Month: November 2014

Writing Without a Plan Today

Lynn

I’m writing without a plan today. Well, mostly, because saying I’m writing without a plan is sort of a plan in itself. :D

My only goal is to enjoy a leisurely day of writing, to have fun with it and see where my stories take me. I’ll be using the timer when I write, because I’m still tracking my WPH for … whatever reason. I like it. I’ve deleted it from my spreadsheet several times, but each time, I ended up pulling the data off my backups and adding it back. This time it’s here to stay. I’m not deleting it again.

Anyway, I’m going to start writing here in a few minutes, probably after I finish my Lipton Orange Jasmine tea, and—

Okay, it’s now about an hour later, and I can tell you how that went… I looked up the actual title of the tea I drink (Lipton Orange Passionfruit Jasmine Green Tea), then decided I wanted to see the nutrition info and found out a cup has 35mg of caffeine in it. (My other favorite flavors have 22mg and 20mg so I might drink more of them going forward and less of the orange jasmine.) That led me to look up info on caffeine so I would know if 35mg was a lot or a little and that led me to click the bookmark for my pen name’s author site, which I then decided to update with a post about my upcoming book, which I then decided to also write something about the book I’m thinking about writing and I decided to post an excerpt for it for a show of interest…

And now I’m back. I actually caught this diversion of attention a little early! So, yay me! I did lose some time, but … getting that update on my author site isn’t really a waste of time so much as it was bad timing. I could’ve done that when I was tired and uninterested in writing.

But what’s done is done, so moving on!

I just clicked the “Strict Workflow” button on Chrome (which blocks a lot of tempting sites I added to the block list), and now I’m going to finish this post, get a new cup of tea, and start writing.

I discovered an interesting thing when I was updating my author site. I have no objectivity with my writing. When I wrote those pages, I thought they were awesome. A week or two later, I read back through them and though they were utterly stupid and that I would have to abandon the idea. Today, I read through them (it’s been about a month since I wrote them), and I loved them again.

:o

Now, off for tea and writing. :)

Update (4 days later)—

All I know is that I have a big fat zero on my daily word count log for this day.

Ouch.

What Am I Doing?

Lynn

I thought I was going to come home today, take a short nap, and then get started writing on one of my books. I haven’t, though, and I’m seriously thinking of reading a book instead. I spent about two hours at the library (online) and checked out eight books after deciding that I’m going to start reading more books every week. I had this moment where I thought maybe I just don’t read fiction enough these days and that’s why I’m not writing more. Now, of course, I’m wondering if this was just a super clever way for my brain to trick me into procrastinating because that’s always a possibility.

Why’d I go to the library instead of just read one of the many, many books I already have—books I’ve bought for ridiculous sums like the copy of Copper Beach I have that cost me $14.99 and which I still haven’t read 2 years later?

I do not know. Please don’t ask again.

Thanks. :D

It’s a Beautiful Day

Lynn

At 8:30 a.m. I’m going to start writing, aiming for my 1,667 word minimum, and then the rest of my life is going to interrupt me. Family tradition dictates that my evening will be busy—tomorrow is Thanksgiving after all.

Now, I want to spend a few more minutes perusing a book that has interested me and drinking my tea. I’ll be back when I have an update on my word count.

Update (sometime the next day…)—

I’m trying to remember what happened, but I can’t. I didn’t get started writing, because I read that book, or half of it anyway, then I started skimming because it went from interesting to blah to really? in less time than it took me to flip two pages. It was so full of filler and utter useless garbage that I almost gave it a 2 star review on Amazon, and the 2 stars would’ve been because the author gave me the book and I’d have felt bad giving it a 1 star. I stopped myself. (I try not to review books unless I have something good to say or the book is pricey, nonfiction, and doesn’t fulfill the promises it makes in the description—other readers need to know they’re not going to get what they’re thinking of paying for.) I need to remember that these time management/procrastination cure/this is the way to fix all your problems books are a gimmick. I don’t know why I fall for that every time, but I do. I am swearing off these kinds of books forever. I’ve learned my lesson this time! I have!

Okay, probably not, but maybe!

