Thursday 23 May (ish)

Scheduling things

I usually write this newsletter on a Wednesday and schedule it for a Thursday morning at 8, my time. It’s silly but I feel a bit of a fraud every time I do that. I don’t know why! It’s made me think about scheduling in general. People who send out newsletters or have weekly posts on Social Media almost always schedule things so they aren’t tied to their desks at a specific time. I wonder if anyone else feels like me. I wonder what the record is for scheduling things in advance.

So this week I didn’t get my act together and I’m going to post this immediately after writing it in one sitting, and it is Friday, not Thursday, and it's much later than 8. Excuse me if it comes out reading like a stream of consciousness.

Allowing yourself to have a bad day (or week)

This week I’ve been wallowing in self-pity. I have a lingering sprained ankle-possible torn ligament and in an attempt to speed up the healing process and reduce pain I’ve been following the doctor’s orders and resting. But as we’re moving from spring towards summer here in Spain, I’m itching to get back out on my daily walks (twice daily sometimes) – not only to stretch my legs but to clear my head. I already knew the impact of exercise, fresh air and nature on mental health, of course but lately it’s been brought home to me because of my restrictions. Ironically we published a blog post on wellbeing this week. You can read it here if you haven’t already, and you're interested.

It isn’t all doom and gloom of course. I read this interesting article by Julia Cameron, author of ‘The Artist’s Way’. She talks about a practice she does which she calls ‘writing for guidance’. I thought I’d give it a go. Basically you start the day by writing extensively about anything on your mind. Then you read through what you’ve written in a thoughtful way, asking pointed questions which prompt some kind of guidance. The way she explain its makes it sound a bit spiritual but I think it’s probably more grounded in psychology and brain action to be honest. I think it’s a bit like the way the I Ching works for some people. I’ve been doing the writing thing for a few days now and I find it helpful. I’ve been ‘doing’ the I Ching for over forty years and find it amazingly useful. My copy of the book is probably my most battered possession. If you haven’t heard of it, you can read about it here.

Writing work

This week has been fairly slow. I’ve taken time off to go to the swimming pool and to rest. Luckily I had no looming deadlines. Thinking back over the past seven days though, I certainly haven’t been idle. I wrote a new version of a graded reader because the one I sent in didn’t really work. The editor came back with a really good suggestion so I was able to write it quickly and I think it’s heaps better now. I also wrote the first draft of another graded reader. It will need polishing but the storyline is good, I think. I’ve nearly completed two whole levels now so that feels great. I’ve also just received the brief for the next level. It’s always comforting to be offered more work from a publisher you’ve been working for. It means they are happy with you. I know a lot of other writers say the same.

Other work has involved emailing about a possible new project. I had to sign a ‘non-disclosure’ document so I can’t say what it’s all about but it looks interesting and work until the end of the year and into 2025, so that’s good.

CPD and general learning

This week I’ve signed up for a few things, and feel quite excited about them – to be spending time on my own professional development. I signed up to do one of Jennifer Murray ’s ‘Best words co-writing’ sessions. I’m going to be working on my LinkedIn profile – something that I haven’t updated in over a year and which is definitely overdue. I kept putting it off and then I saw one of Jenny’s LI posts and thought, “That’s perfect!” The idea is that we look at this a bit in the live session and actually do the rewriting during the 90 minutes too. What a great idea.

When is the last time you updated your LI profile?

I’ve signed up for a one to one session with Nicola Prentis ?? . This is something else I’d been putting off. I want her to help me come up with a ten-year financial plan to help me boost my pension. She’s a whizz at this kind of thing and has even sent me some really useful and practical links to help me before we meet up. I’m not alone in leaving money matters until the last minute because I find it all so boring, but recently I’ve started being more on top of things and it feels great to (a) know more or less what my situation is going to be when I stop working and (b) know that I’ll soon have a plan in place for making that situation better! Perhaps I’m living proof that you are never too old to do this. I’m not planning to work for ever but I can see myself working for another 10 years (until I am 72).

With ‘Writing ELT Materials’ John and I have arranged an important meeting with someone who is going to advise us about some plans we have for 2025, and then, hopefully help us put them into place. I’m reluctant to say too much as I don’t want to jinx things but the plan is to be able to help a lot more people develop their materials writing skills. We’ll no doubt shout about it when it’s all happening, so make sure you follow us on LI if you’re interested, or subscribe to this newsletter.

The other thing I signed up for is a Canva event run by Canva. It’s called ‘Canva Create 2024’ and it’s happening as I write so I’ll be popping in and out and watching recordings. I’m hoping to get an insight into what’s new and maybe a few ideas of how I can use Canva myself, for work and pleasure. Thanks to Clare H. (Canva Queen) for letting me know about this opportunity.

Teacher training videos

I’m very excited to be working on some teacher training videos this week too. I was just talking to my co-author/husband about the merits of videos over live webinars. He reminded me of one awful experience I had giving a webinar on Zoom a few years ago. I’d obviously banished it from my mind in an attempt to forget it. I’m good at that sort of thing. Some of you who know me might remember. You might even have been there. The webinar was about sustainability in ELT and one anonymous participant hijacked my slides by pretending to be somebody else. They started drawing rude pictures! I kept my cool. Then as they were putting the finishing touches to a large willy (I just deleted the more mature word and replaced it with this on purpose) across the whole of my slide, I politely asked them to stop drawing a self portrait as it didn’t impress any of us.

Do you have a nightmare webinar experience? I bet you can’t beat mine!

So these videos should be stress-free. And they’ll also be an opportunity to try out some new equipment I’ve borrowed from my son (spotlights, a screen) and my new microphone. If they are successful, I might do more.

A final thought on contracts

After a couple of discussions with colleagues this week, I decided to do a poll in a group of freelancer writers and editors. I’ve asked the question: Have you ever started work without a contract? I’ve given the options ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. So fat responses are showing 100% ‘Yes’, which is very worrying but it’s early days so I’ll report back on this, with some background and possible implications.

Would YOU start work without a signed contract or agreement in place?

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Thank you for reading, as always. I’ll look forward to your questions, comments, answers and messages. It’s always really lovely to hear from people, so don’t be shy.

Kath