Today’s post is more a roundup of the last week than being focused on a specific topic. I do discuss, though, why batching posts is better for me and how much I enjoyed, what I consider my first real crack at editing.
At times, it can get a little overwhelming, thinking about all the tasks I’m going to be trying to do over the coming months. Last week I didn’t get everything I wanted done, but, but I have taken the wins where I can. For example, I might not have started on the new Silverdeer, but on my walk to the cinema, I had an epiphany. That epiphany was that I shouldn’t rewrite Silverdeer, but I should use characters from a flash forward and write a YA focused story. So, since then I’ve been quietly planning and plotting that. Letting it stew and then unfold in the back of my mind.
I completed my Editing and Proofreading course, which was good. It’ll be another thing to add to my CV and concrete proof of my interest in the subject. I got a Merit – 84% which I’m happy with because I’ve never been very good with the sort of tests they have at the end of these things.
One of the two bigger things I achieved this week was planning out social media. I now have a post queued for every Monday until the end of March. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I’ll have Wednesday and Fridays done.
I would love to be able to post these things on the day, to create them there and then, but unfortunately my neurodivergence means I can’t predict how hours, days or even weeks are going to look. It’s much better and easier for me to batch these things when I’m feeling productive. Social media content, especially the sort I’ve been putting together, takes a lot of effort and a lot of brainpower. I have to curate or create the images on Canva, including coming up with the text if there’s text on there. Sometimes this is just one image per post, but sometimes it’s ten. Then I like to ensure my captions are fun to read. I prefer them to be longer than a line or two. This means I have to spend time curating those too and then coming up with hashtags.
Due to my mis-wired brain, I never know if a day is going to be good or not. I am pretty consistently inconsistent, yet crave routine and order. Batching helps solve the problem of me having a bad day, or being so involved by something else that I don’t post every week on certain days like I want to.
In fact, today is a great example of why batching is so good for me. I want to post a blog post every Wednesday, today seems to have gotten away from me though. I was exhausted this morning, and I felt, until about an hour ago, like my heart wasn’t really in it. I was a bit overwhelmed by the tasks I need to do and my brain seemed to be buzzing and not in a good way. It made anything this morning really hard, even just putting the washing away, writing in my diary and feeding myself. Batching means that my mood/energy levels might be low but my content will still go out.
I also don’t want to spend all my time curating social media posts. I’ve books I want to read, both for my bookstagram and just because I want to. I’ve stories to write and, of course, there’s general life stuff.
The other big thing I managed to achieve this week was my first editing gig!
Well, sort of-
Without going into details, a good author friend of mine saw my post about the free editing opportunity I posted on my Instagram, and asked me if I’d look over their manuscript for them.
It was a first draft, crafted during nano and an absolute joy to read and feedback on. I’m honoured that they chose me (no names in case they don’t want it stating here). The story is really exciting and has so much potential!
This really helped remind me how much I enjoy editing. Developmental and Line editing are where my heart lies because it’s all about making a piece of work the best it can be, making a story absolutely shine.
One of my strengths is my instinct and knowledge of story. I’m very good at understanding how all the puzzle pieces of a story fit together. I don’t just think this comes from reading a lot; I think it comes from my special interest in film and television. I think film/tv and novel writing are not as far apart as they sometimes appear to be. I think my neurodivergence (probably autism), helps with this too as it means I’m quite good at pattern spotting and a lot of stories rely on patterns in order to be successful and satisfying.
Laura Kendrick 