Fiction writer. Expert procrastinator. This is my life.
I’m now at 641 words for the day. I’m still trying to write through the mess that is chapter 12 in this book. :o
I have about 4 hours to write 4.5–5 hours worth of speedy words and I’m not doing speedy today apparently.
But I’m getting back to it now and hopefully I’ll get through this sooner rather than later.
I’ve been writing, but I keep forgetting to start the timer, so I have no idea how long I’ve been at it. It’s been excruciatingly slow going though.
I’m at 522 words for the day.
I input all the fixes I’ve had sitting around on my Kindles. I send my docs to Kindle (Kindle Fires to be specific) so I can read them on there (easier reading than on the computer) and I highlight problems to fix later. I had multiple versions of multiple docs on multiple Kindles waiting on me to get around to it. So that’s done. Docs are deleted and I actually discovered a bit of excitement for every one of my books in progress as I read through them looking for the highlights.
Then I turned to my main book, the one I’m trying so hard to finish, and I’ve been working on that problem scene again. It’s a mess. Just no other way to put it. I have no idea what was going on when I wrote it, but I do remember not liking it much at the time. It was the scene stopping me from getting back to writing back in December. I got past it in February (?) finally, but obviously I shouldn’t have ignored my issues with it. I’m paying for that now.
But now I’m going to quit forgetting to start my timer so I can at least track my speed for the rest of those 3,933 words I expect from myself today.
And all in all, I’m quite happy. I’m back at work on my books and I’m not feeling a lot of angst about it. (Yes, books. If I get stuck on this one, I’m moving to another. I’ve even opened all those files so it won’t take any effort at all. It’s really time I quit holding myself back because I’m afraid it’ll take too long to finish anything if I let myself switch projects like that. I have a much better chance of meeting my challenges if I don’t let myself stand still, so to speak.)
Next up: get to 3,933 words today in as little time as possible today.
Even without the timer to back me up, I’d say I’ve been writing for at least 2–3 hours already. That’s not great considering my word count, but when I get moving on this story again, I know I can do better.
Time for some accountability for my 12-month 1,180,000 words challenge.
So far, I’ve made a ridiculously small amount of progress towards that big challenge.
My 2016 word count to date is 34,615.
That’s, uh, not good. If 2016 was the beginning of that challenge (and originally it was) I should be sitting at 290,958 words.
So, uh, yeah.
But that’s okay, because I can fail but that doesn’t mean I have to give up, and I’m not giving up. I’m restarting this challenge as of today, and I’m not going to let myself down this time. I’m feeling optimistic today, after a day when I was definitely not feeling optimistic yesterday.
I can do this.
And I don’t need a schedule to do it. I just need to focus on writing what I want (that’s where I find joy and motivation in writing) and I need to remember I do have something to prove, but only to myself.
I can do this.
More time, less words is exactly opposite of my plan, but yesterday, that’s exactly what happened. I made very little progress on my word count for this book, but I did make progress. I don’t like rewriting stuff, but that’s what happened with the scene where I’d like to just ax everything and start fresh (but that’d mean losing 35,000 words and some of them I don’t actually want to lose).
I didn’t ax it, and I tried to avoid rewriting sentences in the vein of just trying to make things sound better, because that wasn’t the kind of rewriting it needed at all. It was about the scene itself. It’s just never really worked for me, and I gave some people some additional dialogue, tried to clear up some actions and movements, and stuff like that.
I’m actually still going to be working on this same scene this morning, at least for a bit, because I still need to finish that part up. I’ll be expanding a bit on an element I ignored so that I can tie things up at the end of the book. Honest to God, I don’t actually know what this is yet, and that’s why this is dragging so bad, but I’m going to come up with something if I have to gut this damn scene. (I’m actually very close to the end of this book, I think, but this scene takes place 35,000 words before where I’m at with the writing. If I don’t want to have to drag out the ending to clear all this stuff up, I need to set something up here so I can more easily deal with it there.)
