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 – and then do everyone else’s next.
This is what I’ve been trying to do. But when that client has a pressing deadline and I’m already late to my desk, that’s not working either. It’s better than it was, though.
Doing Camp NaNo is a little bit like me trying to get into a routine while at the same time working out realistically how many words I can write on a normal working day and, ergo, how many books I can actually complete.
So when this Camp NaNo month is over, I’m going to carry on. I won’t have the NaNo timer – unless they leave it up – but I will have my little man and I will have my 10-project 14-page spreadsheet.
And in August, I’ll carry on with Catch the Rainbow until I’ve completed my projected 80,000 words. The little man will still have the current month target, though.
Then I’ll look at my bumper spreadsheet and see if I can add another writing project and work on that alongside a revision project.
Writing projects are measured in words, revision projects are measured in pages. I won’t try to run before I can walk, but perhaps one day I’ll have all of those 10 project fields populated at the same time …
Speaking of my little man, I did think he should have been lounging in his armchair watching the telly when I didn’t do any writing work the day before yesterday. But as I was actually busy working at the desktop for a client, perhaps he was still quite accurate.
With all of this in mind, I was at my desk fairly early yesterday and clearing all the admin stuff out of the way. But I still didn’t start writing until gone 11am. That’s far too late. But it’s better than the day before.
I decided to leave the previous day as a day of no words, though, rather than try to catch up at the weekend. It’s no hardship, as I’m ahead anyway. But if I do feel like having a bash at the weekend, I still will.
So, teas made (the poet was working from home yesterday, as well as today), fingers stretched, timers on …
I wrote 1,898 words, with Scrivener saying it was 1,901 words, and my typing speed increased to 24 words per minute. I’m halfway through the month, and 54% towards my target.
The client job is going well. I’ve been trying a different way of working to save time, and so far that’s been happening. It means I’m spending more time in front of a screen and less time hard-copy editing. Hopefully that, in turn, will make me feel more like reading books more often again.
Since I’ve been composing my writing directly onto Scrivener, I’ve noticed my screen work has started to creep ahead of my hard-copy work and I’m doing it faster now, whereas before it was taking longer.
Band practice for the poet last night meant me shopping alone for the first time in months. Not that we’ve been doing the shopping ‘together’. He’s been doing some shopping for his mum while I’ve been doing our shopping.
It means I’ll be using my car more again, instead of us both going everywhere in his car, and that’s why I decided to get mine tested now rather than in 6 months’ time.
We have also stocked up on disposable face coverings (which we will dispose of responsibly), some for his car, some for my car and some to leave in the house. We will be wearing them, we don’t care if others think we shouldn’t, and we’ll just give a wide berth to anyone who isn’t. I think that’s our prerogative.
Today is a busy day of errands, as well as the deadline for this week’s client work.
