Being a full-time writer - if only temporarily...

When the rotas went up for the new year, I was surprised to find out that I had 11 days off! A great feeling I can tell you! It's not very often you don't know when your time off is coming up, but this one was unplanned and booked in for me, so when it showed up on the rota it was a warmly welcomed surprise!

Sunday was my first day off, so I spent it as a Sunday should be spent... doing nothing! It was amazing. Normally I would be fitting in cleaning, seeing family, time with Simon and an evening in the pub for the local jam night. Most of my time was spent reading, and at the pub! 

Come Monday, I was ready to settle into my days off and use them wisely! I have a new book due out in the spring... Therefore I planned to spend my time off pretending to be a full-time writer! And I can tell you, it has been awesome!!

I made a plan, chunks of editing and/or writing, social media time to connect with readers and other writers and other odd jobs like chasing beta readers. 

I was careful to make sure that my goals were achievable, as I have a tendency to set myself ridiculous intentions and then get frustrated with myself when I don't achieve them as planned. This year I promised myself that I would be more careful, meaning that I would be less down on myself. So far, I've done alright. 

I finished off my read-through of the latest Hidden World Novel, making a detailed timeline so that I knew where things were at and therefore having a list of plot holes that needed to be filled. When I did my planning, I gave myself three days to get the read-through finished and it was plenty - I even got to do some writing on the third day. 

Come the weekend, when I would normally have those pesky chores to do (which I had been doing a little bit at a time all week so I didn't have the house to clean) I got to go out with my family, enjoy the day, have fun, without worrying that I had to get everything done before going back to work the following day. 

We headed out to Thor's Cave and had a muddy fantastic time! We were all very dirty and very tired by the end, but we made some fantastic memories and had a great day with lots of smiles!!

I enjoyed another lazy Sunday, reading and visiting family. Then we headed to the pub for another jam and spent the evening amongst friends whilst listening to some great musicians.

Then there were only three. I was due back at work on Thursday, so I had three days left of being a full-time writer. Monday didn't go so well as I had picked up the newest book in one of my all-time favourite series' and struggled to put it down... but I did fit in some social media time and started this blog post! Then I got a pep talk from another writer online so managed to write a new chapter before bed. I call that belated productivity haha!!



I hit 250 followers on my writer's profile on Instagram - a great feeling :) Thank you if you are one of those followers - I couldn't be who I am today without the support of my readers and those who help on social media!!

I also celebrated my three year anniversary of publishing my first book in paperback! The Love that Binds Us is the first of four Hidden World Novels so far, and is available, along with the others, on Waterstones and Amazon!



Proud moments!!




The last day of my temporary full-time writer gig saw me finish the first draft of the newest Hidden World Novel. I am fifteen days ahead of myself as I wanted it done by the end of January. It's safe to say that I feel good! I set the printer going and went to raid the cupboards in celebration, only for the printer to run out ink... a quick change for the new cartridge and back to eating while it finished... only for it to run out of paper a few minutes later, around thirty pages before the end... Damn! I now have to buy more paper, and ink, before I can finish printing and get it to the first reader!!


Overall, I have loved my time off and pretending to be a full-time writer! If I could afford it, I'd be all in! Being a writer is still my long-term goal... but it's back to the real world for me for now... Gotta earn those pennies somehow!