Thursday 20 June 2024: More writing!

After a late night on Sunday submitting the cosy mystery for the anthology, Monday started later than usual. Over breakfast, though, I dealt with emails, one of which had come in on Saturday. These were all to do with the client edit I invoiced for last week. All’s good, we just had some dialogue to be had.

I forgot to mention that the story I finished on Sunday night for the anthology was inspired by our recent trip to the Farne Islands. That means my share of the cost now qualifies as an allowable expense on my tax return.

Once at my desk, the first thing I did was stack up blog posts for this week. I’d started writing up Saturday and Sunday at the weekend as they happened. But instead of lumping them all together into one file, I split them up and scheduled them to post on Tuesday and Wednesday. This one will be scheduled to post on Thursday.

I went in search of a Scrivener file for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS. I thought I’d put them all together in once place, but I couldn’t find it very quickly. I did find a file called ‘short stories’, and that already had most of my 12 STORIES in, so I copied it, renamed it, and put it somewhere easier to find next time.

When I opened the file I saw there were 2 complete stories, or complete drafts of stories: SHAMPOO, SET AND MATCH, which I wrote for a Crime Writers’ Association anthology last year (it wasn’t selected), and FIREWORKS AT KILLIECRANKIE, which I thought was still only in the planning stage. So then I thought perhaps I could put all of my short stories in one file but give them different folders.

I’d already created a folder for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS inside the binder, so I added more within that but dated 2023 and 2024. I moved the short tarot tales stories into their own folder. But I had to put the brakes on before moving everything over as I had a story to write. It was only 1,200 words, and I had a special dispensation to submit it early. So I cracked on with that.

I went to do the outline but saw I’d already started one, and there it was in my binder. Or the basic idea at least. It’s the idea I’ve been noodling with called THE MUCKY DUCK. I ran through what I already had and tweaked it, then had a break before tackling it.

A new edit landed from the editing client. The author specifically asked for me, apparently, because I edited her previous book and she must have thought I did an all right job. I told the client I could start it on 1 July, and she was happy with that. I created my client folder for this book, saved the file, and added the job to TickTick, allocating all of July.

We nipped to the camper van to pick up a couple of things we needed for our trip, and when we got back I started to write. I had the first draft finished by the time tea was ready (omelette and baked beans for meatless Monday), read it out to the poet while he served up, and polished it after tea, making it exactly 1,200 words.

It needs to cool before I revisit it and polish it again. There’s still plenty that can be done to improve it. But basically, I wrote and submitted my second short story in as many days, this time finishing at the more civilised time of 9pm. Which was good because we had to be up early the following morning.

There may not be a post tomorrow…so have a fab weekend!