My May 2021 review is as follows:

  • Next edits for book chapters 1 to 8 and proposal for my second book. Feels so good to have now drafted nine of the twelve planned chapters of my first book, and I’ve started work on the introduction section. This month I had a really valuable session with two experienced authors about the proposal for my second book which will be the main creative writing product from my writing residency. I do have a bit of thinking to do to make sure the two books are sufficiently distinct, but I think I can see how to do that…
  • At least 1000 words of new nature writing, over and above my book chapters. I sent off a 1300 word commissioned article this month as writing a number of suburban wild diaries. I also delivered my nature podcasts to the Urban Tree Festival this month – it was fun recording them in the woods, even if the parakeets were determined to upstage me!
  • At least 2 pitches for feature articles to magazines. Yes, sent off three. One was a “no thanks”, the second was “no space at the moment but will definitely keep you on file for the future”, but excitingly the third one, to a prestigious magazine I haven’t written for before, was commissioned. It was great to see my second article of the 30-minute birder series published in the June issue of Bird Watching Magazine.
  • 1000 Twitter followers (up from 885) Some way to go as my current number of followers is 911.
  • 70 followers for this blog (up from 64) So happy to have 73 of you on board 🙂
  • Botany learning plan to support creative writing: I’ve been busy consolidating what I’ve learnt so far, learning about plants of acid grasslands and focusing on grasses, where I finally feel I’m making progress. Only 7 weeks to go until my botany exam on the July 15th.
  • Writing residency – launch an online nature-writing support forum and work with nature-writer Chantelle Lindsay to prepare for the June writing workshop. I still haven’t quite decided how I want the nature-writing forum to work but I had a lovely walk, talk and birdwatch with Chantelle in Crystal Palace Park – the day before she was featured on BBC Springwatch, to plan our session.
  • Regulars – regular blog posts and a nature-writing newsletter. Absolutely, I really enjoy doing these.

My June 2021 plan is as follows:

  • Edit chapter 9 and draft introduction for book one. Begin writing book 2.
  • At least 1000 words of new nature writing, over and above my book chapters.
  • At least 2 pitches for feature articles to magazines.
  • 1000 Twitter followers (up from 911)
  • 80 followers for this blog (up from 73)
  • Botany learning plan to support creative writing: June is going to be all about identifying holes in my knowledge and practising field surveys at speed ready for my exam on July 15th.
  • Writing residency – deliver 19th June online nature-writing workshop and launch an online nature-writing support forum.
  • Regulars – blog posts and a nature-writing newsletter