Follow Up Friday – 19 February

Well, how did we get on with our goals this week?

Laura: Well … I’ve not written much, but I’ve had a writerly week, meeting up with friend, author, tutor and mentor, Sue Moorcroft, which was fab, and meeting authors and publishers at the Purbeck Literary Festival, which was also fab 🙂

I spent time with my family, too, which has been lovely.

Sue: Not too bad considering it is half-term. I’ve spent a lot of time with my youngest, which was my main aim so anything else is a bonus. I did manage some admin type tasks, like merging my website and blog into one place, creating a new header and making some book marks for next week’s library talk. I didn’t get to read any of the books on my TBR pile though – there’s always next week!

Celia has had a great week too, meeting all her targets. That will be the smutty ghost story and weaving some more story lines into her WIP!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow up Friday

So… how did we do with our targets this week?

Vanessa:

1. I’m on target with my edits – I need to finish the final polishing of the wip this week ready to…
   
2. Send the wip off to my agent!!

I did it!!! Finished the polishing of my edits Tuesday night and pressed send! Now it’s time to obsessively stalk my email in-box…

1. Finish a short story for a mid-Feb deadline (still on the list from last time!!)
   

Sort of… Didn’t manage to finish the short story but I have written a new flash fiction piece for another competition. 300 words instead of 3000 🙂

1. Non-writing related: when the wip has gone off, do some very neglected housework!

We’ll say no more about this one!

Catherine:

I’ve only written 500 words of the 5,000 word target, but there is still the weekend to go and I have babysitters to help get me to my deadline!

I have a nice shiny loooonnngggg TTD list.

Relocation occurring on Saturday!

 

How has everyone else got on this week?

 

Follow Up Friday 5th February

So, how did we get on this week? Did we achieve what we set out to do on Motivation Monday’s post? Let’s see …

Sue :

1. Final read through of manuscript on Kindle … tick
2. Tweak as necessary … a little tick as I’m 75% through with the tweaks
3. Send to editor … that will get a tick later today

All in all, a good week for me, despite a few unscheduled interruptions which have probably put me back by a day. Will send the manuscript over to my editor today – fingers crossed she will like what I’ve done.

Hope everyone else had a good week and, if not, don’t worry as there’s always next week!

Celia: Have my three tasks been done? No, no and no. Have been off sick all week – feeling very sorry for myself and eating a lot of hot buttered toast but not doing anything else. Have put all these jobs on hold. Will try again as soon as the muse and the ooomph return. Well done Sue!

 

 

Follow up Friday

Here’s how I got on with my targets this week – how has everyone else done?

Vanessa:

Finish my edits! I’ve set myself a target of sending the revised ms to my lovely agent by half term, which is w/c 15th Feb, so I’m hoping to finish the edits this week so I have a couple of weeks to polish it and make it all nice and shiny!

I’ve finished!!!!!! I got to the end mid-week so I’m still on target for sending to my agent on the 12th February – I’m just hoping I’m still happy with it as I read through over the next couple of weeks!

Polish first 3000 words of ms for a novel competition

I’ve put this back a bit – now the edit is done, I’ll be polishing soon anyway!

Finish a short story for a mid-Feb deadline

Didn’t manage this one – but I do have some scribbled ideas.

Non-writing related: make birthday cake for father-in-law’s birthday, calm nine year old’s nerves before her first youth theatre panto appearance next weekend!

The cake is baked and the 9yo is VERY excited about Saturday’s premiere!

Vanessa x

Follow-Up Friday

How did your week go? Did the freezing temperatures spur you on or keep you tucked up in bed?

Here’s how the Romaniacs got on.

Laura:

1 – Attend my writing group on a more regular basis.

2 – Give a great talk at the Weymouth Civic Society, and sell some books.

3 – Write or type up 5000 words of the wip by the end of the weekend.

4 – Help my daughter with her photography studies.

5 – Restore my family’s health with good, wholesome food.

6 – Celebrate with Catherine Miller.

I’m still working on attending my writing group on a more regular basis, but the talk at the Weymouth Civic Society went well. It was a great evening, with the Power Point presentation well received, and I did sell some books.

I read through the wip from the beginning, and it was a wonderful feeling getting to know my characters again. As long as my current headache and dizziness remains at a low level, I should be able to type up my hand-written pages this morning, but I won’t hit 5000 new words. It’s a start.

DD and I discussed her ideas for her photography studies, and I did my best with the wholesome food, but cooking isn’t a natural talent of mine. DS is feeling better, but Gajitman is still poorly.

Boy, the celebrations with Catherine were great 😀 – see below.

 

Catherine:

1 – Have a fab day celebrating Don’t Wait for… Waiting for You promo day

2- Collapse in a heap and wonder why I didn’t wait until the twins were at least in school full time

3- Get a couple more quotes for having a new heating system put in

4 – Get back to the WIP after Monday’s excitement

After a successful promo day, Catherine is now hibernating.

 

 

 

Lucie:

1/ Complete the writing related tasks that I am doing for other authors and send back the work required.

2/ Write up a first draft blurb for the two new ideas that I have had for my adult and children’s series.

3/ Clear my ironing pile (I don’t like this one AT ALL, but it has to be done :-()

4/ Consolidate the plan for my book series ideas and have a clear focus of where I am going with them.

