How has the COVID-19 been for you? Very busy for me as it turns out - Thankfully

You may or not be aware that since the beginning of the lockdown here in the UK, I have been writing a daily (ish) journal.

I have been journaling about what I have been doing, my bout of COVID-19, and my successes with writing. Also included alongside are my rants about the government. I like to keep my political feelings private. Hence, they are in the journal and not  scrawled across social media platforms.

Star Letter - Writing Magazine

I was successful in winning the Star Letter in last months Writing Magazine. I wrote how I considered that the lockdown period had not been very conducive to me as a writer. I had felt that my motivation for writing wasn't there.

I wouldn't say that I had 'writers' block' as I was fulfilling a daily post in my journal, which, was to amount to a substantial word count as it turns out.

Today my journal started with the words 'It's very nice to wake up and find that a piece you've written has been published'. I have another letter in The Rugby Paper this week. What is also really lovely to see, from a writer's perspective, it is published as written, no edits. My signature block on my emails now informs the recipient that I am a Freelance Writer and lists my blog and writing business Facebook page addresses. I am now confident to share that information with editors.

I then got to thinking about my writing output over the last few months.

I have a notebook and a half of daily journals, two letters in The Rugby Paper, Star Letter in Writing Magazine, and two pieces in the Ottery Gazette. I've two articles published in The Blue Band at either end of the three months. In the background, I have submitted one assignment and have another almost ready to go for my creative writing course. I have completed the first edit of my story. I worked that out to be about 30 thousand words! That works out to be roughly 360 words a day, rounded up. To put that into context, 350 words per day over six months is nearly 59,000 words, an excellent novella length and into the range for a novel too. Maybe the COVID-19 lockdown was more conducive to writing than I at first thought.

Three hundred fifty words are the length of this piece so far. I have also written about the same in my

The Rugby Paper - 28th June 2020

journal, with some more to come. I think that shows how easily I can keep the word count up. After all, you are not a writer unless you are writing.

My focus in the coming weeks is to finish off my next assignment for my course and then to spend a couple of weeks editing my story and planning further chapters and characters to take the story forward to novella length.

As I sit here penning this latest blog, I look back on the COVID-19 lockdown, so far, with a bit of a smile. We have packed up one home and moved to another. We have changed most of our furniture, and that has meant hours of building it too. I have moved my job back to Whipton Hospital and have my permanent role confirmed after six months of probation. And I have written 30 thousand words. Life is pretty good at the moment. The news today is that we have the opportunity to have a visit with my Father at his care home later next month. I am writing this also sitting here watching The Cure from last year's Glastonbury. Fantastic! There is a story to be written about my younger years that were taken away from me. I think that is for another book or short story. I'd like to make some money out of that tale; I think I deserve that.