Daynote - Wed 17 Sep
You can only do what you can do.
Drizzling with rain this morning, so I took the opportunity for more sleep. I'm just about caught up mentally and physically with everything, after an incredibly busy weekend.
ON DECK: Zero words again this morning - one of those days when I opened the draft, looked at my watch and the scene that was waiting to be written and flat noped out. So I did some crit reading instead. Sometimes reading the (amazing) words of my critique partners is a good displacement activity for when I'm not quite getting started with my own stuff. Hopefully I'll have cleared that backlog by tomorrow and I'll be able to return to the routine.
But, also? I just don't worry about it that much. I used to worry about routines a lot and get really down on myself when the routines broke down a bit under various external pressures. Now I just focus on easing gently back into them when I feel able to. It's much less stressful and much more effective than deeply questioning my self-worth every time I miss a day or two because I'm knackered or sick or just not up to it that day.
LISTENING: I met Susie Green from Susie's Book Reviews and the In My Good Books podcast at Bloody Scotland after appearing on her shortlist episodes and her podcast has rapidly become one of my absolute favourites. It's amazing that she's only done 22 episodes, because it feels a lot slicker and well put together than most podcasts do after that amount of time. Her latest episode is a brilliant roundup of Bloody Scotland itself, with lots of short interviews. It gives a really good impression of what it's like to attend.
WATCHING: We were tired after a long weekend yesterday so we watched BAKE OFF and then conked out. I think I'd only tangentially describe most of the things on 'bread week' as 'bread', personally, but it was fun.
READING: Mostly crit-reading yesterday and today, as I work my way through several chapters of different novels.
LINK: Another excellent piece from The Honest Editor about what happens when an editor leaves or when an agent doesn't like your next book.
UP NEXT: I hear tell that there's new paperback copies showing up in bookshops near me, so this evening I might go for a wee drive and sign some. Then tonight I'm going to go to bed at a reasonable hour and try my level best to get back to my usual routine and keep working on this draft.
Onward!