Back to School? Sheena Wilkinson

It’s September. For most of my life, as pupil, student and then teacher, this meant the start of a new school year. Even for the last six years, when I have been writing full-time (which of course means doing a hundred different freelance gigs) this time of year has felt more new-yearish than January, as so much of my work is school- or college-based.

This is mostly what my summer was like

This year, as I said in last month’s post, I had planned to take a proper summer break, but an urgent manuscript rewrite put the kibosh on that. Now the manuscript is delivered and the publisher loves it – hooray! Time for that break. After all, as a freelancer I can work – or not – any time I like. I was aware of having booked in a few things for the autumn – a one-day course here, a residency there, my usual gig with Masters students in Trinity College Dublin, but nothing much. Plenty of time to relax, have a life, and start to recharge the batteries for the new book. Because sometime, I hope, there will BE such a thing.

But I forgot. Accounts. Tax return. That report I promised to write. Blog posts. All the things I was putting off because of the Big Rewrite. And those few small gigs – well, they’re adding up to two or three days a week. So today I wrote NO MORE BOOKINGS across the top of every page in my diary. And it felt great.

All right, I didn't edit every day. 

Maybe I’ll have time to think of a new book. Maybe not. I shall report back in October, unless I have something more exciting to write about.