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Author Journal 19th – 25th August 2021

Two weeks have been and gone by since I last posted. Last week’s post was in my planner, I even used one of my snazzy stickers, but I decided against posting. There were no extenuating circumstances–aside from a severe lack of sleep brought about by reading writing craft books in bed 🤦‍♀️ –I was just spent.

This spent feeling extended to posting word count updates, hence the lack of those. I’m still writing, but it’s been a struggle to get the big word count days in. Daily life can sometimes, unfortunately, push writing to the backseat.

Even though I didn’t post an entry last week, I did set myself a writing goal, and I’ll share how that went–along with the previous week.

Review 5th August – 18th August 2021

My Writing Goals for 5th – 11th August

How Did I Do?

In the last journal entry, I screwed up. I assumed it was a five-day workweek and set my goal accordingly. Buuut, it was only a three-day workweek. Granted, it’s a nice wee mistake, but it caused a whole lot of wild flailing and running for the panic stations.

It doesn’t take a highly caffeinated squirrel wielding a scientific calculator to determine that I didn’t hit my goal. I added 2,773 words, taking the manuscript (MS) to a total of 25,304.

You know, looking at the numbers on the screen, I’m actually pleased with how it went. Now onto last week.

My Writing Goals for 12th – 18th August

How Did I Do?

Not great, not terrible, but I’m okay with it. I added 3,703 words, which takes the MS to a total count of 29,007.

Last week was like writing in a bath of congealed porage with a paintbrush between my teeth. Though, I have figured out what the issue was/is.

My most creative and productive writing time is between 0400 and 1100. Lately, I’ve used that time slot to block out the scenes before writing them, effectively wasting that golden time.

The so-obvious-even-Moon-Moon-could-see-it solution is to block out the scenes in the afternoon. That way, when I sit down to write the next morning, I’m prepared for a high word count day.

This Week’s Goal

  • Add 5000 words for Running The Asset (hit 34,007 words total)

Schedule

ThursdayWrite 1000 words
FridayWrite 1000 words
SaturdayWrite 1000 words
SundayWrite 1000 words
MondayWrite 1000 words
TuesdayDay aff (Bike ride! 🤞)
WednesdayDay aff (Bike ride! 🤞)

That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by, and take care.

Susan

P.S. The only problem with searching for Moon Moon memes is there are too many, and they’re so fudging funny. Enjoy.

Author: Susan T. Braithwaite

Royal Navy veteran from Scotland. My journey into writing started with a screenwriting certificate program at UCLA Ext. Since then, I've worked as a freelance content writer, erotica author, proofreader, professional beta reader, and content editor. I'm now working hard on my dream writing career: romantic suspense author. When I'm not writing, I can be found drinking too much coffee, obsessing over yarn, and planning world domination with my husband, jezbraithwaite.blog, and our squirrel army.​

11 thoughts on “Author Journal 19th – 25th August 2021

    1. Thanks, Sweetie! 😘 (And thanks for the fun bike rides. I think they’ve been immensely helpful in resetting me.) This week will be better now that I’ve clicked to what’s been up.
      Moon Moon’s always good for a laugh.

  1. Hi Susan, good to hear from you, even if your progress hasn’t been so great. You’ve hit the sticky 30k’s!! There’s something about the 30-40k mark that always seems to be a slog, both for me and for my writing buddy, Paul English – and he’s on his 7th novel. I know you and I work very differently, but I prefer to leave a writing session mid-chapter, so I can pick up again more quickly (apparently Ernest Hemingway used to stop mid-sentence). Don’t stress, let the words come… Now, let me go away and take my own advice. 😉

    1. Thanks for the comforting words, Chris! I chop and change on where I stop, mid-scene, end of scene, mid biscuit… 🤪
      How did you get on? You must be so close to finished this draft. (So envious!)

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