Maybe I should just say I tried to fix the scene to do more of the things I want it to do—even if I don’t know what those things are yet, because I definitely didn’t go at it worried that the writing was bad, except in the sense that the actual scene didn’t read right to me. It doesn’t carry its weight and doesn’t do much but take up space, and yet it can’t be excised because it does have a purpose.
Gah. It’s all so hard to explain. Anyway, time to get to it. I have some enthusiasm going for the writing this morning and I plan to take advantage of it. I have one quick post to write about accountability and then it’s on to the writing. See you later for an update. :D
I’ve had a couple more thoughts on the last post I want to clarify.
The schedule is really a “routine” suggestion.
The routine I want is to start writing early enough every day that I can guarantee I’ll finish 5 hours of writing every day, because I need 98,333 words every month to meet my “1,180,000 words in 12 months” challenge and I can’t get them if I don’t.
That’s the real purpose of the schedule.
So, as before, the schedule is more of a suggestion than a rule, but I do need to get that 5 hours of writing in every day so that my publishing days don’t make it impossible for me to meet my challenge. The best way to make that happen is to get started every day either on schedule at 9 or before.
…which brings me back to the idea that I’m really just doing this so I don’t forget that I want to write in 4 blocks of 1.25 hours, and that I want to get started early enough so I actually have a chance of getting them all done.
So why do I need a schedule? I have no idea.
…which realization caused me to delete the schedule. What I need is a reminder I can’t ignore (which I just put on my daily word count spreadsheet) that I want to write 5 hours every day.
This is one day where my bad mood might have just rewarded me with some clear thinking.
Alright. Moving on. Tomorrow I will write for 5 hours.
Today I will write for about 2 (more), then call it a night.
I haven’t been writing much lately. I’m just not happy with this book I have going and I’m going to have to choose to move on soon before I lose every bit of enthusiasm I have for writing. :o
On that note, I made a new schedule for myself today. I decided that although daily writing is still the routine I want, I know when publishing time comes, I won’t be writing, so I need to allow for that in my daily writing goal. I decided 5 days a month is a good estimate of the number of days I usually spend obsessed with publishing tasks.
1,180,000 ÷ 12 ÷ 25 = 3,933 words
I can’t write 3,933 words in 4 hours. I’d love to be able to, and maybe someday I’ll get there, but right now, if I aim for that, I’m setting myself up to fall short every time. I can write 3,933 words in 5 hours. It’ll require a bit of the “less time, more words” mentality, but I can do it consistently enough that I don’t believe I’m setting myself up for failure. :)
So, I split 5 hours into 4 blocks of 1.25 hours apiece. When I was drinking coffee and tea, this would have been a really bad idea, but I’m thinking I can do it now. Might as well take advantage of some of the benefits of being coffee and tea free, right?
Back when I had found what I believed was my ideal schedule, I started my writing day at 9 am and kept my lunch break as short as possible so I didn’t feel like it was an interruption. I decided to revisit that idea, and used it to hone my schedule. I want my midday break long enough, but not too long.
9:00–10:15 (need 984 words)
30 minute break
10:45–12:00 (need 984 words)
1 hour break
1:00–2:15 (need 983 words)
30 minute break
2:45–4:00 (need 983 words)
I usually get up between 6 and 7 in the morning. That gives me plenty of time to ease into my day, which I much prefer to rushing around and sitting down as soon as possible to write. I don’t like getting started first thing in the morning unless I’m really struggling to hold in some thought I woke up with. I remember really liking my 9 am start time. So I’m going back to it.
On the other hand, I would love to write through the evening, but I need to be done with my daily writing by 4 because I just can’t count on getting more words in later. So 4 is the cut off. Of course, if I want to write outside these times, I certainly won’t stop myself from doing it just because of the schedule.
