Firstly, a huge thank you to the blog readers who followed my mammoth weekend task of polishing the manuscript for book 2, The Single Girl's Calendar. My job was made much easier by knowing that others were with me during the final few hours.

Monday was spent on a high! Literally, I was away with the fairies, having accomplished my task. Monday evening, I had one job which was to create a new heroine for book 3. Yes, you read that correctly, I am going straight into the planning stage for a brand new project. I am so excited, that I've spent the evening with a baby naming book selecting the right forenames for my characters. And so, it begins again... yay!

The rest of my week has been spent walking around in a daydream creating heroes, conflicts, motivations, settings and snippets of romance amidst beautiful Christmas scenes. Ahhhh, big sigh! 

The gallery below shows how my planning has progressed... I'll begin draft one on 21st September.

Saturday, 9th Sept at 9am.
Welcome to my weekend! My two day window in which to complete my manuscript before it is sent to my editor, technically I have until Tuesday, 12th Sept as that's my true deadline but hey, it's me. I always plan ahead.

I'm not entirely sure how this weekend posting will work, how it will pan out and even if a live commentary post will even read correctly - I can only try. I'll call it an experiment if it hits the skids.

As an aspiring author I often wondered how published authors worked... and so, I thought I'd blog my working weekend. Simple.

The plan is to work all day Saturday, all day Sunday, drink copious mugs of tea and on Sunday evening press the 'send' button on a completed manuscript. Who knows what will happen.

Catch you laters...    

11am update: still at my desk. It's amazing how many typos and repeated words you find when rereading though. I have a tendency to miss the second part of a speech mark to close the dialogue - I think it's due to my brain charging ahead when writing and my fingers failing to keep up. I forget to close the speech before moving onto the next sentence or idea.

So far so good, I just need to keep plodding and save to my external hard drive as I work. As I read, I'm mulling over the name of the mother character as I want to change it but nothing feels quite right. Hopefully, that'll come to me otherwise I may have to stick with what I have. My problem is that every name that I think of reminds me of someone I have known or know and I'd hate them to assume that's why I chose it. I want something without connotations.

I currently have a 264 page document with a 101982 word count - my favourite two, those beginning T-- E--, are yet to be written. I'll type those when I'm truly finished and ready to press 'send'.

Thankfully, hubby has delivered a constant stream of hot tea in the last two hours and yep, I now require another cuppa! Oh and dog's being very little company as he sleeps in the chair - beautiful but not bothered.

Catch you later...

1pm: Whilst working, I still haven't thought of the right name for the mother... it'll probably pop into my head ten minutes after I press 'send' to my editor. I'm plodding through each page, correcting the manuscript as I go. I actually made myself cry about ten minutes ago by reading a certain chapter - what a soppy mare? Anyway, it's amazing how it reads like a proper book at this stage and not a page of words which it felt like about a month ago. Some paragraphs I remember writing others I have no idea where they came from, but they are here in my manuscript. So, unless the dog has been playing on my Mac, I must have written them. 

I need food so am heading for a lunch break at the local cafe in about ten minutes. Though, let's be honest, I need to get dressed! Yep, that's an author for you, still in their nightwear at 1pm on a Saturday afternoon, though I do have a clean face and brushed teeth. I told you I'd be honest about this weekend. 

I need to love and leave - I need a cooked breakfast so I'll take an hour off and then resume my job. x

2:26pm - back from lunch... back to it!

3:15pm - The mother has a new name, thankfully that came to me whilst in the cafe having my egg and bacon. So I've changed Patti to Sue. I'm a quarter way through the manuscript and the flow of tea is good! I can't ask for better than that given the task ahead. The dog has buggered off due to lack of interest so I'm working alone in my writing room. I have about two hours of work before I need to take a five hour break to attend a party before I return to the task. So I need to be smart about what I tackle and in which order as I don't want to leave a 'messed up' manuscript for a period of time - my brain will only dwell on it while we are out.

I'm annoying myself with the number of 'just' 'really' and 'Oh' littered throughout the document. I am so tempted to delete them all by the odd one is necessary for tone/exclamation - so I have to read it through rather than do a drastic computerised cut.

There are four male characters and I must confess, I've fallen in love with one. Husband knows, so there's no squealing to be done. I was honest. I told him! The thing is will my readers feel the same way?

Anyway, must dash... I've written 'dashed' too many times as well, but needs must...  

4:45pm - Hi there, my blog has had 261 visits today so there's quite a few that have checked out the blog coverage, unless it is the same person returning every few minutes! 
I've found a slight sag in the middle of my manuscript. So, have had to spend some time stripping lines out and adding in a little more pace. I might change my mind later or tomorrow but for now, I'm happy with it. In fact, I'm not quite sure it was a 'middle bit' it could have been a nearing the middle bit. Either way, it's sorted. 

I haven't inputted chapter numbers yet, just incase things need altering, but I'm trying to judge the lift and lower of the drama to check that my 'chapter' headings are in the right place. I'm also trying to add a little extra into the ending to create the page turn/just one more chapter kind of read. I love it when that happens during a reading book - I am desperate to turn the light out and go to sleep but can't because the book won't let me!  

The weather has turned pretty dismal here, I welcome the rain drops as it makes my task slightly easier knowing that I'd be inside anyway. Today would have been far worse if the sun had been shining.

Anyway, let's crack on... another twenty minutes or so and I'll need to save on my external drive and get ready to head out for the evening. 

5:33pm - signing off to attend a birthday party with husband. My manuscript is safely saved and at a suitable position to be paused so hopefully, I'll take a few hours off and come back later tonight. Thanks for following x

Sunday, 10th Sept - 7:40am

The party was too good to come home. We danced, laughed and chatted so I'm back to the manuscript this morning. Though, I did have a moment of clarity whilst dancing, where I thought of one tiny detail I could add, so that was handy. I need to disappear and ring church bells in about an hour so I need to crack on. I have tea. I have a head full of to-do-tasks so let's do it!

Catch you later... 

10:35am I'm back from bell ringing, which probably woke the folk in the village. Sorry. Though, deep down I'm not really, as I love the fact that I create that sound using big church bells and a rope. Anyway back to the manuscript... I have mugs of tea, I have time and a tale to tell.

Catch you later...

12:40pm - I have reread and corrected as I want the entire manuscript of 268 pages, yay! A moment of celebration! I've now made a tick list of all the niggly little tasks that I know need addressing, such as checking tiny phrases, little details that link between chapters and write a tiny little scene that will enhance another scene. I literally need to work through the list and tick off as I go. Though first, I do need more tea!

Seen you soon...  

15:20pm - Why oh why, do I always get light bulb moments as I draw near the end? I've had a really lovely link scene and now, it's bugging me to include but it would mean me moving another scene. I either drop the idea or I now have to rejig!!!!! My imagination is an asset but there are times it literally drives me crazy. I shall continue with my list of tasks and see what pans out.

I've just watched the news for the first time in three day... boy, oh boy, Irma what are you doing to the poor Americans? So frightening to see the damage caused and potential loss of life.

Catch you later...

5:25pm - I'm going for it. Now that I've had the idea for the additional scene, my brain won't let go. Typical. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Tick list is nearly complete so I'll begin a.s.a.p.

​Later folks...

8:40pm - Still on track with the manuscript but my head feels like an untidy shed! I have bits and bobs floating about which I am tempted to add in but then am arguing with myself that it isn't needed. Lord knows which side of me will win! I feel I have about three hours to go... so I'd bets return to it. 

​Laters...