it was never meant to be. If they don’t … […]
Read moreWe had another long weekend, this time for my birthday. And this time, it was more of a chilled, relaxing time. We saw the poet’s mum on Friday evening, and we saw my mom yesterday. On the way home from seeing Mom, we nipped to Brueton Park in Solihull, where we had a picnic and took the dog for a quick walk around the lake. Once again, I have been very, very busy. On Friday I worked until almost midnight […]
Read moreWelcome to a shiny new year. What are your plans for the coming months? We had a decent, relaxing holiday, with a very busy first half and a very lazy second half. The Saturday before Christmas was perhaps our busiest day. This was the day we went out and did ALL of the Christmas shopping. We went out during the day to buy all of the Christmas gifts and wrapping paper and non-food items for the festive table. On the […]
Read moreLooking back, it seems to have been a busy year with not a lot achieved. But then I remember that I had a book published in November, which I was still writing in April and indexing in October, we moved house (in the hottest summer on record for England), we lost 4 of our chickens and gave a cockerel away, and we suffered a close family bereavement. I also wrote a new draft of a novel for NaNoWriMo, and I […]
Read moreWe manged to have another weekend off, an entire weekend to ourselves without any obligations to anyone else. And we got quite a lot of work done too, both around the house and on creative stuff. On Friday evening, the poet continued to edit the ‘G’ is for … video for the alphabet adventurers. By the end of yesterday, he’d finished the video – apart from the voice-over, which I think he’s hoping to do tonight – and he edited […]
Read moreDespite the recent difficulties I’ve been having regarding finding a new paperback publisher, yesterday turned out to be a good writing day. My working days are clearly split into two now, with “my work” for 3 hours in the morning and “client work” for 3 hours in the afternoon. The rest of the (working) day is spent on reading, housework, pets and meals. “My work” includes admin, writing, editing or proofreading my own material, planning work, pitching work, and publishing […]
Read moreI’ve been a bit overwhelmed with trying to catch up with work again, but I think I finally reached a balance once more. The past week in particular has been busy – as usual. I’ve not had a single idle day, though, and I’m looking forward to the week ahead. On Monday I caught up with new month admin. I created my word-count tracker spreadsheet for September. It has all of my live projects on too. And I created two […]
Read moreWe took last week off for the bank holiday. The last time we booked time off was a fortnight in June, when the heatwave was at its height. But we didn’t get to enjoy a single moment of it as we were moving house. So we decided to take last week off. And this time we were firm. We had a proper, bona fide week off, for a change. Because of that, I hardly did anything to The Beast Within. However, […]
Read moreThe time-logging app worked on Monday, very well – to an extent. So too did the “no housework” thing. I say to an extent, because on Monday afternoon we had a thunderstorm. Only a little one. There was one distant rumble … and then the internet dropped out. It took several hours to re-set itself too. But the time-logging app I was trying out was internet-based and it fell over. As soon as the signal came back – it came […]
Read moreI only have a three-day week this week. This isn’t because of any actual holidays. It’s because I have two appointments in Solihull, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. And as it takes around 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get back – on a good run – plus the time to get ready (me, the car, the dog) and the time there, that’s two days wiped out completely for me. On Thursday we also have […]
Read moreI’m not great technically. I get by. I can learn how to do many things, and I even learned computer programming once upon a time. But these technical giants, they don’t exactly make things any easier, do they? The past few days I’ve been working on the blog. I’m transferring my domain name over to here, and it seems the registration has transferred too. What worries me, though, is that I also have the gig list domain name with the […]
Read moreWhen we moved house, we treated Rufus to 2 new baskets. One was for the living room, the other was for the bedroom/office. This is the one currently in the office. Do you think he likes it? I didn’t get a lot done yesterday. I didn’t feel like doing much anyway. Here’s how it went: daily admin hour ✓ write a blog post for Words Worth Writing ✓ more reading for Net Galley (1 of 19) ✗ more reading for 52 Books in 52 […]
Read moreIt was just starting to go well, with everything dropping into place. I had a great list of things to do. We were going out Friday evening. And we were taking the weekend off … … and then the dog disappeared. For three hours. He’d escaped from the garden and I was certain a car that stopped in the middle of the road with three lads in had taken him. However, thankfully, he’d only made it as far as the […]
Read moreI spent much of yesterday trying to prioritise my workload and putting jobs into some sort of workable order. I even did a little writing, which was very good. Yesterday Following my navel-gazing, here is what I finally accomplished: I wrote 479 words (against a 1,000-word target …) ✓ I continued reading a book for NetGalley (1 of 16) ✓ I continued reading a book for 52 Books in 52 Weeks (1 of 12), which will also count towards my NetGalley tally ✓ […]
Read moreSo, it’s all over bar the shouting. Well, actually, it’s all over. We’ve moved the last scrap of wood over from the old house to the new house. We’ve handed over the keys. It’s taken us two and a half weeks, but everything we own is now back under one roof. This means I have to turn again to work … and what a massive pile of work I’ve come back to. I’ve not done any job-board searching as I […]
Read moreWell, it’s been about as busy as ever here on the farm, with not a lot of actual words being produced. And it’s about to get even busier. I feel like a broken record, but it really is true. So, what have we been up to? Where do I begin? First off, the poet changed his job in January. The new job involves quite a lot of driving to get to whichever site he’s working at on a particular day, […]
Read moreI had a lot to do again last week, and I didn’t manage to do them all. daily writing exercise write a blog post every day I only managed one of each of these last week, and they were both on Wednesday. Saying that, I’ve done both already today, but it’s unlikely I’ll get any more blog posts done this week. read through Catch the Rainbow and send next instalment to beta readers sort out all the bits for The Beast Within (a Marcie […]
Read moreI’m a bit late with this, this week, but I have been busy, just not necessarily busy doing what I was supposed to be doing … I did some work on Saturday last week, at the front end of the week not the tail end. Here is how I did for the rest of the week to last Friday: write to family member for a foreword for the history book Yes! I wrote him a letter telling him he could […]
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