Month: August 2014

Amazon’s Six-month Cliff

Lynn

It exists. Very much so. However, it does appear it’s possible to climb out of that abyss. For no apparent reason, sales in the month since the nose dive off the cliff are on an easily identified upward trend (sales dashboard graph) so apparently all is not lost when one dives off that cliff. It’s been interesting to watch. On the other hand, it’s time to publish another book. Good thing I’ve been working on a couple. :D

This is actually the most cliff-like drop in sales I’ve ever noticed. Probably because I don’t do typical promotions so all my sales tend to be spread out instead of in clumps that might trigger an algo adjustment. It’s possible I don’t know what I’m talking about here, fyi. This is also the longest I’ve gone without publishing a new novel, so I haven’t had a chance to see a six-month cliff before.

I have read about others who experience 30 day and 90 day cliffs but I haven’t noticed those before. My reports show fairly steady increases, and then declines, between releases. Spikes are unusual.

This started me digging into my numbers a little more, and lo and behold I discovered an interesting thing. My not-as-popular novel series has barely earned more than my short story series in the last 90 days. Makes me think I should write more short stories instead of novels, unless they’re novels in my popular series, because … ouch. Those novels are 6x as long (and probably take more than 6x as long to write!) and that hurts my ego just thinking about it.

Day 47–51 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Day 47: 3,055
Day 48: 2,610
Day 49: 2,692
Day 50: 95
Day 51: 766

I’m at 51 consecutive days of writing at least 50 words of fiction. As you can see, my numbers have finally definitely started trending upward, so I’m calling this experiment a complete success. 51 days. Boggles my mind. :) I can’t wait to see how long I can keep this going.

That said, I was more right about yesterday than I expected. I got almost nothing written. I barely crossed my minimum, coming in at 95 words for the day after I sat down at 11 PM and did my best to get something done. I had told myself I would start writing once I got home but that didn’t come to pass. Instead, I watched the entire season 2 of Hemlock Grove. I have no idea why. :o

Today’s been tough going, especially considering what I set as my goal. I’ve already spent 3 hours writing with nothing to show for it. I haven’t really got going yet so I hope I can pull out a miracle and end the night strong. I’ll update today’s number when I’m done. (It’s final now.)

I made a change to my workspace that I hope is going to help with tonight’s numbers, and it’s time to get to it.

New Chair Woes

Lynn

I love my new chair. You know, this one:

New Chair

But…

The new chair’s interfering with my ability to focus while I write, and I’m sure of it. A new chair means comfort. Apparently comfort means less writing.

This breaks my heart. I thought I was going to increase my productivity if I made my stints at my workspace more comfortable, but it’s had the opposite effect.

The problem could be anything from an incorrect height adjustment (I’ve tried many, many adjustments over the last week seeking the perfect height—if there is one, it eludes me), to a wholly psychological issue. Don’t know and don’t care at this point. I just need to feel right when I’m sitting at my desk so I can write. And I haven’t felt right since I moved that chair in here.

So, back to the spindle-back dining room chair, like the one you see here:

Desk

Ah well. I can still use the new chair when I’m not working, so all’s not lost.

Remember This: Don’t Rewrite!

Lynn

So I’m staring at a passage in one of my books that I need to get right so I can figure out where the hell to go next with this thing and I’ve just realized that I’ve spent about 3 hours on it.

It’s a passage of only about 1,600 words and I’ve cycled through it, rewriting, more times than I want to think about.

I keep reworking it, mainly I think to give myself a jumping off spot for what happens next, but I still don’t know what that might be.

I’m now trying to decide if anything I’ve done has made any difference whatsoever to the passage, but I can’t tell. There’s a part of me that’s very afraid I’ve screwed this up. But there’s a part of me that knew last night that I needed to soften one of my characters and the only other choice was to scrap what I had and just rewrite the scene from scratch.

Which is exactly what I should have done, and I don’t know why I keep forgetting that. Rewriting is time consuming and rarely does more than make me crazy. The story needs to be written fresh, not pieced together from scraps already on the page. And yet that’s exactly what I’ve just done. And I can tell you now, those 3 hours of writing would have gotten me at least the 1,600 words I have now, so chopping the 1,600 wouldn’t have been a big deal in the end. In fact, I would probably have more done now than I have if I’d just chopped the passage and started fresh.

I need to remember this. I NEED TO REMEMBER THIS.

Maybe that’ll help. ;)

Today’s Plan

Lynn

Planning seems to be a key to better word counts for me. You’d think this was just a revisit of the schedule I said I was never going to revisit or the daily writing time quota that I decided didn’t work. You’d be wrong.

This feels nothing like that. I sit down and create a plan, either the night before or the morning of and I base that plan on how I’ve been feeling, how I think I’ll feel, what other plans I have, and what goal I want to hit. I also allow for experiments.

