Month: May 2014

Progress: May 10–11, Weekend

Lynn

Not much writing done over the weekend, but like I said a while back, weekends just don’t seem to be good writing days most weeks. This was one of those weeks.

Saturday I made it to 337 pretty early, but then never got back to it.

Sunday I didn’t write a word of fiction although I did write a nice, long note to myself about the coming weekdays and what I need to get done. :D It was boring number crunching so I’m not going to bother repeating any of it here.

My conclusion: I need to pick up some serious speed. :D To get to one million words of fiction in 2014, I’m going to have to start averaging almost 3,900 a day. Since I’m not writing much on the weekends at the moment, that means I’ve got to start having some killer good weekdays. Possible, just not likely if I don’t do something different than I’ve been doing.

Progress: May 9, Friday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Made it to 1,175 after a 4 hour midday interruption. Thought I was going to come home and write but I didn’t feel well, and in fact, I never did feel better, so I just ended up reading a book.

9:28 am: 452
10:58 am: 939
3:08 pm: 1,101
3:49 pm: 1,175

 

Read another book—2 of 60

Lynn

NOTE: I decided to make an effort to read more books this year. And since I have so many unread books, I set a goal to read at least 60 of the books in my backlog by the end of the year. I’m even keeping a log. :)

I finished reading book #2 of the reading challenge last night. I didn’t intend to read that much yesterday, but I got sick and didn’t feel like doing anything else.

Crying for the Moon - Sarah Madison

Crying for the Moon isn’t the same book I started reading after I finished reading book #1. This one was just something that caught my eye as I was scrolling through the books on my phone while I was resting on the couch.

It was a nice diversion while I recovered from whatever was wrong with me yesterday evening. :)

After I finished this one, I went back to the book I’d started after finishing book #1 and started reading it again. :D

It’s a fantastic book and I don’t know why I jumped to another book, but that’s not uncommon with me, so just go with it and realize that this kind of thing doesn’t say the first thing about the quality of any of the books I’m reading. As I’ve said before, I’ve always jumped from book to book, often reading on many books at the same time. It’s just what I do.

Also, I don’t know why I didn’t recognize that as a sign that maybe writing on multiple books at once might be a good fit for me.

Ah, well. Live and learn! :D

WordPress Update 3.9.1 Bug?

Lynn

Well, the update to WordPress 3.9.1 went fine, but yesterday, shortly thereafter, loading pages in the admin became problematic. About every fourth or fifth click/page load, I end up with nice blank white page. :D

Ah, well, I’m sure it’ll be fixed soon but it’s still a bit annoying. Considering how much this software cost me … oh, wait. I think I’ll shut up now. :D

I love WordPress (most of the time*).

Also, I have no real way of knowing if WordPress is truly the issue so I’m not going to bother with any kind of bug hunting. I have lots of words to write today.***

Just in case, I reinstalled the update because it was a simple click. I love how WordPress has become ever easier to keep updated.

*See link for details.** :D

**I know, I know! But I get a kick out of footnotes and I put them everywhere. I just hate interrupting the flow of my sentences more often than I need to and so … footnote!

***It’s Friday. That kind of definitely makes me sad. Today’s my last day this week for focused writing.

 

WIFI is hard to resist ;)

Lynn

WIFI is hard to resist! Why else would I be online right now when I intended to try to write for another half hour?

Getting the WIFI turned off is the easy part—keeping it turned off is where I’m running into problems.

And once it’s on, there’s always just … one … more … little … thing … to … check. Just one more.

Read a book—1 of 60

Lynn

Finished reading the first book from my collection since I decided to make an effort to read more books this year. And since I have so many unread books, I set a goal to read at least 60 of the books in my backlog by the end of the year.

Biceps of Death - David Stukas

I finished reading Biceps of Death yesterday when I was supposed to be writing. Oops.

Biceps of Death is a cozy-styled mystery and it was cute. I thought some of the dialogue was a little stilted, but the story pulled me in and kept me reading. It’s the 3rd (or 4th—I’m not really sure) book of a series and I haven’t read the other books so I don’t know how it compares, but I liked it.

I have an odd sense of humor sometimes and this book hit the right notes for me. There were some great funny moments in the book that made me actually laugh out loud. :D

I’ve already started reading another book. I’m not mentioning titles until I’ve actually read each book because book #2 could end up book #8 or some such thing, and while I want to read more, I have no intention of pressuring myself to read anything I don’t want to read. Also, this particular book, I started last year—or the year before, I can’t remember.

