My August plan was deliberately modest because I’d be on holiday for a third of it, I had two commissions to deliver and an MA assignment. My August review against plan is as follows: 

  • 1000 words of new nature writing over and above assignments and commissions: Easily achieved this with four Sunday Nature Worship diary entries and a piece about the challenge of identifying dandelion-like flowers for a guest blog pitch.
  • Two pitches to realistic outlets: I managed only one pitch but also had a really interesting and useful chat with a small publisher who contacted me. A big milestone was that I was also paid for a commissioned article published in July.
  • 40 followers each for this blog and my nature writing blog: I haven’t really progressed this, with numbers 32/40 and 13/40 so marginally better than last month, and still more to research and do here.
  • 200 followers each for Twitter and Instagram: The approach I’m taking on Twitter seems to be working to get meaningful new followers ie. finding people who share my interest in botany, nature or the environment and following them (but unfollowing them after a week if they don’t follow me back – is that ethical? I do always follow individuals if they follow me). I also had a bit of a buzz when I posted my plan to take a botany exam on 3rd Sept and that led to quite a lot of new followers – I now have 312 Twitter followers As time goes by I’m coming to the conclusion that Instagram doesn’t have much to offer in comparison with Twitter – although I can post longer pieces of writing on Instagram I’m skeptical that anyone reads them. So I’m going to stop setting Instagram follower targets for the mo.

The big focus for September is revising my book proposal, writing a chapter and putting in place the plans for my botanical learning which will underpin the book. So September plan is as follows:

  • Finalise non-fiction book proposal and write a chapter as well as putting in place my botany study plan.
  • 1000 words of new nature writing
  • 4 pitches (or competition entries) two achievable, two aspirational
  • 500 Twitter followers (up from 312)
  • 40 followers for this blog (up from 32)