Friday 11 July 2024: I’m writing words!

We were up with the lark, or our lark at least, and off to the garage with the poet’s car. It was going in for its first MOT, a health check, and a service. When we got back, I went straight into Week 6 of my advanced depth workshop. Then I ordered some new headphones because the ones I was using weren’t cutting it with 2 of us working in the same room at the same time. He could hear me and I could hear him.

I quickly went in and changed one of the opening paragraphs in THE HAUNTED HOUSE HOTEL, and then I opened up THE BATTLE OF KILLIECRANKIE to try and finish that one. It came out at 1,125 words, so in the first pass I need to lose 375 words. Usually easy, less so for a 750-word story.

By now it was dinner time, but I had mine at my desk due to the shortness of the day anyway. The call came in that the poet’s car was ready, but it has to go in again later in the month, so we had to arrange that. And it would be ready an hour earlier than we’d originally planned for. I had a look at THE HAUNTED HOUSE HOTEL, but I was still in Killiecrankie. My brain needed a ‘cleanse’ before switching stories.

So we went to collect the car, and I was back at my desk at 4:15pm. Quite late, but at least I’d have a good, straight shot at the novella and maybe PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR WRITERS too. I still wanted to tinker with Killiecrankie, to maybe lose those extra words. But that’s really a job for critical brain next week, when it’s already scheduled – and due in, actually.

I revisited Scene 1 and increased it to 1,015 words, which is 15 words over target and perfectly fine at this point. I was half tempted to change the scenes to chapters as there was a clear break between Scene 1 and Scene 2 but, again, that’s something for me to leave for critical brain later on in the process.

The poet left for band practice via the dentists and I took another Pomodoro break before cracking on with Scene 2. But mostly I did tweaking.

We have another early start today as I’m off to the hospital for my gall bladder review. But with no other appointments, I’m looking forward to a straight, uninterrupted run when we get back.

Have a great weekend!