The thing is, this next book is a great book so far, so I have no idea why I bailed on it. Honestly, I think I just got distracted. That happens a lot. I have books sitting all around my house with bookmarks in them, just waiting for me to pick them back up again. Lucky for me, I have a great memory of story and don’t usually have a problem starting right where I left off. Yay for me! :D

Progress: May 6, Tuesday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Writing day cut short, but I made it to 887.

Probably should’ve written more, but suffice to say I didn’t get back to writing tonight. I could now, I guess, but I’m exhausted. Sleepy-time I think. ;)

Writing Excuses Podcast

Lynn

The Writing Excuses podcast is one of my absolute favorite podcasts. I enjoy it most I think because it’s about 15 minutes long, and the hosts do a great job keeping it short and snappy.

I have time to listen regularly and I recommend you give it a listen if you haven’t. :D

It’s hosted by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Howard Tayler, all great writers who have a lot of experience to share.

http://www.writingexcuses.com/

Progress: May 5, Monday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Currently at 2,221.

I’d hoped to be further along today, but I guess it’s just been one of those days. :D

Maybe I’ll get one more chance to up my count.

Made it to 2,346.

Procrastinating, of a sort

Lynn

I’ve been too busy converting and transferring my ebook collection to and from Calibre to Aldiko on both my Android phone and my Kindle so I can have the majority of my books, regardless of format or retailer, available on whichever device I prefer, to write much this morning … and now afternoon, yikes!

It’s obviously been time consuming. Hopefully worth it though. I’d like to get back to reading a book every couple of days. I need to do more reading both because I love it and because it’s the best way to keep getting better as a writer (combined with practice!) and I have so many books but it seems never what I want when I want because my collection is so scattered.

I have both a Nook and Kindle reader. Then both apps on my phone, along with Aldiko on my phone and my Kindle and Calibre on my laptop.

The one thing I almost always refuse to do though is read on my computer. I hate it. If the book doesn’t make it to one of my devices, it doesn’t get read.

I’m sure there are tons of people with more books than me, but I have 4 bookshelves full downstairs, 2 bankers boxes stuffed to the brim, and 2 bookshelves full upstairs. All my shelves are stuffed and many are double-stacked (one set of books in back and one set in front) and turned whichever way makes it easiest to fit more books.

And I have 796 ebooks in Calibre, not counting those I just deleted because there ain’t no way I’m reading them again, ever.

I’m making it a priority to start working my way through this backlog as quickly as possible, print or ebook, whichever catches my fancy. :D

Goal: read at least 60 of these books by the end of the year. I think I’ll start a reading log page here somewhere to keep up.

UPDATE: Yep. I started a log.

Progress: May 2, Friday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Crashed at 1,882.

Really wanted to get to 2k, but I just didn’t make it.

I’ve really got to get some publishing tasks done this weekend. I have books to get into print that should’ve been in print months ago, and I have a short story that’s been done since the 15th, which I said would be ready in a couple of weeks back on the 4th-ish of April. Those weeks are long gone and it’s time to get that formatting done and get that story published!

I should set aside a day and just format stuff all day! It might be sorta fun to just dig in like that. ;)

First Sales on Google Play

Lynn

I finally had my first sales on Google Play! Considering my books are priced at >$8 apiece because of Google’s habit of discounting, I’m tickled someone thought the series worthy. Book 1 of one of my series was purchased on the 29th of April, then books 2 and 3 were purchased on the 30th.

Took long enough! But finally I feel like my effort putting my books up there wasn’t wasted. :D

As for setting up an account on Google Play, it was a pain, but the actual process of adding books and uploading? Really simple. Probably on par with Kobo Writing Life or Nook Press, except there’s no preview of any kind. You just upload your cover image and your EPUB (and/or a PDF if you want). I have a PDF for all but my last upload.

I probably won’t bother with PDFs in the future—ah, never mind. I do a PDF for OMNI Lit/ARe, so I will probably keep doing them for the novels that I also have there. I don’t put everything over there, because I just can’t be bothered with the short stuff—you know, thinking about it now, I probably should. I might sell a copy or two. But I’ve been saying that for a while and I haven’t done it yet.

Ah well. Someday, maybe. ;)