Some kind of rude awakening. Restorative tea. Tantrums and hugs. Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol between breakfast, dressing, fast showers, trying to remember to send older kiddo to school with the correct stuff in order to be a good parent. Send young kiddo down to granddad for the morning.
09:00 breathe
09:05 Check numerous email accounts for streetcake magazine, streetcake prize, MumWrite, personal email.
09:10
Answer as many people as possible and send emails to my co-editor, Trini,
discussing recent subs and next actions. Try to clean up the inbox.
09:30 Check
social media accounts and respond where appropriate. Retweet funny and
interesting things, especially things that make me laugh on little sleep.
Reconnect with the kind people in the writing community and hear about all the
cool stuff they’re doing. Keep a look out for competitions to share with the
MumWriters and streetcake followers.
09:45 Check
emails again. Get distracted by crying kiddo somewhere downstairs but hope the
grandparents can fix the problem (everything crossed...)
10:00 More tea. Email some feedback to MumWrite mums and answer queries.
10:30
Look at MumWrite anthology design and try not to mess up the file too much.
Send panicked emails to my design pal and decide to work on it later.
11:00
Attempt to redraft novel, which is becoming a Picasso painting in word form.
Does anything make sense anymore? Should I delete it all?! Have cut it down
from 90k to 75k. Need to get the file ready to send to beta readers as the
redraft is due at the publishers at the end of October.
11:10 Stop to research yet another plot point. Refer to Facebook groups on police procedures and send out random info requests on Twitter.
11:25 Some kind person has answered my query. Attempt to weave that into current plot without having too many knock-on effects. I have become bored with the novel now but have to keep writing and get it done!
12:00
Briefly distracted by younger kiddo returning to see if I'm still there.
Returns to grandad (do a spell to ward him away for a little longer, ha ha).
12:15 Kiddo
returns for lunch but actually doesn’t want lunch. Make food he won’t eat and
try to eat some stuff myself.
12:30 Play some games as kiddo picks at food.
12:45 Kiddo
wants to play alone with Paw Patrol. Perfect time for me to check emails. Send
out some acceptances for streetcake after receiving email from co-editor.
Always one of the best parts!
13:10 Distracted by responding to everyone on Twitter about my random query.
13:25 Decide to work on poetry collection instead. Writing a modern-day translation of Keat’s and Fanny Brawne’s relationship. Been waiting on some feedback so start editing the poems in line with that. Think it’s nearly ready to send to the publishers!
14:00 Interrupted by small kiddo asking for a snack.
14:10 Read some books with kiddo on sofa.
14:30 Kiddo distracted by Baby Bum songs. Go back to work. Start collating biographies for next issue of streetcake. Email those who haven’t sent one.
15:00 – 19:00 A blur of school pick up, playing, dinner and bath.
19:15 Finish off for the day by replying to any last emails and trying to work out the plot points of my novel again without totally stripping out the good content.
20:00 Give up trying to fix the novel.
20:30 Watch a film, though nothing too serious or complex for my fragile mind. Not sure when I’ll watch some of the films on our list…
23:30 Go to bed later than we should.
Nikki Dudley is managing editor of streetcake magazine and also runs the streetcake writing prize and MumWrite. She has a chapbook and collection with KFS, with another forthcoming in 2020. She is the winner of the Virginia Prize 2020 and her second novel will be published in 2021. Her website is: nikkidudleywriter.com or you can find her on twitter: @nikkidudley20
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