9:30–10:30 (376 words)
10:40–11:40 (413 words) (I’m behind at this point and I’m starting to think mornings are not my best time for writing. I consistently seem to do worse in the early morning hours. The new school year has also brought about a lack of sleep that I need to get a handle on asap.)
3:40–4:40 (524 words)
4:50–5:50 (569 words) (can’t seem to pick up speed today!)
7:30–8:30 (609 words)
8:40–9:40 (stopped counting and just wrote)

Partial success! I made it to 2,692. Another day where I came up short of my goal but still reached the minimum I need to stay on track with my plan for a higher daily word count.

Today’s goal is 4,000 words in 6 hour long blocks, where the goal is to reach 725 words in each block by doing ten 5 minute sessions and maintaining a 73 word average per session.

The hefty 4,000 word goal is because tomorrow I’ll be having fun and I can say with certainty that I’ll be pushing myself just to hit my minimum.

I’ve had to adjust the start times for my later sessions.

What I Believe

Lynn

I try really hard not to push my beliefs at other people, but today I came really close to sharing something on Google+ that would have made some of my beliefs very obvious to the world. Since I have so many family members and friends who absolutely don’t share many of my beliefs, I didn’t. But it’s made me wonder just how much of myself I hide from others, even those who are closest to me. Why is it so difficult to be myself and not feel apologetic for who I am? Why can’t I just say, hey this is what I think and if you don’t agree, that’s okay, because I’ll still love you? And as I’m typing this, I think I just asked the wrong question. Why can’t I say, hey this is what I think and if you don’t agree, that’s okay, I know you’ll still love me? But the answer to that scares me. I think I’m afraid that while I’m the type of person to understand and love people who believe differently than me, I’m not convinced that most people are the same. And there’s two ways that can go. My loved ones will be hurt that I didn’t believe in them, or I’ll be proved true. I can’t win this one. So I don’t play.

It’s apparent after typing this that I don’t believe love is unconditional.

Now I’m sad. I think I just broke my own heart.

It’s also obvious that I need to meet more people in real life who think more like me.

In the world of my books, I’m free to write what I want, and I think that’s what I’ll go do now.

Today’s Plan

Lynn

Today’s plan is pretty much just a repeat of yesterday’s plan, with slightly very modified start times for my sessions because I won’t be getting started as early.

Same as yesterday, my goal is 2,900 words in 4 hours. That’s 725 words in each one hour session, with a goal of doing ten 5 minute sprints where I maintain an average of 73 words per session (or 15 wpm). Less second guessing and deleting, because I want to finish on time!

Also, if I feel good about it all, I might throw in some extra, but unlike yesterday, I’m not pre-planning that because I’m not convinced I want to do it since I’m starting a bit lot late today.

11:20–12:20 (453 words, interrupted by a phone call I couldn’t avoid – hoping to catch up in next session)
12:30–1:30 (277 words, can’t seem to stay focused!)
2:30–3:30 (491 words, focus desperately needed!)
4:00–5:00 (502 words, omg, writing feels hard today…)
5:10–6:10 (379 words, sitting at 2,143 total, atm, so I guess that means I’ll be back for another hour later)
8:30–9:30 (467 words)

Partial success! I made it to 2,610. So although I didn’t make it to 2,900, I did write more than the minimum I need to stay on track with my plan for a higher daily word count.

It became obvious at a certain point that I needed to add at least a fifth hour into the schedule today so I updated to do that. I hope a sixth isn’t necessary, but if it is, I’ll update as necessary. :o

Today’s Plan (Success!)

Lynn

I’m working on two novels at the moment. Both need to be finished ASAP. One needs 20–25k more words and the other needs 25–30k. If I can follow my plan, I should finish the second one within a week of the first.

I need both of these books completed this month, and preferably not both of them on August 31 either. :o

If I can stick to my plan from this day forward, I can finish the first by the 20th and that’s later than I want but acceptable.

So, the plan is to stick to the plan! :D

Today’s goal is 2,900 words in 4 hours. That’s 725 words in each one hour session, with a goal of doing ten 5 minute sprints where I maintain an average of 73 words per session (or 15 wpm). It’s the second guessing and deleting that kills my speed every time, so I’m going to try to limit that today.

9:20–10:20 (stopped at 10:20, finished 7 sessions, reached 619 words) (seemed to be off to a slow start, lots of second guessing and tweaking as I went!)
10:30–11:30 (stopped at 11:38, finished 3 sessions, forgot to reset, reached 659 words) (got busy tweaking and ended up writing without the timer by mistake—not sure how that happened, tbh)
12:00–1:00 (finished at 1:04, did 9 sessions, reached 900 words even, yay!)
2:30–3:30 (finished at 3:42, did 8 sessions, reached 861 words)

Success! I’ve reached 3,055 words.