5/ Speak to my agent with an update.

6/ Continue work on my Autism course.( I’d really like to complete this before I return to Uni next month)

7/ Sleep…at some point.

Well, lets see how I got on this week. I did lose a day from being ill with a migraine which wasn’t in the least bit helpful, but hey ho!

1/ I completed the tasks I needed to and sent back my feedback – before my deadline! Get me!

Don’t get too excited, this is about the extent of my achieving…

I have written up VERY simple blurbs for the two new ideas but not in enough detail for me to even call them first drafts. I am hoping to complete these over the coming weekend. Number 4 just did not happen AT ALL! I spoke with my agent and am hopefully meeting up with her soon, so that’s good and I did get some sleep – always good. I didn’t do any work on my Autism course (not good) and nor did my ironing pile get done (you didn’t actually expect me to have done it, did you?) So on the whole, I achieved some things… and some just roll over on to next week. Here’s hoping I have a productive weekend!

All round, not a bad week, and certainly worth celebrating with a bun or two.

We’d love to hear about your weekly celebrations – every one counts.

xx

Follow up Friday

It’s follow up Friday time – Here’s how Vanessa got on…

Vanessa’s Aims:

1. Edit first 100 pages of the work-in-progress – I’ve just finished a fairly major re-write, so now need to embark on a major edit!
2. Work out exactly how the ending of the same wip is going to be structured… because I have several characters to get to a certain point, I keep re-writing the ending over and over, changing it each time. This week will be the week I pick an ending and stick to it!!
3. Find five new writing competitions to enter in January/February – I’m looking for new flash fiction competitions.
4. Come up with some ideas for new flash fiction to enter in those competitions!

Sort of… I’ve edited more than 100 pages – I’m up to page 116 and have added a few new scenes. It’s definitely going to need another edit though as I’ve added so many new bits! I’ve printed out the ending ready to work on and made some notes so I’m getting there.

I haven’t written any new flash fiction, but I have found some flash and short story competitions to enter: The Writers & Artists Yearbook Short Story competition closes on the 15th February – it’s free entry on the theme of Ageing and the prize includes an Arvon course. Flash500 (always my favourite flash fiction competition) has a short story competition (up to 3000 words) closing at the end of February judged by Sue Moorcroft, the Bath Flash Fiction Award closes on the 14th February and the Fish Publishing Flash Fiction Prize (both 300 words limit) closes at the end of February

I’m loving having lists to refer to – it keeps me focused! How’s everyone else getting on?

Vanessa x

Added at 13:56 by Catherine who has survived her second week at twin club:

You what? It’s Friday already? Let’s recap on what I said I try to get up to:

1. Try to survive my first ever zumba class. Well, I did get in the car. I did drive to zumba. I did wonder how I would manage after a busy day. My sat nav took me to a building site. Then I only got as far as a B&Q car park before giving up on finding where it was with only five minutes to spare. I’m going to try harder on this one this week.
2. Get to the half way point of Novel Two. I have 2K to go so should be able to squeeze them in over the weekend.
3. Do more organising for book tour/promotional day/launch day for Waiting for You. Going great guns on these. You can find out about the promotional day here with chances to win some great prizes.
4. Sit still for one hour and read. I did this on Monday instead of zumba.
5. Try a new recipe. I’ve done lots of new recipes over the past week and very pleased with a 6lb weight loss at my Slimming World group. Just need to keep it up for the rest of the year! 

 

 

Follow-Up Friday

Every Monday, we’re posting our weekly targets, aiming to achieve them by the end of play on Friday.

This week, Sue and Laura posted their aims. How did they do?

Sue aimed to: 

1. To write three chapters.
2. To successfully negotiate the first week back at school by remembering all the after-school clubs that are starting back up and packing the appropriate equipment/kit for not only the right club but the right child.

Laura aimed to:

1. Get up extra early on Monday to wish DS a happy birthday, before we all go our separate ways for the day.
2. Be at my desk ready to write from 09:00 Mon-Thurs.
3. Write 5000 words by Friday evening.
4. Plan talk for the Weymouth Leviathan and Maritime Festival.
5. Have earlier nights to allow for reading time.

Laura: I managed Monday’s targets and DS had a lovely day. I’ve also been ready to start work at 09:00, so I’m pleased with that.

I’ve not advanced the wip or planned my Weymouth Leviathan talk, but I did have news of a talk for the Weymouth Civic Society, which is happening on the 18th January, so this took priority. This week consisted of me trying to create a slide show for this talk, but my PC and laptop refused to cooperate. I am currently tapping this out on my phone … Thankfully, my husband is an IT engineer, so my PC and laptop are now being sorted. I will continue to aim for earlier nights …

Sue: I seem to have successfully negotiated the return to school challenge, so that’s good.

I ended up having a particularly busy week with lots of family commitments which took me away from the desk for as much time as I spent behind it. However, I did manage to write one and a half chapters of my novella, clocking up over 1700 words on Wednesday.

Thursday I began to seriously think about the edits for my next full length novel. These edits actually came in before Christmas but I’ve only just looked at them properly. There’s a fair amount of work to be done but generally, I do enjoy the editing process.  So, not a bad week, all thing considered.

 

How did you all get on?