Then I did something else for about an hour and I don’t remember what that was. Then of course it was time for everything else I had to do and I got home sometime around 9 PM and no, I didn’t even attempt to make up the words I supposedly wanted to write yesterday morning.

New Day, New Routine

Lynn

Really it’s just an old routine, slightly modified. Write 1,667 words from 7 til 10 but keep going if I haven’t quite made it to my word count goal.

It’s almost winter, so getting up earlier is easier as long as I get to bed at a reasonable time and I started doing that two days ago. I woke up on my own at 6 a.m. this morning and I feel better than I did yesterday. I stopped the coffee again, because after two weeks of caffeine, I can say with certainty that it’s making no difference in how much I write: the first week on coffee again I wrote 10,251 words and the second week I wrote 21. Not a typo.

It’s 6:51 right now and I’m finishing breakfast quickly and making an effort to get back to a 7 a.m. start time. I usually have more energy first thing and then by 8 or 9 I’m sleepy again. If I’m already writing and into my stories, I can push that back. If I’m not, then I end up not writing until the afternoon usually, and then it becomes a struggle to get started at all. Such as with yesterday, when I wrote nothing but a blog post.

Today’s goals are simple. Finish 1,667 words before 10 a.m. if possible, definitely before lunch. Then write 1,333 words before bed. Also, work one hour on my paperback formatting. Now, it is 7 a.m. and it’s time to get to work.

Update (8:33 a.m.)—

I set up my timer with 3 hours on it. I’ve had to take 3 quick breaks so far (tea, phone, phone—school’s letting out early because of sewer problems, ack) so I’m sitting at 2 hours and 42 seconds left on my timer and that means I’m about half an hour behind. My word count at the half hour mark was a negative because I deleted some stuff, and now it’s at 57 words. But I feel like I’m gaining some momentum finally so maybe my next update will be a lot better. :)

Update (9:37 a.m.)—

I deleted more, meaning I ended up into negative numbers again, but now I’m almost caught back up. I don’t have anything else ahead of me that I can delete (there’s nothing but a blank page waiting for me!) so I’ll be moving forward from this point on. My timer’s sitting at 1 hour and 29 minutes but I forgot to restart it for almost half an hour after my 8:33 a.m. update so technically I’m not really behind this time other than the half hour I was already behind.) Still, since I was too busy deleting stuff instead of adding, I think I’m just going to go with the timer. No way I’m going to get caught up to 1,667 words in only one hour, but maybe, possibly, I can do it in the 1 hour and 29 minutes now that the sludge is cleared away and it’s all fresh writing ahead. We’ll see.

Update (10:59 a.m.)—

I’m down to 18 minutes on the timer and I’m up to 487 words. I’m also just about certain I just wrote a bunch of stuff that doesn’t need to be in this book but I think I’m just going to go with it for now. I’ve been working on that novella this morning and I’m just glad to be making progress. :) But now, I need another break before I finish those last 18 minutes. Be back soon.

Update (12:29 p.m.)—

I’m pleased with my progress. I didn’t make it anywhere close to 1,667 words but the novella’s story is moving along. I ended up with 3.75 hours and 591 words. And this is a great example of what I mean when I say I feel like I spend the entire morning working, focused and on task, and still end up with significantly less time writing than time spent.

I wrote from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. That’s 5.5 hours. And yet I wrote to a timer, logging 3 hours plus the time where I forgot to run the timer for about 30 minutes and then kept writing after the timer stopped for about 15 more. The difference between that 5.5 and 3.75 hours is 1 hour and 45 minutes of time lost to breaks that I can’t account for. My breaks felt significantly shorter than that, and sometimes I wonder if my ability to feel the passage of time is impaired.

Anyway, I’ll be back later today to work on those 1,333 words I’m hoping to get this afternoon (on the novel I started this month unless I have a great idea for the novella in the meantime).

Update (3:25 p.m.)—

This post has gotten very long and it’s about to get longer. I’m starting my afternoon session at 3:30 p.m. and the goal is to write 1,333 words before 6 p.m. if possible, but definitely before bedtime. Such as with this morning, I’m mostly going to stick to the 2.5 hours I have planned and hope that does it. If not I’ll try to go longer, but I don’t plan to go past 8:30 p.m. which is when I’m going to do that one hour of work on my paperback formatting.

