Right place, write time!

How has your writing week been so far? How do you feel?

I have been busy balancing all the elements of the jar this week as I went back to work after the Christmas break, household chores built up, I had appointments and meetings to attend, a couple of social events to factor in, some work as a ‘taxi’, along with the long list of companies I needed to contact to sort utility bill issues, direct debit fees, salaries, Amazon orders and Estate Agents.

I have managed to rock the big stones though as you can see from ‘Perfect Timing’ post.

I still feel excited and am consumed with passion, of course this fire is easily fuelled in the writing process, I am only too aware when it comes time to submission deadlines my emotions will be the polar opposite and my skin will grow at least an extra four layers.

I have been here before, a lot has changed in the past decade though, including the acceptability of email submissions, technology I can manage. This is great as it gives me at least an extra three days or so to edit and polish the manuscript AND it’s free!

I am currently working on two short submissions; the first is a real-life story for publication, the second a fictional short story, flash fiction. Just 1,450 words complete these manuscripts, as you know writing on a limited word count as short as these can cause more problems. Unlike school essays, lower the word count doesn’t equal an easier assignment!

I have read a book, (a whole one in 3 days!), well nearly 2/3 I have 91 pages left, drawn a mind-map on large paper, written a synopsis of 3 ideas, chosen the one I’m running with, this morning when I woke up I had 900 words first draft. I now have closer to 1,100 and am busy on my 2^nd draft. What a difference a day makes!

The 2^nd manuscript has been in the project pot since December 2012, I have already written most of it (apart from the final paragraph – I’m still undecided which way to twist it!) It has been rewritten and edited 3 times already, I need to finish it and polish it. I have until the end of the month.

I am concentrating on the real-life story as I have to finish it by the beginning of next week. The best thing about it is I have thought of another 3 ideas to write about from writing this story. I have written a brief synopsis for each new idea.

The best part… I have my blog to thank. Using a public service computer, I was in the library thinking about these projects I had already undertaken weeks ago, the library has FREE books, it was after my time ran out on the PC that I began to peruse the shelves and made my withdrawal (on yet another piece of new fangled, no librarian needed technology)… talk about right place at the write time!