Bad Month for Writing
Oh, no! It’s time for the 5 Year Project monthly update.
Sadly, I’ve not achieved much over the past two months, from the point of view of writing. Family and life events have taken all my attention.
Firstly, in August I attended the funeral of a good friend of mine. A week later was the wedding of my middle daughter, which was lovely and exhausting. And the following week, my oldest daughter had her first baby – my first grandchild.
My little grandchild did not have an easy start to life. Breech position, and born by caesarian section, she slept all day and cried all night. Meanwhile, her mum had a prolonged stay in hospital because the baby wouldn’t feed properly.
Anyway, this month I’ve rented a flat (or an apartment, for my American friends!) in Manchester to be near to my daughter and her new baby. That took a lot of energy – viewing places, being let down by the first landlord, viewing more places, and finally moving in after spending a week living in B&Bs with my car loaded full of possessions.
I’m settled now, and plan to get down to some serious writing in October. First, of course, I’ve decided to procrastinate a little longer by booking a few days holiday on the Isle of Arran.
Meanwhile, I’ve written several blog posts for my new COWS website at killercows.co.uk and updated my coastal walking blog at coastalwalker.co.uk – so I’ve not been a total lazy bones!
Writing Goals for October
- Complete the final draft of my sci-fi novel, The Quantum Contract, using feedback from my excellent beta readers.
- Find an editor for the manuscript. I usually use Danielle Wrate for proof reading, but the text will need copyediting first. Should I use the same editor? Or find someone different. Decisions, decisions…
Hope all my writing friends have had a more productive month. I look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing what you’ve been up to.
Do you want to join us? All you have to do is set a 5 year writing goal, and commit to a monthly update. Join us at the Do You Have Goals – blogspot
Ruth Livingstone 
Huge ups and downs, huge changes, and huge congratulations! I think you can be forgiven for not getting much done on the writing front. Enjoy Manchester, I lived there for a bit after uni, and loved it!
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Interesting to hear you lived in Manchester too. So far, so good, although I’m not sure about the cold, wet winter weather that’s bound to come soon. ☔️
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Congrats! I hope the baby is better now.
Moving house always makes me frazzled, so I do have sympathy with you.
I don’t think you HAVE to change editors, although I think I would personally prefer that my proofreader and my copy editor are two different people.
That said, if you know the proofreader is good at what she does, maybe you should just keep her for both, because there’s nothing worse than paying someone for a job they end up not doing well.
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Hi Misha, yes, baby has settled nicely. A bit of colic now, but feeding, growing, and just started smiling! I was thinking the same thing about editors. Might be best to have two different pairs of eyes.
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Wow! Congratulations on your new grandchild! Life is important and we don’t want to miss it because it feeds our souls, our relationships, and our writing (even though it pulls us away for a bit).
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It’s a wonderful time and, you’re right, it’s important to celebrate each new life.
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Many congratulations on the birth of your grand-daughter. Life will never be the same again! A similar start to mine – so worrying and exhausting for everyone – so glad all is well now.
Arran in October sounds wonderful. Looking forward to the updates.
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Thank you Jacquie. Yes, I’m looking forward to Arran, although the forecast is for gales!
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