Tuesday 24th January 2017

Today has been a car crash of a day.
Interesting fact:  I have an over-active immune system.  The result of this is that I rarely get ill.  Or at least, I never used to.  In the last 8 weeks I’ve been ill more times than I have in the previous 10 years.
I woke this morning to find my scratchy throat had turned into a full blown cold.  It wasn’t enough to stop me, but it did make everything today seem like an uphill struggle.  Couple that with some IT issues this morning with the day job and how late I got to bed last night, and everything has seemed to take an age.
Still, I managed to get a new Instagram post and The Climb #2 out at lunchtime.  It’s too early to get an idea of the response for The Climb.  I suspect it’ll take a while to find its footing and for people to get an idea about it.  Instagram, on the other hand, I’m feeling like I’m getting a handle on.  I’m trying lots of different content at the moment to see what the response is like and am happy with these early stage results.
This afternoon I had to go into town for a meeting.  I got some new supplements to help my energy levels, got some food shopping in and then headed back to do food prep for the rest of the week.  And I can tell you, as much as I love making my own chicken satay sauce, it always seems to take an age.
I also did some planning for the sword fighting session I’m training tomorrow.  I had one of my students come up to me last night and tell me that the work I’ve been doing on buckler positioning has really helped him and he’s noticing it in sparring.  It’s always great to get positive feedback and as much as it gave me a boost at the time, it has played heavier on my mind today such that I now feel that the lesson tomorrow needs to match his expectations.
As a result the first time I got to really sit down and write was 9pm, when all my body wanted to do is go to bed and be ill.  But then my computer started hanging for minutes at a time and I ended up troubleshooting it.  Turned out it was a file in dropbox that had corrupted.  A bit more work and I *think* I got it fixed.
Which meant that the first time I really got chance to work on the novel was around Midnight.  Still, I managed to do over 2000 words before going to bed.  Not bad considering.
I’m still not planning out my chapters.  Part of this is because I did some 60,000 words on this novel last year and I’m going back over the work I did, revising it as I refresh myself on what I wrote.  This chapter has been the one I’ve revised the most, which ended up with me completely rewriting it.
Whilst I might not be as fast when I don’t plan it out, this chapter has been fun and I think it’s a million times better than the original.  It will still need a bit of work when I come to edit it.
That’s one of the things I love about writing.  You can have an idea of what you are going to write and then this idea comes into your head and it either completely changes the scene or, as in this case, completely enhances it.  I managed to get the chapter done which is good because the next one that I don’t think will need a lot of revision.  Famous last words.
Tomorrow is another really busy day with hospital visits, meetings and training throughout the day.  I probably won’t get chance to write until around 1am so I don’t expect to get a lot done.  Some days, the universe is against you, in which case, even getting 300 words done should feel like a victory.
Do you manage to find time to write when you have a busy day?  Let me know in the comments below.
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels.  Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments below.
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