Oh, and I watched an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which has shown up on Netflix. What a great show so far. I’m ready for episode #3 now. Quite a fun bunch of characters!

Time to get to it.

Update (5:07 p.m.)—

And I’ve had a few interruptions but nothing too time consuming. I’m at 1 hour and 25 minutes on the timer and 502 words, so I’ve been writing for just about an hour. I wish I weren’t behind at all, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes…

Update (6:29 p.m.)—

I’m not quite done. My timer is at 33 minutes left and that means I’m about an hour behind. I’ve had a lot of interruptions this last hour and a half, although an hour feels excessive when I try to recall them. The problem is that whether I can recall them or not, the time is the time and the timer doesn’t lie. At least not when I’ve remembered to start and stop it appropriately, which I’ve done. I’ve written for about 2 hours and I’m up to 815 words, with my total for the day coming in at 1,406.

I’m going to try to get to 1,667 for the day, since that’s the average I want to hit and hope that after a few days the writing will get easier so I can keep it up and maybe even make up some of the zero days since I started aiming at the 1,667 words a day average.

I just don’t understand why writing is so hard sometimes.

Update (9:37 p.m.)—

I just realized I’ve spent 3 hours watching YouTube videos. I’ve done this before, but rarely—like 5,000 words in a day rare. I have no idea why today had to be that day but I have just binge watched 3 hours of talent show clips. What. The. Hell. And now it’s past my bedtime and I haven’t even had supper yet. I cannot believe that was three hours. Seriously. Cannot believe it.

Wow. I guess I’m calling it a night at 1,406 words. I’m a little disappointed in myself but I can’t for the life of me figure out how I can stop this from happening again because I don’t know how it happened in the first place.(!!!!)

What Happened to My Momentum?

Lynn

I have no idea why last week fell apart.

I’m sitting here with the sun in my face, already ready to go back to sleep, wondering what happened to my momentum.

There are a couple of possibilities. One stands out more than the others.

And I just wrote multiple paragraphs addressing that particular possibility, but I don’t think dwelling on negativity is the way forward. So I deleted them. :D

Today is going to be better. That’s about all there is left to say.

Is That Free Book Really a Sample?

Lynn

Oh no! I’m thinking this morning. :D

I saw a post on The Passive Voice blog today when I should’ve been writing this morning.

The excerpted post quotes Craig Nybo as saying “always sell it — never give it away” about self-published books because “if you give it away, it cheapens the self-publishing scene.”

I have no idea if it does or not. I don’t give my books away because I’m not sure they’ll generate enough sales to make it worth it (I write in a very small niche with what appears to be a very finite customer base) and I’m in the situation where I need all the money I’m bringing in so I don’t have room to experiment with that. I think someday I will just because I want to see if it makes a difference, but at the moment I have people to feed and a house to pay for and kids who’ll be in college in less than 600 days. Agh!

However, it was one of the comments that made thoughts pop into my head this early in the morning, and here I am responding to it.

“Free samples are a good thing.” (Jim Self — note to Jim, if you ever see this, please, for the love of whatever you love, put links to your books on your website. I found a cute sample/excerpt for a story and tried to find a way to click through to Amazon but found no links to your books anywhere on your site. By the time I was done, I was so annoyed that I said f*ck it and closed the window without bothering. I’m just not going to go to Amazon and manually type in a search for a book when I’m annoyed. I’m very sorry.)

But what is a free sample?

Wouldn’t a free sample be like trying a bite of a pie (Kindle sample), then going on to buy the full pie (the whole book) versus eating the whole pie (free book) and going on to buy all the other pies by the same pie maker (the backlist).

Now, series books, if the series is tightly connected, would probably still qualify as a sample as far as I’m concerned, because a series book isn’t going to satisfy you the way a standalone book will. I mean, when I read a really great series book, I’m often left with questions I want answered, such as “Is Mary’s friend Jane going to find love with that asshole Bill?”

But for a freebie that’s not closely tied to any other books, I don’t know. I just can’t see them as samples. They’re not samples. They’re complete products that satisfy the consumer’s need, and how does that benefit an author?

