Sunday Journal: Progress and the career juggling act

Last time I checked in for Sunday (er, Monday) Journal I was tearing my hair out, but the past month has been looking up. Reasonable progress on my novel revision, another TWO weekend retreats to Phillip Island... a bit too much 'dayjob' work though. On the writing front, I've spent a fair deal of time … Continue reading Sunday Journal: Progress and the career juggling act

Monday Journal: Revision rumblings

I talk a lot about how much I enjoy the novel revision process. And I really do. I love building the story up and out and working in the detail, weaving the strands together, making them sing. As with nailing a well-tuned harmony, there's a thrill in getting it right. But... sometimes it can be … Continue reading Monday Journal: Revision rumblings

Sunday journal ~ push and shove

Gosh, another month has passed already... it's been a busy one. I'm still juggling creative endeavours with paid freelance and contracting work -- but as the latter gains momentum, the whole balance is becoming trickier. Business momentum is good -- yay! Displacement of writing time is not -- meh... I'm longing for a writing retreat … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ push and shove

Sunday journal ~ the other client

I've been writing steadily over the past two weeks. That is, I've been putting in a couple of hours most days, mostly in cafes. I've been treating 'creative endeavours' (including 'cafe writing') as another client in this new freelance/self-employed life of mine; another client with its own timesheet category. Not only does this log the … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ the other client

Sunday journal ~ entering the world of Mac

The past couple of weeks have been a challenge on the creativity front, owing to a few different factors, one of which has been the bad behaviour of my netbook computer -- which is the machine I've been taking to cafes. Basically the battery has more or less died, giving me little more than 1.5 … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ entering the world of Mac

Sunday journal ~ new opening scene

My main creative achievement for this week has been a new opening scene for project WIP. Not precisely what I was planning to do, but fun nonetheless. It came about because I was writing some notes about the middle of the book, sharpening objectives, motivations, stakes and so forth, trying to figure out where and how to … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ new opening scene

Sunday journal ~ keep it true

With an armful of devilcat (making it hard to type), I am happy to report a strong showing on the writing/revision front this week. I enjoyed reading through my writing journals (mostly) and have been thinking deeply about what needs to be done with this book -- and how I'm going to do it. I'm … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ keep it true

Sunday journal ~ rhythm

I'm contemplating a regular (semi-regular?) Sunday journal post, in which I muse briefly on recent creative endeavours and/or achievements. If it gets too boring, I'll stop, but let's see how we go... This past week I finished reading through the messy first draft of the novel I've been working on for the past, er, while. … Continue reading Sunday journal ~ rhythm

Time to tackle that WIP again

For the past two months I've been on a self-imposed writing hiatus - partly to let my completed first draft rest a bit, partly to reassert control over the other half of my life. But now, this weekend, in a glorious writing retreat at Phillip Island, I'm allowing myself to look at the WIP again. … Continue reading Time to tackle that WIP again