*a quick catch up on mum and the weather*
She went in for an endoscope on Wednesday the 25th of May to see if 1 – the ulcer had gone and 2 – why she wasn’t able to keep her food down because she’s been vomiting a lot since January.
The weather was overcast and rained off and on all day while I op shopped. On Thursday the weather was sunny and warm yet we had a rainbow in the morning. You know the old song, a rainbow at night the Sheppard’s delight, a rainbow in the morning the Sheppard’s warning. Well it didn’t rain even though the rainbow was there.
On Friday it pissed buckets down and reached about 12 degrees celcius which is freakin’ cold and I dug my winter woolies out even though it ain’t winter yet. On Saturday it was sunny once again, Sunday was overcast and cold and it’s been like that since. Weird shit! One day on, one day off.
It turns out mum’s stomach is full of infection thanks to the hospital pissing around wasting time and not doing anything about the ulcer back in February when they found it. Basically, it’s festered. She was admitted and has had a tube shoved down her nose sucking that shit out since so it’s just over a week. Today, Friday, she has surgery to hopefully get rid of the fucking shithead and so I’m not sure when she’s coming home.
Now, onto the post.
Recently while the school holidays were on, I had a writing holiday. Now this approach worked wonders for me because I had three novellas to get out and didn’t want to worry about being online and dealing with the blog and social media.
When I write, I need absolute peace and quiet and no interruptions. And thankfully, after finishing of the last T.K. Wrathbone story, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall (now available for pre-sale at Amazon, Smashwords and Kobo) just days before starting these books, I decided the only way to get these novellas written was to take time off and write them since I had planned to start them last December but then mum got sick and my plans got fucked, so they were pushed back and back and back until April when I finally fit them into the schedule.
Below is how I started, with three 240 page A4 spiral notebooks, a 10 pack of blue pens and a new pack of post it notes.
The day before I read some inspiring work by Jackie Collins
And then I got to work. I found by the end of book 1, which took me four days to write 120 handwritten pages because I only write on the right hand side of the paper (it’s so I can make notes and add extra stuff on the left hand side opposite it during editing and reviews), that it came quickly, writing 40 pages on Sunday, 30 each on Monday and Tuesday and finishing it off with 20 pages on Wednesday, that I was going to need another notebook.
All to write the conclusion to the stories, and because one of the notebooks did not have the full amount of pages in it (talk about rip off!) I raced out and bought another notebook.
As you can see, I went through seven pens, albeit not from the pack I bought especially as I ended up finishing off another pack I had been using. And I went through all of the small post its.
Book 2 took me about 7 days because he was hard and took his time coming. The third book took me 10 days as my writing plan for that was different. Book 1 and 2 were written in the holiday, book 3 came from May 8th to May 16th with days off for shopping and doctors in between. I was tired and my hand was cramping so I figured if I wrote at least 10 pages (or 1 chapter) a day then I could get it done in 12 days. I got it done in ten because in two days I wrote four chapters. So he came at a relaxed pace.
I also managed to get a hell of a lot off my list. Below is the huge three month list I’ve been using this year in front of a very small part of my Nancy Drew collection. This is April, May and June and this pic was taken at the beginning of April (I had already gone through Jan, Feb and March). On the other side of the cardboard (my own DIY To Do list) is July, August and September, then I’ll do another one for Oct, Nov and Dec.
And here it is at the beginning of June below, now in front of my Jackie Collins burgeoning collection. I re-arranged a few things in the last few months as I suddenly started buying Jackie’s books from everywhere. As you can see, even caring for mum, writing under two names and releasing under another, it’s all in the To Do list. If you have your list in front of you with everything spread out across the months, it is easy to keep up and keep across three different writing names.
As you can see, under Lady Jewels Diva there is still work to do as it was pushed back, but that’s okay, because the novellas I wrote in April and May will be typed up this month, all 360 pages of it.
Yep, I do the handwriting and the typing!
As for anything left, this month is for getting the print versions of my T.K. Wrathbone and #teenblogger books into print. So not so busy, then come July it’s all about the novellas being assessed and the covers created, releasing the rest of my T.K. Wrathbone books and writing more for that pen name. Come September, the novellas will be released and then comes getting them into print next year.
Yep, even next year is already in the planning!
That’s how my writing is coming along and how I used the school holidays for productivity even though I don’t have kids. Holidays do come in so handy!
Plowing Through Life (Martha) says
You are the queen of productivity! Go, you. I bet you feel great.
Sorry about your mom. I hope everything goes okay and she feels better soon.
L.J. Diva says
Thanks Martha, I'm ploughing ahead and getting them out there.