I know, I know… You’re going to tell me that the reader will be so taken with the author’s writing style that they’ll run out and buy the backlist.

But if I want a coconut pie, getting one for free doesn’t really make me want all the other pies. It satisfies my desire for the specific pie I wanted, without me having to outlay any money. :) It’s a great deal for me, but really not so great for the pie maker.

So maybe a lot of people are giving away the pie thinking they’re creating a repeat customer, when in reality, that customer left fully satisfied and won’t be back until there’s another coconut pie.

I kind of want to go find a coconut pie now. ;)

No Celebrating? What…?

Lynn

Dean Wesley Smith had a section in his latest blog post about (not) celebrating writing achievements such as finishing a book and I started to post a response, but I remembered my post about content on other people’s sites and I cut the response before I posted and pasted it here instead. :D I almost forgot about that little decision… and yeah I know, I’m really not surprised. I forget lots of things five minutes after I decide them.

I didn’t really see what the big deal was with celebrating until…

“You are telling your brain it is better to not be writing, to be finished, than to be writing.”

At which point my brain gave the inside of my skull a little kick and said “Ah! It’s a trap!”

And maybe it’s a trap I’ve fallen into more than once. I think I’ll skip the “oh how great it is to be done” talk when I finish this time. Maybe I’ll just say “yay! I get to start another book today” instead.

I’ve discovered over the years that self-talk is powerful stuff, and I wouldn’t put it past my brain to think that my excitement in finishing a project means that finishing, reaching the end, being done, is the reward for writing. And if that’s the reward, what does it making continued writing? Yeah. Punishment. Something incomplete. Something to be avoided.

I sure don’t want to internalize that attitude! (Although it’s possible it’s too late and now I’m just going to have to work on excising that attitude.) But I love it when I have these little sparks of realization. I just wish I could remember them all when I need to. ;)

A Prolific Writer…

Lynn

“A prolific writer, therefore, has to have self-assurance. He can’t sit around doubting the quality of his writing. Rather, he has to love his own writing.”

—Isaac Asimov, I.Asimov

I’m still reading this book, bits and pieces out of order, because it lends itself to that kind of reading and when it comes to nonfiction, that kind of reading isn’t unusual to me. The book’s engaging and easy to read and I’ve found lots of interesting stuff in it worth bookmarking.

Asimov goes on:

“I can pick up any one of my books, start reading it anywhere, and immediately be lost in it and keep on reading until I am shaken out of the spell by some external event.”

I know that feeling. It’s what causes me to lose half a day’s writing when I start researching something I might have forgotten in one of my books. Ah well. At least I’m having fun.

Now, time for me to trim my fingernails and get some writing done today.

Today’s Writing Plan

Lynn

I have a couple of things I have to do today, one of which is the kind of “have to” that doesn’t allow even procrastination to get in the way. Other than that, not so much. Unfortunately, I’m a bit under the weather, and I’m not sure how much I’ll get done.

I started out thinking I felt okay this morning, but that waned really quickly. Now I just want to lean over on the couch and go to sleep and that’s after having a cup of regular coffee and a cup of tea too!

My average daily word count is slipping because of some zero word days this week. I need to make them up quickly. To catch up all in one day today, I would need 4,752 words today. Not doing it. Not even going to try. I don’t think I can have another zero word day though and reasonably expect to make it up in the next few days, so I’m still going to try to write at least 1,667 words, with an eye toward hitting 2,000, and saving the catching up for tomorrow or Friday.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

I Blame Twitter for This

Lynn

Think I found the pen name that Lindsay Buroker launched last month. My insatiable curiosity sent me searching and she was right that it might not be hard to figure out (as she mentions in the post). I’m not going to say what I think that pen name is, of course, because that’d be rude and I didn’t search for it for that reason. Trust me when I say I would’ve given up if it had taken much longer. I have things I’m supposed to be doing.

I want to know who did the book covers for the series. I like them very much. If I’m right about this being the series of books Lindsay Buroker is talking about in that post, well, who needs custom illustration when collages turn out so well? She’s right. The covers are a cut above for the subgenre.