Finally, I know a schedule isn’t something a lot of people need or want. I don’t even want it. (I really don’t.) But I do need it. I’m not good at visualizing how much time I have left in a day, and I’ve definitely found that without the schedule, I get lost in my days.
I spend more time making schedules than following them. I let myself down a lot when it comes to these things I don’t really want to do.* I don’t really know how to change that, because I want to but nothing I do seems to give me the push I need to actually change.
Heavy thoughts for the day, and I’m ready to end this post. There’s the schedule and I’m going to start tomorrow trying to stick to it.
Today I’m going for a shortened, modified version that starts at 4:30 pm. See ya when I get some writing done.
*I want to write, so I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean, but it’s how the thought came out so I’m leaving it. Or maybe it’s that I want to want to write, but I really only want to write what I want and since I’m bored or otherwise unhappy with what I’m working on, I don’t want to write it. I usually stop myself from writing anything else when I’m going through this kind of thing with self-talk about how if I’m going to write, I should just push through what I’m working on and get it done. Then, of course, I avoid writing altogether because it all feels too damn hard.
After yesterday, I don’t think “no plan” is going to work. I’m already fighting the urge to work on more covers, but I’m determined to resist. I want to get my 4 hours of writing in, and then obsess over covers some more.
Writing schedule
7:30–8:30
8:45–9:45
10:00–11:00
11:15–12:15
So that’s the plan. No covers until I’ve done my 4 hours. And if I get close enough to the end of the book to finish, I am going to do my best to push on through. The sooner it’s done, the sooner I can get those covers finished up. Win, win. :D
Also, I’m trying to break my back and neck cracking habit. That’s no fun. :o
Now I must get to work. I’m already late to my first session!
Update: And 869 words later I ended up obsessing on covers again!
I didn’t plan this hour, it just happened because I had words that came to me in the shower and had to sit down and get them out right away before I forgot them. Turns out I spent almost exactly an hour doing that. :D (I think I’m about 5,000 words or less away from the end of the book!)
I did a bit of cover design tweaking despite my new rule. I have that stuff on my brain and I just can’t get it out of there. I did stop, though, so I could go eat breakfast, and now I’m back and I’m going to stick to the rule until I’ve hit my word count goal for the day. Which even though I said above “no plan” is actually already planned out. I have that 3,233 daily quota. After that, if I want to get lost in some cover design practice, that’s fine by me as long as I don’t stay up too late again. That can’t happen again for a while. I have too much sleep to catch up on already. I don’t need to add to that.
Now, off to clip my fingernails so I can start hour 2.
I want 1,000 WPH with the next one!
And the next day…
HA! That first session was the last session I wrote during yesterday. I ended with 737 words and spent the rest of the day working on a book cover.
You see, I’m obsessed. :o I had to know if I could create a series of covers from the one I’d partially designed the night before. After an ENTIRE day of it (I finished at 9:30 last night), I succeeded! I have two complete covers now, (one needs a tiny tweak on text color but I really think it turned out very nice) and I’ve cracked the “people” issue. I can now say that if I work at it, I can get a person to look all right on a cover. People have by far been my weakest area. Typography is still up there, but it’s coming along. Buying that font (license) turned out to be a good idea. I’ve used that font for this series of covers and I really like the distinctive, but very crisp and clean, look it gives to the books’ titles.
Anyway, that’s the final word on yesterday. Today is something else. :D
No more cover design practice until I’ve finished writing some books.
Do I have to explain what happened today? Let’s just say I wrote a lot less than I needed to and I didn’t even realize I had forgotten to eat supper until midnight. Not my best day.
Today’s plan is 8 hours of writing. 4 are my normal daily 4 hours. The other 4 are extra that I’d like to do to make up for some of the time I didn’t write this past week and because I’m just getting so close to finishing this book, I’d like to get on with it! Also, I’m dying without my tv. (I can’t crack on that rule and I won’t; it’s a practice in self-discipline. I said I wouldn’t watch tv until the book was done and I meant it.)
