It’s almost as though I do this kind of thing for a living!
We were up with the larks again yesterday because my car was booked in for what we thought was its first ever service. My car is 7 years old and it has 14,500 miles on the clock. I’ve had it since new, though, and the mechanic reckons if its not in good shape with that kind of use from just one owner, then it wouldn’t be worth keeping. I love my car. A lot.
The poet followed me in his car, so he could bring me back, and when we got home we had breakfast before he went into his first Teams meeting. I joined him in the office about 10 minutes after his meeting started and I started today’s blog post. I only had 3 other jobs on the schedule:
- THE HAUNTED HOUSE HOTEL
- A DAY AT THE RACES
- proofread hard copy client edit
Though not necessarily in that order. We had to go back and collect my car at some point during the day too. I started with A DAY AT THE RACES, composing it straight into Scrivener, and was delighted to find that after less than 2 Pomodoros I was almost 1,500 words in – to a 1,500-word story!
The phone call came in that my car was ready, but I had to wait for the poet to finish another meeting before we went to get it. When we did collect it, the mechanic told me my car had already had a full service last year. I have no recollection of that, but it means next year’s is definitely a mini service.
We got back, the poet went straight into another meeting and I finished A DAY AT THE RACES. I went about 30 words over, which were easy to lose in a first, quick read-through. And I printed it off for proofreading ahead of submission today. I also checked a couple of factual things about horse racing.
Ideally, I could have written another 500–1,000 words covering Marcie’s investigation. But the target was 1,500 words ‘exactly’, so I was only able to touch on the investigation briefly. When this story goes into my power machine (via the Nobo board), I’ll consider fleshing it out. It’s long enough for a Wordsworth Short, but KILLER QUEEN is around 2,500 words, although BURN (Deep Purple) is only 1,300 words.
At some point in the future, when they’ve all been published as Wordsworth Shorts, I’ll publish a Marcie Craig short story collection. I just need to make sure most of the titles aren’t Queen songs. All of that aside, I was delighted to have not just written a completely brand-new story but also a new Marcie Craig story.
I made us some dinner, as the poet was on *another* Teams call, and caught up on some reading while I ate. I started work on THE HAUNTED HOUSE HOTEL, by reading through the pre-writing and making sure I had 6 scenes-worth. (I did.) Then I read through what I already had on Scrivener, making one or two minor tweaks as I went.
I’d left the story mid-scene 4, so had 2½ scenes still to write for Act 1 (or Part 1 – of 4). I reached a place where I felt able to leave it, but managed to add 201 words during this very quick read. I quickly rewrote my titles for the Nobo board, swapping ‘revising’ around with ‘cooling’. Then I put my own work to one side and turned to the proofreading job, which I did in my reading chair in the office.
The poet made us both a cuppa, and I cleared 34 pages before I’d had enough. Then I updated my word- and page-count spreadsheets, quickly read and commented on some stories for last month’s 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS, and closed down for the day.
Today it’s deadline day for 12 STORIES, so I’ll do another quick read-through of A DAY AT THE RACES and get it submitted. Other jobs are the same as today, plus an invoice (Yay!) and my weekly tech scan.
Excellent day’s work!
Thank you!
Well done
My car is 10 years old. Ive had it from new. Only 27000 on the clock, much to the amusement of the family.
Is that the one with the pink trim? (It did have pink trim, didn’t it? Or was it white trim?)
White with orange wing mirrors! 😀
We must both strive to put some miles on our clocks, by meeting halfway! It’s been a long time.