Even if I’m wrong about the pen name, at least I found a book I want to read. It sounds just like something I’d enjoy. I skimmed the reviews and one comment on the lack of games and drama between the hero and heroine has me super excited. I’m not a fan of a lot of romantic angst between the hero and heroine (or hero and hero for that matter) and it can be hard to find exciting books that don’t go overboard with it. :)

Anyway, now I just need to cut off the damn internet and start my writing for the day so I have time to do some reading tonight.

I never even got to that cup of tea I was supposed to get myself at 11 a.m. and now it’s lunchtime. If only I hadn’t checked twitter before I went for tea…

Gah.

Remember this?

Lynn

Must stop reading forums…

Especially forums that are inhospitable to writers (after quite happily benefiting from all the content many of those writers have put up on the forum over the years). Unfortunately, I have limited self-control (none) and train wrecks are riveting. Besides which, I so want to post an “I’m leaving and never coming back” post but I’d probably be lying. The truth is I’m a passive conflict junkie, because I’m mostly a lurker who doesn’t post on these kinds of threads and I certainly don’t post “I’m leaving and never coming back” posts. :)

The last forum I left, I just decided it was time to go, changed my username, deleted the posts that were a bit more personal in nature, and then deleted my account. It’s better that way, easier, more permanent. I can’t waffle on the decision. Just, poof. I’m gone. :D

Maybe it’s time I did something similar here. I really don’t want to support a site that takes advantage of writers like that, knowing how hard it would be for most people to delete all the content they’d put on the site over the years and taking away the few benefits participation on the forum provides them. It just reinforces the idea that a person should keep most of their writings somewhere within their direct control, not hosted on a forum or blog that someone else owns.

Yep. I do believe it’s time to do some injudicious deleting. In the future, if I feel compelled to comment on something at one of these places, I’ll just quote it here and post my thoughts. :)

Now, how’m I going to do this without it being just another way to procrastinate?

Quickly, I hope! :D

Update—

Holy crap. Two and a half hours later I have finished deleting every post I ever wrote on that particular forum (just over 500 that hadn’t been deleted already—I seriously doubt it was more than 600 ever, but yikes, that was a lot of deleting). I felt a bit like I had OCD while I was doing it. I … just … couldn’t … stop, until everything was gone.

Yay?

Now, time for fresh tea and writing!

That Goal Ain’t That Big—the Numbers

Lynn

Here’s why I believe 512 titles over the next forty years is not only not impossible but actually not that much of a stretch even for me.

Assume 512 titles = 412 novels and 100 shorter works

The Numbers…

412 novels x 50,000 words = 20,600,000 words

100 shorts x 10,000 words = 1,000,000 words

20,600,000 words + 1,000,000 words = 21,600,000 words

21,600,000 words / 40 years / 365 days = 1,480 words per day average (To be precise: 1,479.452055)

I had already decided to do my best to start averaging 1,667 words a day. That’s what I want to reach in 2015, and if I do, it’ll be more than enough words to put me on the right pace to meet the 512 titles goal someday.

I’m excited by this goal. Motivated. And frankly, a little shocked at how reasonable it is for the long-term. No more 4,000 to 5,000 word averages necessary. No more struggling for 100,000 words a month. This is a great goal for someone like me, who writes quite slowly but doesn’t have to do a lot of revision, meaning that if I have a 1,667 daily average over the course of a month, then I know I’ll have a book ready to publish at the end of that month.

Now, my biggest obstacle’s going to be to increase my average daily word count. Right now I’m at 693 words a day, which is just a bit shy of 1/2 of the daily word count average I need for the 512 titles pace. So, hey, even if I don’t succeed in increasing my daily word count average by anything at all I’m still on pace to get halfway there. Now that’s something to think about.

I Found a Goal

Lynn

I’ve finally come up with a massive goal for myself, something so huge that I’ll probably spend the rest of my life chasing it.

The idea came to me as I was reading Isaac Asimov’s I.Asimov: A Memoir today. That man was one prolific writer according to everyone. And although I can barely crack 500 words an hour when I’m writing, if 500-ish titles of varying lengths is all it takes to be seen as massively prolific, well, I can be massively prolific.

