I thought I was just tired and overdoing things a bit, but an upset stomach turned into full-blown flu symptoms. Before I started to feel poorly, I tidied up a short story, Pippa & Davey Forever, and sent it off, and I prepared another partial for Night Crawler and sent that off. I cleared the…
Thursday 10 October 2019
You’ll be pleased to know I finally made some inroads on the copywriting job yesterday. I started with some handwriting practise because my handwriting is becoming quite unreadable. Then I wrote up the day’s Pomodoros, because I hadn’t had chance to do that the day before. And I wrote my daily writing blog post. Then…
Wednesday 9 October 2019
The morning went well yesterday, starting with me writing up the day’s Pomodoros. I was out on Monday afternoon and didn’t have time to do it at the end of the day. I wrote my daily blog post and I wrote up the report for the writers’ group. Then I settled in to some writing…
Goldthorpe Writers: Monday 7 October 2019
This week we welcomed Pauline back to the group after her recent operation, and she was accompanied by her husband John, who would like to come along in the future as well. Pat popped her head in to give us her apologies, as she had to be somewhere else, and Rob is still unable to…
Tuesday 8 October 2019
The day began yesterday with a blog post, and then I was onto the client copywriting job. I located and printed off all the research notes I wanted, and collated everything together ready to go. I also started to jot down a few things. Then the phone call came in that my deadline had been…
Monday 7 October 2019
Friday morning began with some Pomodoro admin and a jigging about of each one, resulting in one Pomodoro less per day and a shorter dinner break, but longer Pomodoro breaks. I certainly didn’t feel quite so rushed by the end of the day and had more time to breathe. I wrote my daily blog post,…
Friday 4 October 2019
Twelve Pomodoros a day with 5-minute breaks plus one 60-minute break isn’t really working. I’m managing the Pomodoros okay, but the short breaks are too short. Five minutes isn’t long enough to empty a full dishwasher or fill it with a full load. Five minutes isn’t long enough to sort out, hang out, fold up or…
Thursday 3 October 2019
I was very pleased with my output yesterday, and I didn’t even need to switch over to the focused (i.e. not connected to the internet) laptop. The day started with my daily blog post, for which I wrote 459 words. Then I moved on to the Cadbury book. I only had the morning scheduled in…
Wednesday 2 October 2019
October suddenly got busier late yesterday afternoon. But it’s okay, I was half-expecting it. It’s the new writing job I was in discussion about towards the end of last week. And it’s only 10,000 words max. I can do this … Yesterday started with me writing up the day’s Pomodoros, as I hadn’t had chance…
Tuesday 1 October 2019
October already. How did that happen? I have a deadline this month, and then it’s NaNoWriMo next month. Looks like I have some work to do and less faffing. Yesterday morning I did the hard copy edit of the job from Hong Kong. I emailed the client to let him know, and to tell him…
Monday 30 September 2019
I can’t believe it’s October tomorrow. How fast has this year gone again? I have a book due in at the end of the month. I need to pull my finger out. Friday morning went fairly well. I wrote my daily blog post first, queried another publisher about whether or not they consider self-published works…
Friday 27 September 2019
I’m running out of steam or getting distracted in the afternoons. So I’m moving more work to the mornings and more faff to the afternoons. I’m not sure if that’s working or not yet, but time will tell. Yesterday started on a positive note with a job query arriving overnight and a big publisher agreeing…
Thursday 26 September 2019
First job yesterday was the new NetGalley book over breakfast. I moved the daily Pomodoro write-up to the last session of the day as I usually start to run out of steam at around 4pm, and for the past few days I’ve been writing them up the night before anyway. I wrote my daily blog post…
Diary of a non-fiction book: Reading and making notes
The writing part is going very slowly at the moment. This is because I’m still in reading mode and still only making notes. What I do is, working in 25-minute Pomodoros, spend two Pomodoros reading and then one Pomodoro writing my interpretation of what I’ve just read. This way, it’s already in my own words…
Book review: Wrapped up for Christmas
This feature is in association with NetGalley. Wrapped up for Christmas, Katlyn Duncan Thanks to NetGalley and to HQ Digital for an advance copy of Wrapped up for Christmas. I love Christmas and I loved this book. I also loved the concept and the double meaning of “wrapped up”. After a disastrous relationship, Angie has…
Wednesday 25 September 2019
Over breakfast yesterday, I finished the NetGalley book I was reading and I wrote up today’s Pomodoros. That meant the first job at my desk was a 500-word blog post and my daily warm-up. The next thing I did was write up the report for this week’s writers’ group meeting. I had 25 minutes of…
Diary of a Novel: plotting Acts I, II and III
I picked up the story bible for The Beast Within at the weekend and was mortified to see I’ve not done anything practical since the end of May. Saying that, I have been reading. I’m still on Writing the Killer Mystery by Ron D Voigts, Volume 3: Plotting the Murder. But I stalled when I got to the end of…
Goldthorpe Writers: Monday 23 September 2019
With news from two previous members that one will be back next week and another as soon as she gets the all clear from her doc, we had another positive meeting with four in attendance. I also fed back work so far in trying to get the library as a write-in venue for this year’s…
Tuesday 24 September 2019
I had a late start yesterday. I was quite tired, the poet had left early for a business trip, and I slept in. I got to my desk at around 10:30am, but I’d done my first Pomodoro’s work on the phone the night before, so I didn’t really lose anything. First job was yesterday’s writing…
Monday 23 September 2019
Well, by the end of the week, I’d done a load of Pomodoros and got a lot of work done. Very productive indeed. I did start to wilt around mid-afternoon on Friday, though. The morning began once again over breakfast with me reading the latest book for NetGalley. I’m really enjoying this Christmas story and…
