Diary of a non-fiction book: week 1 – day 1

The day didn’t get off to a great start. I’ve been fighting a cold and a “bit of a throat” for a couple of weeks and at the end of the week before last, I thought it had gone.

However, come Wednesday evening, I started to get another “bit of a throat”, and this time it came back far worse than before, and this time it’s spread into my jaw, so I have a massive toothache too (the tooth feels massive, that is, so I think there’s a swelling there).

We had a very busy weekend at the Tramlines festival in Sheffield, despite me being all doped up and a bit grumpy. We couldn’t see a band we wanted to see Saturday night because the poet didn’t want me out in the cold, damp evening. So we came home early. And we nearly didn’t make the third day either.

Before we went over there on Sunday, we nipped out to Paperchase to buy my notebooks for this project. I’ve bought two the same because if I fill one and go into two, the OCD needs them to be the same. But if it doesn’t spill over into two, then I have a nice new book to start for short projects again.

Monday morning, then, I had a lie-in to recover and recuperate. And that meant I lost quite a few hours, almost half the day.

I did my usual chores around the house and “farm” (we use the term “farm” very loosely on our little smallholding), and I wrote up the review for the festival. You can see it here on Baggins Bottom and here on the gig list. They both say exactly the same thing and they both have exactly the same photographs, so you really only need to look at one of them if you’re interested.

Writing up the review also meant having to play with the pictures. The poet didn’t take his “good” camera with him, but used his mobile phone instead. So they’re not to his usual standard. But they give the gist.

After that, and after lunch, I started to build my Scrivener binder for the new book. But because I’m not doing this every day, or even every week or month, I needed to refresh my memory:

  • how did I change the colour of the index cards?
  • how do I choose my own chapter headings?
  • how do I select my own font and formatting?

I got there in the end, though, and compiled what I have (about 200 words so far) into a Word document several times to make sure I have the formatting right. I think I’ve got it now.

By the time I sussed it, the poet was home and making tea (chicken, homemade oven chips and home-grown peas), so I had to wrap up for the day too.

This means that most of yesterday’s jobs were carried over to today:

  • arrange those dates when I can visit the archives
  • write draft 3 of a short story
  • write and schedule Tuesday’s diary post √
  • start a new client edit

Hopefully I’ll catch up today and get back on track, and if I do, the extra jobs include:

  • start research for chapter 1
  • edit a short story
  • write and schedule Wednesday’s diary post

Fingers crossed.

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