It won’t be easy, but it’s definitely not impossible.

So that’s my goal, my life’s work, to write and publish 512 titles, and mostly novels at that, over the course of the rest of my life.

I figure it’ll take me about forty years to reach 512. Why 512? Because that list I linked to above had 506 titles listed, and I asked my kids how many I should go for and they said 512. I accepted the challenge.

Of course, to do it, I’m going to have to try not to drop dead before I hit eighty, so there’s that, but I can’t really do a lot about that other than try to stay in good health for the next forty years.

Here’s to a fun forty years. This is going to be awesome.

Day 16 of NANO 2014

Lynn

I’ve been reading The War of Art the last couple of days in between writing sessions. It’s a lovely book. I’m almost at the end and I’ve highlighted several lines in the book that seemed especially relevant to me.

One particular section that I highlighted seemed a little more relevant at the moment than the others.

Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him. Resistance gets us to plunge into a project with an overambitious and unrealistic timetable for its completion. It knows we can’t sustain that level of intensity. We will hit the wall. We will crash.

It’s time I stop being apologetic for my speed. I understand that there are writers who are considerably faster, and there are writers who might look at my 500 words an hour and wonder what I’m doing wrong. I’ve thought the same. But I don’t care any longer what anyone else thinks, because my speed is what it is and after several years of collecting data and trying different things to try to speed up, I’ve accepted that how I write is how I like to write, and that means I write about 500 words an hour.

The unfortunate effect of this being that I’m looking at my numbers, thinking about how much effort I’ve put into the last 6 days of writing and knowing in my heart that I probably can’t reach the 2,866 words a day I’ll need to hit every day the rest of this month to reach 50,000 words in November.

These have been my word counts over the last 6 days (technically, today is still in progress but I doubt I’ll add much to my total).
1,445
1,938
1,890
571
2,418
1,989

And I’ve written for this many hours getting those word counts.
3.83
4.77
5.18
1.25
5.50
4.34

And these have been my average words per hour for the book I started for nanowrimo.
377
406
365
457
440
458

Meaning I’m only averaging 412 words an hour on this book so far. Meaning I’ll need to write for just over 97 more hours to reach the 50,000 words by the end of the month. I just don’t see it happening. That’s just a hair under 7 hours of writing every single day for the rest of this month. Daunting to say the least and knowing my history, probably a formula for burnout if I’m not careful. So this post is me being careful. I’m reminding myself that avoiding burnout is much more important than hitting some magical number by the end of the month.

I wish I could write for 7 or 8 hours a day, but I just don’t want to. I generally sit at the computer for 10 to 12 hours just to hit a 6 hour writing goal. I know that seems like an awfully low level of efficiency, but that’s what it takes. I’ve timed and tracked and it is what it is. And I’m willing to sacrifice a lot for my writing career, but I need what time I have left for my children and my life. If I were someone who could decide to write for 7 hours, sit down and write for 7 hours and then flit away to live the other parts of my life, things would be different. But if you’ve been reading any of my posts over the last couple of years, then you know how many times I’ve tried unsuccessfully to be that kind of person. It’s time to start putting the focus on working with myself, my abilities, and my limits instead of trying so hard to change them.

It’ll be a nice change of pace. ;)

All that said, I’m not dropping out of nanowrimo. But I am saying now that the likelihood of me finishing 50,000 this month is slim and I’m not going to be that worried about it if I don’t. If I can start getting closer to that 1,667 words per day average I set as a goal for myself back on the 5th of the month, I’m going to be very happy with my progress. Getting my daily word count average up is my number one priority going into the new year, and this post is really just a reaffirmation of that. I love the energy I get from nanowrimo, but I can live without the win if it means I don’t push myself so hard I start avoiding writing again.

Day 15 of NANO 2014

Lynn

Today I’m hoping to stick to my plan to write abut 4,750 words. :)

My first session just ended (I started considerably late, but still managed to get 666 words!). I’m a bit iffy on how much time I spent writing because I didn’t note the time when I sat down to turn on the computer and type in my password so I’m just going to say about an hour and a half. (I wasn’t intending to write. I haven’t even had breakfast yet.)

