Wednesday 10 January 2024: Writing, writing, writing

Tuesday began with me starting to type up THE SECRET OF WHITEHORSE FARM. The idea is to write in longhand one day, type it up the next day during the first Pomodoro (and so give it its first editing pass in the process), and then carry on handwriting for the second Pomodoro. When I typed up what I could in yesterday’s first session, I managed to add an extra 958 words. I have no idea what happened, but I’ll take it.

I updated the spreadsheet with the extra words and reconciled the new total on there with the running total in the A4 book, but I cheated a bit and added the words to Friday as I hadn’t got around to writing anything then. At least that means it won’t be included as part of yesterday’s wordcount.

With me needing to have this done by 26 January, as well as three assignments next week for the sci-fi mystery writing course and one story for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS by the 31st, I’ve pretty much decided to only concentrate on writing during the month of January. It’s a target of at least 69,000 words for the month, plus whatever our first assignment is for 12in12. I’m currently on around 22,000 words, so a way to go yet.

And I’m not warming to the study yet. I can write the alphabet in shorthand, but we’ve just started on words and my eyes crossed when we were instructed to create a drill sheet for the exercise. As I’ve never had a proper, face to face shorthand class, I don’t know if the words go along the top or down the side or how many times I have to write them. It’s something that needs to be practised every day too, and at the moment I’m just not feeling it.

I really enjoyed being back on Scrivener with the writing. I didn’t want to leave it, but I had to. The OCD requires me to carry on filling the notebook, and I’m also enjoying being back in touch with the handwriting too.

I don’t have any client editing projects, other than dribs and drabs that come in from the designer and need checking against my previous proofs. I also have a notes and abbreviations section to go through on the horrid job. But these are jobs I can run through at the end of a day if I have a spare session or some extra time. My next editing job is due to start in February, and I have another one starting in March. Two different clients.

As part of my closing down Substack, I decided to save the writing advice and experience to appear in a new book, NOTES FOR WRITERS (working title). It’s an easy add and it still counts as my own writing. I’ll also collate any new stories I write between now and the end of June.

I created a new Scrivener folder, set up the binder, and copied over three of the stories. I’ll leave them on Medium, but I wanted to take them off Substack. I also added them to my longer works word- and page-count spreadsheet, but I won’t add the words to my new consumable words totals as they’re not new writing.

Later, when I get around to editing the collection, I’ll update the planner with the number of pages that need revising and I’ll add those to my consumable pages edited daily totals.

Other writers’ guides still in the wings include IDEAS FOR WRITERS (two volumes and an omnibus), PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR WRITERS GATES 4 and 5, and DIARY OF A TIGER. The two writers’ guides I’ve kept out of the archives to work on for now are PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR WRITERS GATE 3 and DIARY OF A COOL CAT. Once GATES 3 and 4 are ready, I’ll release OMNIBUS 2 (GATES 3 and 4) in the project management series. The project management books are very popular.

A new kickstarter was due to start at noon, west coast time, from WMG Publishing/Dean Wesley Smith/Kristine Kathryn Rusch, this time called HEARTS COLLIDE. I nipped over to the page and asked it to send me a notification when it goes live. I do like their COLLIDE anthologies and I’m always interested to see what they’re including in their kickstarters.

I settled down to work on WHITEHORSE FARM, and by the end of the day, I had written 1,446 words for THE SECRET OF WHITEHORSE FARM and 775 words for the blog, giving me a total of 2,221 consumable words for the day.