Summer is definitely the season for book and literary festivals. These are taking place up and down the country.
This year, I am fortunate enough to have tickets to Felixstowe Book Festival (June) and YALC (July). You can look forward to seeing my blog posts shortly following my return.
Are you going to any book festivals?
I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you about the calendar I have been updating with literary dates and made accessible to all.
Please feel free to let me know of any competitions or events you feel I should add to the calendar.
Google calendar
I created a public Google calendar so you can see everything I have added. If you want to copy an event then you too will need a google calendar (it is free with a free Google email account).
Yay! I hit my goal of editing three chapters a week.
I really enjoyed working on this chapter as well. I forgot how intense the emotions are and her powers coming to life and the promise of a beautiful romance.
But… is this the midpoint? The false win? You’ll have to read it and see.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
Have you ever heard of hump day? It’s the term given to the midweek blues. Like when people get to Wednesday in their 5 day work week and they just need to get through the day to see the promise of the weekend.
I have that feeling with Jewel of the Sea at the moment. I am currently about midway through editing it. I feel like I’m loosing steam. I feel like I’ve been working on it for so long and yet there is still so far to go. I’m trying really hard to focus on the positives to keep myself motivated.
Last night, I watched Game of Thrones so no writing happened. I was disappointed by the episode, I won’t spoil for anyone watching but I feel that writers make promises to their fans and they have to deliver on those promises.
When, you read a murder mystery you expect a dead body and clues that lead to discovering the murderer. When you read a romance novel you expect the love interest to get together. In last nights, GOT, I felt we have been following certain characters development and these were all undone. I felt a little like arcs were unravelling in the last episode. It feels like they are rushing to finish the series and aren’t caring about what is true to the character anymore.
Tonight, I started out editing the wrong chapter. I kept getting a de-ja-vu feeling I had noted which chapter to edit next. The familiarity kept coming back so I checked and turns out I hadn’t updated my note with where I was up to. Luckily, there was still enough time to get this chapter edited.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
I was blown away by the number of poets that wanted to take part and I had a lot of fun choosing a variety of poems to feature during April but here they are altogether in one blog post:
Here is a Haiku poem I wrote about my novel Jewel of the Sea in March to get the poets in the mood for April and part of the #womenwritingfiction #wwfchallenge2019 on Instagram:
This month, I am just enjoying taking one day at a time. I always enjoy featuring bloggers on my blog but this was the first time that I have done something like this on Instagram. And, I would like to do it again and hope that I helped them reach more followers.
Next time, I might get writers to share the tag line of their novel, book cover or quote from their book. I also follow a few artists and would like to give them some attention too. What would you like to see me feature next?
I saw a great deal at Craftelier and decided to treat myself to a new planner. I was choosing between Happy Planner and Carpe Diem. The Happy Planners in my price range were dated which meant the first few months would be useless. It is such a waste. So, I went with Carpe Diem (undated) as I would be able to use everything and it came with co-ordinating stickers to start me off.
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I have used it for the first time for planning May.
Month spread
This is my spread for the month of May. I love the stickers that come with the planner as they colours look beautiful and compliment each other. It is so pretty.
What I am not keen on is the week starting on a Sunday? It kept throwing me and I kept writing things on the wrong day. I used stickers to cover up my mistakes but someone on IG recommended I buy Frixion pens as these can be erased.
I do like that these pages are undated. This means the months that I have not used for this year (Jan to April) can be used next year.
This Month
This page is an overview of the month ahead when you can add important reminders like birthdays or important dates. You can set monthly goals and To-do-lists.
I’m not sure how useful I will find this page. I tend to set myself weekly targets and quarterly targets. I also would rather a daily to-do-list than a monthly one. If something needs to be done I’ll do it as soon as possible, I couldn’t wait a month.
Week schedule
This page has plenty of space to write what I have planned for each day. I have decided to use the Notes section as my weekly to do list. This is my favourite page and I need to get better at decorating it.
Thoughts so far
I love how pretty this planner is. I am enjoying it more than my previous planner. I would like to get some dotted paper so I could do some bullet journal style pages too.
I will definitly look at getting the erasable pens as I get really upset when I make a mistake. I would like to get different colours so I can use it for social media plans and writing plans too.
I need to get more stickers so I dont feel so precious about using the ones I have – at the moment I feel a little like I am rationing them.
I already feel more organised. Even though I had things saved on my mobile calendar, I was still trying to remember it all. Pysically seeing what I have planned and what I have achieved makes me feel like I can relax.
Have you any tips for me?
I am new to planning and know I have a lot to learn. If you can help me out with tips or people to follow for inspiration or good planner supply stores, please let me know. Many thanks.
I’m really impressed with myself for getting another chapter edited and posted on Wattpad tonight and it was another 3.5k chapter! My word count is soaring today.
I have added a note to check it again at a later date as I changed a lot of tenses and I want to make sure my grammar is correct.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
The new chapter has taken a few days to edit. Here are the challenges I faced whilst editing this chapter.
The main delay was due to changing the role of Ana in the story.
In the original version, she goes away to see a specialist doctor in America to get help with her sleep disorder. This resulted in her being away for most of the story.
In my current rewrite I have decided Ana will have a bigger part to play. She doesn’t go away, Mariah confides in her and together they experiment with magic. I’m enjoying writing the new content but it is slowing me down.
In addition, chapter 13 is 3.5k words long. This is long for me as my chapters generally tend to be half that.
The last delay on this chapter is that Aria is going through a nocturnal stage so I’m spending more of my evening settling her than working on my novel.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
Here is the last half of my Camp NaNo diary, covering mid April to the end of April. It will also include whether I am a winner or not. If you would like to read the first half of my diary, click here.
I am so pleased that I achieved Camp NaNo. During the Easter Holidays it felt so impossible I almost quit. I guess it goes to show what perseverance can achieve.
I like Red Dresses more than my November project and will likely return at a later date to finish this novel.
What’s next?
As soon as Camp NaNo was over, I got straight back into editing Jewel of the Sea. My goal is to try and edit three chapters a week to get it query ready.
You may have noticed that recently I have begun sharing updates on my blog with links to Wattpad as I finish editing. If you are on Wattpad, follow me, I follow back.
I’m really impressed that I managed to get a chapter edited today. Aria has refused to nap all day so I am shattered but I really wanted to get another one done.
I think the next chapter will be tricky because I have changed the role of Ana in the new outline. This will impact the next chapter as I will need to add in some new content to make it work.
I find editing really hard but I will write a post soon covering the methods I use that make it a little easier. But, I would love to hear the methods you use?
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
