Adara VS March 23: Novel 1 with Editor, Charity & Sensitivity
In this video: I review my progress towards publication in March 23, talk about the new hats I’m wearing, and discuss sensitivity reading.
Visual Description:
Shows Adara sat on a sofa with a green note book and gold stars where her writing progress is listed. It then shows Adara in her writing area reading and writing in front of a window with a snowy scene outside. The ending image shows a dark starry sky above a forest canopy with the words ‘writing my story one word at a time’ in the stars.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Canopy! In today's video: Adara vs. March 2023.
I am between projects at the moment, so I am here as usual with a notebook, and ready to give myself some stars. I have got a laptop just over here to the side, which I have recorded most of my timings down on. Admittedly, it's quite sparse this month between words and then writing, flicking backwards and forwards between projects.
There was a lot of stuff going on. My kind of compromised kitchen, accessible kitchen - not fully accessible - but ways to make it so it's slightly easier for me to use at least. That work finished up this month, so that was quite intensive; once again not being able to live downstairs, but after, you know, last month and the changes I made to my writing area, I was able to get a lot more done upstairs.
Also, on radar, is I had some absolutely fascinating conversations with my sensitivity reader for my first novel. Absolutely fascinating, and I would like to thank them very much for their time and their insight. It's really helped, and I look forward to having their input and asking even more questions as things progress in the second novel.
So, the first novel. I have sent it off now to my editor, who should be editing it in April. So I am very, very excited, also kind of nervous. So that's a rounding off of one section, and hopefully going to start with the new one.
Let's just take these off.
It's been difficult, what with the head-hopping of dual POV on top of then hopping between projects. There's been a lot of saying, "What hat am I wearing right now?" Hopefully, now that the kitchen has been done, a lot of that can settle down, but I have picked up some more hats. So, I am still writing, and that is going to be my main goal in April, is to write novel two. Get my mind off of novel one. That is with the editor. Knuckle down on writing novel two, because it is CampNaNoWriMo. I am really trying to reign myself back in to get to grips with writing my first draft of my second novel. That was my New Year's resolution, it's what I want to do. I have been dragging my feet with it. But I need to just sit down and write the thing. I understand I have chronic fatigue, I have things going on, I am going to give myself grace with that, but I would like to least attempt 500 words a day. Will I manage? Hopefully, we'll see.
But other distractions this month, distractions maybe, but happy things, very, very happy things. It's good to have other things going on, especially in the creative realm. So, I...
For a bit of a hint...
I've been doing an awful lot of research into the charity sector, and for a long time, I have been associated with a charity called Skimstone Arts, and they are an amazing charity who help isolated and vulnerable people to create artworks around, about the world around them, and the societies that they live in. Social action, the environment, it tends to come down to those themes quite often, and it's been a recurring thing. I first joined them when I was 19, as a young person myself. I am very happy in April to be becoming a trustee on their board, and I'd say that's one of the things that's really come out of this pandemic, is for people who are pretty housebound like me, the world has opened up in terms of accessibility; of people now recognizing what is capable of happening online.
But now let's get back to this roundup. Like I say, it won't be earth-shattering. My attention has been divided this month across a whole range of sectors, but things should be evening out now, now that the kitchen is done. That is one giant giant thing we might have to revisit it, in a couple of months' time for some paint, but that's about it. So there will be some blanks, but I'm giving myself grace for that. I really am, because there has been an awful lot of stuff. I only have limited amounts of energy, but I think what I did was impressive. I progressed my novel writing too, novel is off with the editor. I'm picking up a new direction in terms of being a member on a board. The kitchen is done, so what has been done are pretty major developments, and I'm happy with those. Also, some of this time will have been sensitivity reading time as well.
Time to count how much I've actually written and done this month in terms of writing. So, that is a total of 452 minutes worked, and that's just over seven and a half hours. That is not bad, if I do say so myself. That is not bad at all, especially with everything else going on.
And I got 2395 words written outside of that.
And now the star count.
17 stars.
And in terms of my rewards tariff, for every 10 gold stars that I earn, I can trade them in for the right with myself to buy myself a new book. So, that is one new book to me for this month. So a very stuttery start, a very stuttery start, but it does get better as it goes on.
I have also been spending an awful lot of time, picking up, playing Yu-Gi-Oh again, on the Nintendo Switch. Yu-Gi-oh being kind of a bit of a strategic card game. Quite fun. And it used to be an anime which was on the TV. It was one of the first animes I had ever seen growing up, and there's a very cute little dual monster in Yu-Gi-Oh, which is called Kuriboh. And I just think that would make an absolutely brilliant name for a kitten somewhere. Whether we will get a kitten or whether we will adopt a cat in their older years, someone looking out to spend their golden days somewhere, I don't know yet. We'll see how it goes.
And that's it for now. I have to go as I have some things to do to round off the end of this month. Some bits of life admin and some appointments to get to. And then on Monday... Is it Monday? No! No. Saturday, Yes. Saturday the 1st of April, I have novel two to be writing, as I continue to write my story, one day at a time.
Credits:
Thumbnail and ending image created free using canva.com
Music Credit 1: ending theme – Adara Spence
Music Credit 2: Beloved - Sakura Girl https://soundcloud.com/sakuragirl_off...
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/3ji1zZc
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/omTgn4GQcKA
Music Credit 3: Soon We'll Fly by Ghostrifter Official https://bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/35reep7
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/q2vomZqSJuE
