Back To School

Well the end of the summer holidays is nigh and I for one will breathe a sigh of relief, despite the fact that cold winter days and dark nights are imminent. 

But I’m coming to the end of two weeks off work, and I’m certainly not looking forward to going back.  Event through is only part-time, recently my job has become unbearable and I’m desperately looking for something else so that I can finally move on.  I’ve got a few days left before I go back though, so I’m trying not to think of it and enjoy the time left with my boys. 

We haven’t been away this holiday but during my time off I’ve been trying to organise my life and my house, before the start of the new academic year.

As well as decluttering my house, I’m trying to declutter my hard drive – a necessary evil – and I’ve been revamping and editing stories which have been lying dormant.  Some of them are first drafts and some which need new life breathing into them.  Since my acceptance, I have sent out four more stories, and in September I’m determined to get my writing head back on. 

I’ve always seen September as a fresh start, sometimes more so than New Year, and so now is the time to reassess my goals for the rest of the year and start to make sure that I achieve them.

A New Year!

One more day and then I can breathe a sigh of relief because the kids are going back to school on Wednesday – yeh!

Part of me is sad that the summer has passed and the weather is already turning distinctly autumnal.  The nights are drawing in and we will soon be shivering by our fires and getting up in the dark – yeuck!

But I find the summers really difficult to cope with, with full on work and juggling childcare and seemingly little time for writing. 

Admittedly it is getting easier now that the boys are older but they are definitely ready to get back to routine – I can tell because the decibel levels of the squabbling have definitely increased recently.

I’ve always thought of September as the new year – probably because I’ve spent years working in an academic environment.  But even when I was younger I looked forward to the new challenges of learning and that doesn’t seem to change even now.

I’ve been mulling round the idea of writing some articles for a while now but I don’t seem to have the confidence to move forward with this and so I have decided to sign up for Writing Magazine's  online Article Writing and Journalism course. 

I hope that this will give me a kick up the whatsit and get me writing and submitting again.  I’m also determined to be a better blogger from this month onwards as well.

Watch this space.

New Beginnings

I've always been rather fond of the month of September - like January although with better weather.  Although I wasn't very fond of school itself, I did enjoy the academic process and being a bit of a paper addict, it was good to have fresh notebooks and a pencil case full of new pens.

 

Several years on, academia has passed me by but I still look on September as a month to assess where I am in life and a chance to set myself new targets.  (And it does help that the kids have gone back to school - yeh - and I can get back to a weekly routine - even if I'm not looking forward to the football season.)

 

This year it's even more of a challenge as I am being made redundant at the end of this month.  It's something that has been in the offing for a long time, so I'm not exactly devastated by it.  It is rather sad, as I started the job when my youngest was a baby and he will be nine in January, so it has been a big part of my life. 

 

But I'm looking on it as an opportunity to change my life.  In this financial climate I never would have left the job of my own accord, but I was getting a bit stuck in a rut and working five days a week left little time to do anything else. 

 

So, as I have no hope, as yet, of earning a decent living from my writing, I've decided to play to my strenghts and set up my own freelance administration business.  I've been an administrator / PA for more years than I care to remember now, and people have told me that I'm rather good at it, so with the advent of technology, and with smaller companies needing someone to organise them, but not having the resources to employ them, I thought I would do it solo.  I have a couple of potential clients so far, so fingers crossed I will make a success of it. I just need to find a new working routine, combine it with writing, and do it all during the hours of 9-3. 

 

No time wasting then!

New Term, Fresh Start

September and the boys are back in school!

I’m sure they don’t view this with quite the optimism that I do (I know for a fact my eldest doesn’t) but I’ve always liked September.

For the last few years it’s been a bit of a relief to be honest. The summer holidays are my busiest time at work, which also coincides with my husband’s busiest time. Whereas he assumes the mantle of work as usual, I’m the one who has to organise childcare and work as well. It’s a bit of trauma but I always manage it somehow. It does annoy me slightly that whilst everyone is going on holiday or chilling out in their jim jams until lunchtime, I’m running round like a headless chicken. But hey ho, I’ll get my own back by going somewhere hot in February while everyone else is shivering in their boots.

But now it’s back to routine which, whilst including numerous after school activities and taxi service, at least allows me to plan my day better. And my routine.

September has always been more of a fresh start for me somehow than January. Perhaps it’s because it always used to signify the start of fresh learning and new opportunities. Working in the education sector now, that is doubly so. A typical writer I’m thrilled at the prospect of new notebooks, files and pencil cases. Yes, I know I’m sad but I bet a lot of you reading this have the same fetishes.

And so for a new masterplan which is:

For the rest of the year I intend concentrating on short stories, fillers, reader’s letters and possibly some articles. After spending the first half of the year on my novel I feel the need complete something which doesn’t take so much time. And of course the more stuff I get out there the closer the odds will be on getting my name in print. Not just that but at the moment I need some short term satisfaction with my writing.

I have received my critique back from the RNA. At first I was a bit dismayed by how swiftly it was returned to me. As I only submitted it at the beginning of August I had prepared myself for a long wait.

Sadly, it didn’t get a second reading but once I’d picked my spirits up off the floor I found that the critique was really useful. It’s highlighted the need for a lot more work on my script and whilst that’s disappointing, unfortunately I have to agree with the majority of the feedback.

But it's better to know than not. In saying that, I think I’ll put it in a draw for a while, gain some perspective and then get back to it with renewed vigour in a little while. So it's off to my short stories ideas file, and perhaps a new notebook to fill?

 

Happy autumn everyone.