Although I’m a little under 400 words short of my first 1,000 word goal, I definitely prefer to just stick to the plan I made last night instead of trying to rearrange the schedule I made up for today.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 666 words, 1.5 hours

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 781 words, 2 hours

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 971 words, 2 hours

1.5 hours (goal: 750 words)

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Update (5:32 p.m.)— Oh my. I took a much, much longer break midday than I’d planned. I’m still feeling a little icky and I’m going to blame that for the time-creep today. Now, to get back on track and finish up at a reasonable bed time tonight, I need to write for 5.5 hours straight and only take breaks if I reach my goals early. :( This makes me sad because I don’t have a good any track record for this kind of uninterrupted work. I’m going to try it anyway and start my first time the moment I press the “update” button on this post.

Day 14 of NANO 2014

Lynn

And here it is, another beautiful but frigidly cold day in November, when it’s supposed to be fall but in actually feels a hell of a lot like winter around here. I mean, there aren’t that many 30 and 40 degree days in winter where I live and to have a week of them in November like this is horrible. I don’t like it. Too bad I don’t have a choice.

My plan to write 4,000 words today

Funny, that, right? I went from a 3,000 word goal that I haven’t yet been able to meet to a 4,000 word goal that I hope to meet two days in a row so I can have Sunday to get those paperbacks finished.

I’ve been trying to do a few hours of those paperbacks each night for weeks now and it just hasn’t happened. So last night I decided that what I really need is to get started on it and then have the time to keep with it until I’m done. This seems to be my pattern. When I finally manage to get into something, it’s hard to shift my mind into a different space. I have no trouble focusing deeply on something, but I have significant trouble focusing on what I think I should be focused on! And that statement deserves that exclamation point because it is key to understanding my problems with procrastination. I procrastinate so well because once I’m working on the wrong things, I can’t seem to break away from those things to put my focus on the right thing. Just like with this blog post. I wanted to start writing at 7:30, but decided I absolutely needed to start this post first and now it’s 7:51 but I could not stop until it was done (which it isn’t yet but will be as soon as I add my session goals).

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 565 words, 1.25 hours – If I want to make this goal today, I really need to get my speed up. I’m getting into flow, or at least I feel like I am, but I just can’t seem to go.

Interlude: I started my second session and 27 words into it, I needed to revisit one of the scenes from my last book in the series and bam, I read almost half the book. That’s the trouble with writing exactly what you enjoy reading! I need to have these scenes solid in my head for the sake of continuity (and to figure out how the hell this book and that book are going to work together) and I have mentioned I don’t do any advance plotting, haven’t I? Anyway, ideas are coming fast and furious and my brain is busy sifting through them to find the ones that might work, but this is complicated. The overarching plot has grown quite a bit through books one through four and I’ve got this book and the next that have plots concurrent to the one in book four.

I’d say it was a mistake, but I actually love it. One of my favorite things is to see characters I love from the perspective of others while showing that sometimes what one person sees in an event can be totally different than another’s perspective of the same event. I get to the play with that in this series so much that it actually makes me a little giddy when I think about it. Absolutely giddy, I say. :D

But all that said, this has thrown me off my game for today because I was supposed to have finished my second 2 hours/1,000 words and I used up 1.75 hours reading my previous book instead. I can’t count the time and now I’m going to be either trying to squeeze in another two hours somewhere or lower my expectations for today’s word count.

I really don’t want to do that, so I guess I’ll find some way to fit it in.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Update (7:26 pm)—

I’m just about to start my last session of the day. I went from feeling pretty good this morning to feeling not so good at all after lunch and so I’m sitting here hoping I’m going to feel up to at least 2 more hours of writing. I’d really rather just go to bed early and sleep for the next 10 hours. But I’d also really like to end the day with at least enough words to keep me from losing any more ground this month. Just over 1,000 words would get me to 1,667 for the day, and I know I should at least try to reach that amount. It’s just 2 hours.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Yeah, I know. I bailed. :(

Day 13 of NANO 2014

Lynn

My day today is one big blob of time. I shouldn’t have any interruptions so I am hopeful I’ll reach 3,000 words. In case you’re wondering, this isn’t me having rethought the things I rethought a week or so ago. This is me trying to play a bit of catch up because I’m behind in my word counts for nanowrimo. :) I’d like to win this year but I can’t do that with the daily 1,667 word goal I talked about in that post.

