Okay, this isn’t working. I’m just fighting myself all the way on it and I’m switching things up, going back to something that I know works for me, at least some of the time. I have almost 3 hours left on my timer and I should’ve been down to about 1.
… about an hour an a half later …
And I got completely derailed by one of my kids coming home. We talked about taxes, lol, because I have a very curious kid who enjoys history and government. ;)
Right before I sat down again to finish this post, though, I realized that although I am switching things up, I’m actually just going back to how I intended to do this to start with, with one tiny tweak.
When I originally decided to do this experiment, I was going to write in 45 minute sessions. Then I decided those sessions might create artificial breaks in my concentration that would defeat the purpose of the big block of writing time, where the intent was to be able to become completely absorbed in my stories.
Of course, that’s not what’s happened. In fact, I can’t seem to concentrate in mostly unbounded blocks of time, and my performance suffers.
What I came up with was writing in 50 minute blocks, so I could have 10 minutes as a break and then go right back to writing. I chose 50 because I didn’t want enough time to get distracted.
Basically, 50 minutes feels like a better length when I’m thinking in one hour blocks, versus when I was thinking in 1.5 hour blocks (where 45 minute sessions made sense because I was actually only using the 45 minute timer to remind me to get up and pep up my circulation). Remember, I started out with the intent to write for 4.5 hours, which was 3 x 1.5 hour blocks, which, when I started this experiment, I had squished together into a single 5 hour block.
My 1.5 hour blocks were actually working okay before I started this experiment. I had 6 really good days, writing 9,419 words using them, but I only succeeded with them for about a week before it stopped working and I had to figure out how to get back on track. Also, tbh, 9,419 was still short of the 14,000 I wanted to hit each week, so I came up with the new experiment.
Anyway, this post is just to say that I’ve switched things out.
Going forward, I’m going to try to write 5 x 50 minute sessions, average 600 words per session (720 wph, which is a real stretch but not impossible), and reach 3,000 words. But ultimately, if I write slower than that, these numbers should still get me to the 2,000 word a day average I want to reach. :) I figure this is my best shot.
I’m still going to try to lump these sessions together and complete them in about 5 hours between breakfast and lunch (or lunch and supper). It might not always work out, but that’s the goal.
Now, I’m ready for lunch and then it’s back to writing. I’ve calculated that I need to do 4 of the 50 minute sessions (I’m rounding up) to finish the 2:46:38.9 that was left on my timer. Plus, 4 sessions might make it more likely I’ll reach 3,000 words today, which I’d really like to do.