A Week in the Life
November 9, 2018
A writer's life consists of sitting in front of a computer, tapping at a keyboard and pressing 'send', doesn't it? Not quite. Even when real life such as shopping, doing the laundry and walking the dogs doesn't intervene, things are rarely so straightforward. This is how my week went from Friday 2nd to Thursday 8th November.
As usual, I started the day on Friday by checking my emails, Facebook and Twitter pages. Even if I don't post a tweet, I like to respond to any likes and retweets, and make some of my own. This time I had news of a chance to vote in the Pen 2 Paper contest to let people know about.
On Friday and Saturday I read Terra! Tara! Terror!, the latest Third Flatiron anthology, and made a few notes for the review of it that I'm going to write (watch this space!). Sunday was largely given over to reading a play and draft of an opening chapter of a thriller sent to me by a local author I met the week before. This was purely for the interest of seeing what another author is doing. It's always good to connect. Hopefully, we'll learn from each other.
I had to go out on Monday and Tuesday morning, so I didn't put pen to paper then, but I did get to chat to people who had seen my play, 'Antarctica', mentioned in the local newspaper earlier in the year, and asked me about my work. On Tuesday evening, I met someone who had been one of my best friends at school, in circumstances I never would have imagined. Whatever else might come from it, it's got me thinking about then and now, and I'm sure it will inspire one or more pieces in some way.
In between these excursions, I read my new copy of Writing and Writers' News, and checked out the prospective markets in them. I also prepared some story manuscripts and emailed them to magazines. While listening to Radio 3 with the first coffee of the day, I had snatches of ideas for characters and settings, and for music-making in The Exiles of Ondd. It also helped me to see how to rewrite a short story for a competition.
Doing the ironing on Wednesday helped me come up with some ideas for blogs, which I had to note down as soon as I finished. Okay, I did watch some TV in the afternoon, but it was a history programme covering a period I want to write about, so I made lots of notes, and I'm calling it research. Since our dogs were puppies, I've written a diary of what they get up to, and I finally caught up with this later in the day. I thought I was only a couple of weeks behind, but it was two months!
As for actual writing–I didn't do it at the computer, but using my trusty pencil and the backs of old letters and manuscripts. I plotted a one-act play for a competition, and how I'm going to stage it–I even came up with some of the dialogue and action ready to join into a whole. Finally, I wrote this blog.
Not a fantastically exciting week, but despite being fragmented, quite a productive one. What next? Back to Ro and The Exiles of Ondd, of course!
As usual, I started the day on Friday by checking my emails, Facebook and Twitter pages. Even if I don't post a tweet, I like to respond to any likes and retweets, and make some of my own. This time I had news of a chance to vote in the Pen 2 Paper contest to let people know about.
On Friday and Saturday I read Terra! Tara! Terror!, the latest Third Flatiron anthology, and made a few notes for the review of it that I'm going to write (watch this space!). Sunday was largely given over to reading a play and draft of an opening chapter of a thriller sent to me by a local author I met the week before. This was purely for the interest of seeing what another author is doing. It's always good to connect. Hopefully, we'll learn from each other.
I had to go out on Monday and Tuesday morning, so I didn't put pen to paper then, but I did get to chat to people who had seen my play, 'Antarctica', mentioned in the local newspaper earlier in the year, and asked me about my work. On Tuesday evening, I met someone who had been one of my best friends at school, in circumstances I never would have imagined. Whatever else might come from it, it's got me thinking about then and now, and I'm sure it will inspire one or more pieces in some way.
In between these excursions, I read my new copy of Writing and Writers' News, and checked out the prospective markets in them. I also prepared some story manuscripts and emailed them to magazines. While listening to Radio 3 with the first coffee of the day, I had snatches of ideas for characters and settings, and for music-making in The Exiles of Ondd. It also helped me to see how to rewrite a short story for a competition.
Doing the ironing on Wednesday helped me come up with some ideas for blogs, which I had to note down as soon as I finished. Okay, I did watch some TV in the afternoon, but it was a history programme covering a period I want to write about, so I made lots of notes, and I'm calling it research. Since our dogs were puppies, I've written a diary of what they get up to, and I finally caught up with this later in the day. I thought I was only a couple of weeks behind, but it was two months!
As for actual writing–I didn't do it at the computer, but using my trusty pencil and the backs of old letters and manuscripts. I plotted a one-act play for a competition, and how I'm going to stage it–I even came up with some of the dialogue and action ready to join into a whole. Finally, I wrote this blog.
Not a fantastically exciting week, but despite being fragmented, quite a productive one. What next? Back to Ro and The Exiles of Ondd, of course!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : Inspiration
