So, one little stint of editing in a week. Oops. In my defence, I got pulled into leading the ābandā (ok, like a bunch of girls who want to sing and donāt have any musical backgroundā¦) at the hopeful little Lighthouse Church in town. So desperately trying to rally my sub-par and very rusty guitar skills, not to mention trekking out past Arisaig and back, took up most of my time last week. It was super fun to be doing music again, but also frustrating - people have all their little people issues to work around, which really gets in the way of making progress, not to mention the technical issues (mostly my bad!) So yeah, a not unwelcome distraction, but a significant one in any case. But it was ok - this week is really the first one that Iām back down to ālowā hours (not that 25 is that lowā¦) - so more progress is likelyā¦ except for how long it takes to do things and how little time that actually comes out to and how many distractionsā¦ so yeah, Iāll be lucky if I get more than one day in again this week, which is unacceptable, but all too likely, especially since I woke up this morning with a very suspicious burning in my throat. Maybe thatās not just allergies after allā¦ Oh dear. And for some reason, you donāt seem to get sick days in the service industry eitherā¦ The lack of reliable internet access is really starting to get to me too. So much research I could/should be doing! Critically, in this moment, tracking down a good editor just isnāt happening, and desperately needs to be, given the sad state of beta reading responses. Although, I signed on to read for another author last week out of curiosity, and I can see how it would be hard to get responses from people - itās certainly a chore, having to get down notes/thoughts to send over, particularly if there are problems with the story. The scary thing for me, when I read other peopleās pre-publication drafts, is how not publication-quality it isā¦ how bad, really, are my drafts?? Yikes. Blind spots, man. But all I can really to is push forwardā¦ so off I go.
Part 2
So clearly not the most productive day, but all in all, not terrible. The last-minute call-in for a shift also got last-minute cancelled, which was a huge distraction, but at least not a total wipe out of the day. Got down to the cafe in town, which was super cute and had great internet, despite the horde of tourists that arrive at lunch time and made it necessary to flee. Tried heather beer - actually quite good. Got a local library card - finally! - and did some research into editors. Not terribly productive research - finding good ones seems to be a challenge - but at least I got the ball rolling. Now to deal with the fact that I havenāt even cleared the first chapter of rewrites yetā¦ Ugh. Itās getting longer again, which Iām pretty sure is not whatās supposed to be happeningā¦
Tuesday
Start time: 9 am & 6:30 pm
Mallaig: The West Highland Hotel, staff quarters block 1 the room beside 4, bed
Soundtrack: washing machine on the other side of the wall
Drinking: Lemon Ginger tea