Chapter 40: Wednesday 12 October
Despite how I felt by the end of yesterday, I did actually have quite a good day during which I got through quite a lot.
I’d already finally made my new month wordcount spreadsheet and the words for Diary of a Tiger had a good leap as I added the words in retrospect. I also added in the words written so far for the ghostwriting job.
Three books landed on the bounce, for review. They look like lovely books, all Christmas stories, so I have to schedule in the reading and reviewing again soon as well as update my Click-up schedule for book reviews.
I emptied another box and merged the contents of a box and a bag.
I also worked until around 11pm.
However, in between, when I was procrastinating (yes, I do it, and yes, I admit it, and yes, I even sometimes factor it in to my schedule), I found some old photographs online of our current house, which was interesting, as it’s always nice to know how a house used to look. The pictures are only a couple of years old, but the house was refurbished last year.
And that silly dormer window in the kitchen we’re struggling to window-dress? It was where the kitchen sink used to be.
Today’s post would normally be writing prompts and ideas. It’s time I started to schedule this into the diary again. I’m not sure that the electronic diary and the hard copy planner together are really working to the best of my advantage at the moment, so I’m still toying with getting a proper desk diary again.
I’ll be printing off the diary pages in which I usually write down the topical stuff. I might have a look to see if there are any diary pages I can print off too, just to last me until the new year. I don’t like working from a ring binder, but I did once have an A4 4-ring FiloFax-type leatherette folder in which everything went, and I loved that.
To do lists
I know not everyone finds to do lists conducive to their creative businesses, but I do. I like to write all of my jobs and chores out neatly, both business and personal, and then I like to tick them off or cross them out as I do them. This is quite a good motivation for me. I wonder if it’s because I’m a bit of a left-brainer.
The blue wire Krypton Factor-esque ‘post out’ and ‘to do’ baskets are next to my elbow again and I’m using those more than I did when they were on the other side of the room. At the moment I have quite a few ‘return-to-sender’ envelopes in the post out basket, and I also have my car insurance renewal in the to do basket. I must go for a stroll to find the closest letterbox, if we still have one, so I can start to return all of these.
I’ve replicated the to do basket a bit in my email by opening an ‘A1 URGENT – TO DO’ folder, and I have a pad, on which I write things to do as they occur to me.
Today
I’m still ghostwriting, and will be tomorrow as well, I think. Part 3 needs to be with the client today or tomorrow and then I go straight into Part 4. Another ghostwriting job just landed on my desk, from a new client, to start a week on Monday…
NaNoWriMo
The other thing I’m thinking about today is this year’s NaNoWriMo. I don’t know yet if GW1 client will want a Book 12, but if they do, then that’s already one job I’ll be working on. This GW3 client job may be running, but it’s only 60,000 words as opposed to 83,000 words, so should only run for 6 weeks rather than 8½ weeks.
I did have 3 jobs potentially lined up for Nano:
- The 10 short stories I started for CampNaNo (10,000 – 50,000 words)
- The project management books (up to 50,000 words)
- A Regency mystery story (50,000 words)
I was also contemplating being a NaNoRebel and polishing Diary of a Pussycat instead. If necessary, I could be a rebel anyway and write less than 50,000 words.
However, if I have 2 ghostwriting jobs on the go, that will already be 2 x 2,000 words per day. As I usually only work on NaNo on weekdays, the maximum I’d be aiming at would be 2,275 words per day (over 22 weekdays). That gives me a maximum daily target of 6,275 words. With weekends off.
I’ve done that before, I’ve done double that before. But not every day for a month.
- If I just choose, say, one of the project management books, that will be 20,000 – 25,000 words in total or a maximum of 1,150 words per day. And they do all need writing, so at least that will be another one in the bag.
- Or I could make the Regency mystery story 40,000 words and make it a pocket novel for one of the weekly magazines here (around 1,825 words per day).
- The short stories will be as long as they need to be to tell each of the stories, so I can’t be more accurate with those, other than 10 x 1,000-words stories (10,000 words) will equate to less than 500 words a day, and 10 x 5,000-word stories (50,000 words) will still be 2,275 words a day.
Of course, Book 12 may not yet materialise, which will be 2,000 words less a day, and nor may this potential GW3 Book 1, which will also be 2,000 words less a day.
We don’t get a lot of dosh for the pocket novels. One market pays £300 for 39,000 – 40,000 words, the other pays £350 for 50,000 words. As we are only licensing the publisher to publish the pocket novel once, the savvy/indie writer may also sell large print rights, which leads to plr, and s/he can also publish the book him/herself and put the book into their magic bakery. On top of this, anyone registered with ALCS may also get an additional royalty for the original pocket novel. So it’s not as bleak as it originally looks, but it’s still not a massive earner.
So, I’ve done my sums, but I’m still thinking about it. It has to be the book(s) that’s/that’re burning to be written.
I also have 2 books to edit and 1 to proofread for another client in the same period and I don’t want to ‘over face’ myself, as they say in these parts.
I’d best crack on. Busy few days ahead.
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