None of that withstanding, I’m still working hard to increase my daily word count average, because as I mentioned, it’s not where it needs to be. Since that post on November 5, my daily average has dropped to 687 words a day, because I had several more zero word days that dragged it down including a day where I ended with −2,312 words and the few good days since haven’t brought it back up yet. I’m working on it. :)

My plan to write 3,000 words today

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 859 words and 2 hours on my nano story; I’m really not sure why I’m writing so slow these days but even though it’s coming slowly, the story is moving along. Of course, I go from first draft to final draft as I write, cycling through, so I try not to agonize too much over my speed. When I’m done, I’m done, and that’s the way I like to write. :D

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 380 words and 2 hours (still working the nano story); holy crap I have no idea why this is going so slow. This is like molasses speed or something. I didn’t delete; I didn’t rewrite. I wove parts of the story together, adding continuity and finessing my way forward because … I don’t know. But yeah, even I admit that this pace is ridiculous. If I didn’t have that timer to prove how long I’d worked, I wouldn’t believe it myself.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 651 words and 1.183 hours (nano story)

I didn’t reach 3,000 words. Not even 2,000 actually. But I’ll try again tomorrow because I’m not ready to give up on winning nanowrimo yet.

Day 12 of NANO 2014

Lynn

I seem to be holding steady to my motivation to write. Now if only I can form an awesome, indestructible habit before the next crushing bout of disinterest hits. :D One can wish, right?

My plan to write 3,000 words today

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 575 words and 1.45 hours working on story #1 because of a couple of unavoidable interruptions
2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 325 words and 1.32 hours on story #2 (nano story) because I spent too much time reading parts of my previous book starring my current main character. The timeline in this story is going to be a bitch to get right because there’s some considerable overlap going on. I’m not sure this is a good idea. Yikes. But … not sure I want to work the story differently either so I guess I’ll keep moving.
1.5 hours (goal: 750 words) – Reached 350 words and 1 hour working on story #2. I actually napped! I thought I hadn’t fallen asleep but since 40 minutes disappeared in the blink of an eye, I’m going to have to accept that I did. ;) Because of that, I got started late and had a hard time deadline that I had to stop at.
.5 hours (goal: 250 words) – Reached 688 words and 1 hour working on story #2. 

The weird split is because of having to be somewhere in the middle of what I’d planned to be my third session of the day. I decided I didn’t want to cut it short, so I just split it up in a way that fit into my day.

Well, it’s definitely not looking like I’ll make it to 3,000 words today, unless I’m able to write 1,750 words in the next half hour. :D

So, I’m ending the day with 1,938 words, 4.77 hours of timed writing time, and an average pace of 406 words per hour. It’s unlikely I’ll do more, although not impossible.

I did a lot of redrafting stuff today in my early sessions, and in my later ones, I was working on scenes that overlap a previous book’s timeline so I’ve had to put in a lot of attention to detail. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be faster when I try this again!

Day 11 of NANO 2014

Lynn

I climbed back on the writing wagon today! I have no idea what made today special, since I couldn’t even start writing until late afternoon today because of an out of town appointment that kept me busy from 9 AM until 3 PM.

I’m very happy but I’ve got to make this short so I don’t short change my night’s sleep.

1,445 words in 3.83 hours working on 2 stories for an average speed of 377 words per hour.

I did lots (and I mean lots) of redrafting of the last scene I’d written on story #1 and the opening of story #2. So I feel like I came out really good for the time I spent and all that I deleted. I wanted to work for 4 hours (in two 2 hour blocks) and my goal was to write about 500 words an hour. So really, I did do great.

I updated my NANO word count (which is for story #2 only) but since I didn’t record anything for a few days between the 1st and today my total’s off a bit at 1,515 on that story. Going forward everything should be correct.

Yes, I’m back to tracking my time. I’ve decided I actually like comparing myself to myself.