August 5th, 2022 – 1,409

~ Sam Shuttleworth

Had a nice day out today, and I’m not just saying that because one of the people I saw might be reading this. Of course that’s a lie, any readers of this blog are of course imaginary and any suggestion otherwise would be ludicrous. Having an annual pass on the trains means having the ability to travel to see friends on a whim in a way I just, haven’t had before. In this instance, it meant finally getting to visit the Depot in Lewes, and suffice to say I’ll definitely be doing that again. Even though I am still very much in ‘it hasn’t sunk in yet’ territory, days like this make me realise that there is this whole chapter of my life ahead that I hadn’t considered until now, because I spent so long telling myself ‘SFE will reject you’ that I forgot to spend any time daydreaming about what a yes would mean.

Ah if only things could be so dreamy in TEL. Ok that’s not fair, it’s going better than the last three books, and it’s not like I’m stuck on it or anything, but the last few chapters have felt like ‘placeholders’ – written to sit there until I come up with a better idea of how to do that bit. Now true, the whole of HOF and TWR can be categorised like that, but it doesn’t make me feel great leaving whole sections I feel I could do better. I wouldn’t be surprised to be honest if once I finish TEL, I break my own rule and start editing it right away, though in my defence that’s more because I’m enjoying it than any neurotic over-focus. Ok it’s a bit neurotic but it’s my book and I’ll hyper-fixate if I want to.

So, had a bit of drama yesterday, in that I briefly lost my rail pass. You know, that thing I just had to drop two grand on that is super awkward to replace. It’s made me finally admit I need to think about a new bag, and actually sort a wallet. So I’m on a temporary one of the former and researching both, and wow, bags are, um, expensive. I knew this, I know you can go cheap but I am so sick of one-hole bags I have to dig everything out of, but not gonna lie I am still even now inclined to make my temporary one not-so-temporary. At least I managed to fit the Switch and the DS in there. Getting to them on the other hand…

Published by Sam Shuttleworth

I’m Sam, and I live to write. I spent most of the first 8 years of my adulthood trying to balance writing with a large amount of crap in my personal life, until towards the end of 2018 I threw everything out and started afresh with just my writing. I built the new me around one goal: I have to write at least 1,000 words a day. I called this goal 1K, and it changed my life. So long as I write a thousand words a day, the day is a success, and atop that I've managed over time to build the life I wanted all those years. My greatest flaws as a writer is I still use too many adjectives, adverbs, connectives as openers, accidental passive voice and I don't force my work down people's throats enough on pain of extreme and unusual torture. My greatest strength is I know my greatest flaws and I'm working on them.