My Writing Life ~ Finished First Draft

This is a catch-up post as I didn’t manage to write one last week due to a funeral, but the reality is, it is still only a week-long writing post because over the past week I have been struck down by the terrible cold virus that is doing the rounds and I have got nothing done for a week.

The week started well, (we’re talking two weeks ago – from my last post) I posted Wednesday morning then went on to have a really productive day on the editing project – remember I had two projects on the go, the editing project and the first draft. As I was close to finishing the editing project I decided to focus solely on that for a couple of days to get it finalised. I thought of another strand I wanted to layer into the book – also remember this is only half a book at this point so I’m not juggling a huge manuscript. I feel the project is getting more depth to it.

On Thursday I finished the work on the project I was editing and send it back to my agent for her thoughts. I don’t expect to hear back from her until after Christmas. So now I only have the first draft of Hannah 5 on my desk. This had been my NaNo project and I could focus on this on its own now. I’m not sure how I’d done it, working on two projects, but it had been possible, but it was good to get back to one project at a time.

My motivation and energy were returning as I was also getting things done on my to-do list. Oh how I laugh now typing this up knowing as I do that it all went out the window only a few days later for a funeral and then a cold virus. This writing life really is an up and down beast.

In my notes for this blog post the last thing I wrote was that my daughter had a cold virus and I hoped I didn’t get it as it would seriously knock me out. And boy it has because I haven’t done a thing, I managed to finish the very last chapter of the the NaNo novel so the first draft is complete and then that has been it. I haven’t made a step towards knocking it into shape before I send it to my editor. I was supposed to have sent it by now but have had to email to apologise for not being able to. Luckily my editor has been very understanding and will accept receipt of it when I’m ready. Once I’m back to full working order it shouldn’t take me too long if that’s all I’m working on.

I do hope to start gradually getting back to my desk before Christmas, taking it slow as all my energy has been zapped by this cold virus. It is going to take some time to build up my strength again. Just writing this blog post has exhausted me!

My plan was to get both of these of my desk at the beginning of December and have a look at the non-fiction book I am thinking of writing and to also write an outline for the first book in a new series so I could get started on it in January – I don’t like to sit still! But illness and loss have thrown my timetable out a little. I have to adapt to that. It’s something I have to accept with having Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and even though this timetable alteration isn’t because of that, I am still a writer who adjusts well to spanners that get thrown in my works.

How are you weeks going?