Then if the writing is going well and I feel like continuing, I’ll aim for 5,000 in 3 more sessions.

3:40–4:40
4:50–5:50
8:20–9:20

I’ve decided I’m not ready to commit to going for 5,000 today so I’m going ahead and taking the three extra hours off my schedule. I still might do another hour or maybe even two, but I’m going to break for now. :D

It’s time to get tea and settle in and try, try, try to get my creative juices flowing, so I’m going to wrap this planning session up here.

I made some adjustments to my start times for the later sessions.

Read Another Book—11 of 60

Lynn

I finished Paladins of Shannara: Allanon’s Quest by Terry Brooks last week. I almost forgot to add it to my list. :) It’s another short story, but as I said before, I’m counting them for my reading challenge.

Allanon's Quest - Paladins of Shannara - Terry Brooks

It’s been hard to get into a novel these last few weeks because I have so much writing I need to do and I don’t want to get invested. I used to think I read fast, but I’ve had to face the fact that I actually don’t. I just used to spend so much of my time reading! There’s a difference there that’s hard to ignore when you don’t have so much time to spend. It takes me anywhere from 4 to 8 hours to read a book, depending on complexity and how into the story I get. As my interest peaks, I actually think I read slower.

It’s been about 25 years since I read The Sword of Shannara and its sequels, and I’ve been meaning to catch up with the series and finish it off but I’ve just never done it.

My first and favorite Terry Brooks book is Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold!. I have it and several of the sequels on my shelf just to my left and I reread the first few chapters of the book just a month or so ago. I love that book! :D

Oh, and this short story was good. Read it if you like short fantasy fiction.

Day 46 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

On Day 46 I wrote 765 words and I was lucky to get those. Not because there wasn’t time (there was) but because I am in the throes of self-doubt, hypercritical self-assessment, and a general “all my books suck” frame of mind.

I also have no idea where any of my stories are going at the moment and my usual method of just going with it isn’t working. I just keeping going with it right over a cliff and I’ve deleted more in the last couple of months than I’ve deleted in the last two years prior to that put together.

Yeah. Writing is so fun right now.*

At least I’m doing some writing these days. I’ve written 30,945 words that I haven’t deleted since day 1 of my streak. Silver linings and all that. :D

*Lots of sarcasm! I apologize profusely but this is how it all came out, comma shortage and all… 

Planning for a Higher Daily Word Count—Take 2

Lynn

So, my planning for a higher daily word count post is a good idea. Only problem? I’ve had a few thoughts since then—I mean, that was like, what, six whole days ago? ;)

It’s a good plan, to be honest. I’ve just made a few tweaks and I thought I’m bring it up here again to help solidify the plan in my head before the week starts over tomorrow.

I’m behind my August goal, which is simply to maintain a 3,000 word a day average for the month. I haven’t made it to 3k words once since the 1st. Bummer, that. But that’s also part of the change, so let me just get to the re-planned plan here.

Instead of a goal of 3,000 a day, I’ve revised my goal to 2,464 words per day until the end of the year, which is the word count I actually need to average daily to write the books I’d like to write before December 31.

What was the point in pushing for a word count higher than what I really need? I decided there wasn’t one.

On the other hand, I would actually like to try to get ahead this month by averaging slightly higher than that minimum, but I decided there was no point forcing myself to do more than I have to on the days when writing isn’t going so well. Why add stress for no real reason?

I’m still going to stick to trying to get in four blocks of 725 words each and use the 5 minute sessions to do it. That should give me some leeway to reach slightly higher word counts this month, or at least allow for some slow sessions without it meaning I have to squeeze in more sessions.

Now, I’ve got to get to writing today, because so far, I’ve been doing everything I can NOT to write. :D Just one of those days where nothing is good enough and everything is a distraction!

Sometimes You Need a New Chair

Lynn

It’s time for school again, so my routine is changing. I’ve been working at my desk almost exclusively lately, and the dining room chair hasn’t been such a great option for those 5,000 word days.

Oh, yeah, day before yesterday, I wrote 5,091 words. :D

That’s two 5k days in as many weeks and that’s felt (still feels tbh) amazing.

It’s not quite on demand, because I’ve had days where I failed to reach my goals even though I planned them just the same as the successful days, but it’s still quite an accomplishment because hey, I wrote 5,000+ words twice in two weeks and I did it all in 5 minute sessions, 55 and 60 of them, respectively.

New Chair

So … I was out and about yesterday, doing stuff that couldn’t be put off, and I bought a new chair. Nothing fancy, but something with a bit more cushion that will hopefully make it comfortable to work for the number of hours I want to work to reach higher word counts.

It was a pain to put together (because it was affordable, lol!) but I like it. :D