It really starts here...

January 30, 2023

First, an indulgence. Today is the first day in my life as a full time writer. No more squeezing desperate and sometimes frustrating moments out of the working/family/friends week to fervently create in patches of 10-45 minutes. Today I sit before my screen knowing that every working day hereafter the first priority and responsibility is to my craft. Honestly, I feel so elated, so freed, so weird!
 
The greatest challenge, now, will be self-discipline. No more school bells making me salivate and flinch, and move to the next class or task or activity or day. No more fretting over planning and marking in the evenings and on weekends to meet assessment deadlines or satisfy the needs of colleagues or students or parents. Instead, I am my task master. I decide what I will work on and when and how. And that becomes a very different form of self-discipline – like committing to regular gym or yoga or a diet to improve health.
 
Roald Dahl and many other writers have told us how important it is to establish routines as would be the case in any job. I am choosing to operate a working week from 9am-5pm. I have a sense of the working week daytime tasks that I must meet:

• Planning
• Thinking
• Writing
• Home duties (washing, tidying, eating, lawns etc)
• Editing
• Reading
• Research
• Learning
• Marketing
• Lunch
• Blogging

and after work activities:

• Family
• Exercise (volleyball, gym, yoga, walks)
• Socialising
• Entertainment (films, plays)

 
And for the first time in so many years I can keep the former set from consuming the latter. Add to that mix once-off events like workshops, conferences and conventions to reconnect and stay in contact with writing peers and associations. Oh, and nanna naps – reflection time in the afternoons 

I have set up a specific workspace devoted to writing. I do have to remove a competing body each morning from the writer’s chair, but the seat is warm when I begin my working day. I’m reconnecting with professional associations and networks – Australian Society of Authors, Writers SA, Science Fiction Australia – and there will be others. I have locked in the weekly blog (yes, it will be weekly hereafter) for Monday morning to start the writing week and to commit me to the task. By the way, this is the 78th blog entry since I started this process back in 2018. I never realised I had made so many. The blog, as a project, represents 38,000+ words. Maybe it will be its own book sometimes…maybe.

​Now, to the task. Thank you everyone who engaged in the conversation around fantasy novels and maps and language appendices. The consensus is that they are indeed useful and interesting. So, for the current The Last Wizard project, I will include them. I completed six maps that are relevant across the four books 

– not all six will appear in every book. While they are colour in the attached image, they will inevitably be black and white in the final books.

​​Today I begin the significant task of editing The Last Wizard series. Well, I’m actually editing books three and four. I re-read books one and two last week to reacquaint myself with the development towards books three and four. Book one is being kept in its original state as it was substantially edited before publication. Book two has been through first, second and third edits. However, books three and four are going into third edit today. Third edit involves looking for and adjusting:

• Remaining typos and errors
• Plot arc
• Character consistencies, especially emotional traits
• Social/community details
• Travel, time anomalies
• Connections with previous and following books

 
and a host of other things. Third edit is when I prepare a manuscript for beta reading.
 
Enough. I’m also setting a time limit for writing each weekly blog. Time’s up. Time to edit.