Sessions Log:
Hour 1: 443
Hour 2
Hour 3
Hour 4
Hour 5
Hour 6 (extra) (Seriously unlikely to happen at this point)
Hour 7 (extra)
Hour 8 (extra)
I want a minimum of 4,526 in 5 hours today.
If I write for 8, I could hit 6,464 words. That would be might highest one-day word count on one of my books in a day. It’s probably not going to happen but there’s absolutely no reason I can’t try. :D
Both goals will require writing more and writing faster.
Now, time to get to it. :) Will update as I have progress to report.
Update: final numbers were 788 words, 1.46 hours.
Today’s goal
5 hours / 4,526 words / 905 WPH (still practicing: less time, more words) (I should make that my new mantra: less time, more words)
Hour 1: 800
Hour 2: 538 (Uh oh. That’s way too slow to reach my goal.)
Hour 3: 1,025 (That’s more like it!)
Hour 4: DNF (explanation below)
Hour 5: DNF (explanation below)
Extra hour?:
I have proven to myself several times over the last few successful days of writing that the caffeine was probably not the reason why I was hitting +1,000 WPH on this book a few weeks ago (before I decided to quit caffeine again). Whew. Gotta say I was a bit worried about that.
Well, I’m sorry to say I took a break after that last session, started reading a book as a way to clear my head a bit before I got back to work, and then just kept reading. It’s now 10:39 and there’s no time to get back to writing because I was supposed to get to bed 39 minutes ago (can’t get up at 6 every day if I don’t go to bed early enough to get my 8 hours!). On the other hand, I finished the book. The one I was reading, that is. :D I only wish I’d finished the one I am writing.
I tried to feel guilty for today’s disappointing results, but eh, I need to read more fiction right now anyway. It helps me enjoy writing more.
I could use some of that right now. :)
But that’s it for me. Tomorrow I’ll try again to do better with the schedule and with the words.
Here are the numbers.
| Minutes | Words | Session | WPH |
| 60 | 800 | 800 | 800 |
| 60 | 1,338 | 538 | 538 |
| 60 | 2,363 | 1,025 | 1,025 |
Yeah. I’m there. I’ve had a song on repeat ever since I started to think I was getting close to the end of this book three or four days ago. I’m starting to go a little crazy but every time I put on a different song, it just feels wrong. :o
The song doesn’t even make sense for the book. I just like the energy. :D
Today I abandoned the 40 minute sessions for 60 minute sessions. The 40 minute ones are just too trying. 6 in a day for the same 4 hours the 60 minute sessions will get me in 4. And I’m pretty used to the 60 minute length. The only time it’s a problem for me is if I’d had too much to drink—and now that I’m off coffee and tea, I’m hoping I won’t have to pause for that quite as often anymore!
Sometimes I do find the 60 minutes to be a bit hard when it comes to focus, and I do usually write faster in shorter periods of time, but there’s just too much overhead in those shorter sessions. I can get a day’s worth of work done so much quicker when I do the longer sessions. My breaks are prime opportunities for me to become distracted, so fewer breaks usually means fewer distractions (assuming I’m not jumping up and down for bathroom breaks).
So that’s where I am. Song is on repeat again, and I’m about to start hour 2 of my day’s writing.
I planned 5 total, so 4 to go including this one. I’m disappointed I’ve put it off until so late, but I don’t have any obligations tonight so I can still get them all done if I dig in and show a little grit. (Just wish I’d had more than 6 hours of sleep last night—but long story and no time left to chat.) (I am going to make a new post though with details of my progress today, because … compulsion.)
Yesterday I did too much obsessing over covers and not enough writing.
I tried to come up with a new style for my series that I’m having a cover designed for (really nervous about the possible outcome of that—I thought it would be a much more hands-off experience, but other than the art itself, I don’t love the cover I’ve seen—I haven’t liked the typography at all so far and I’m disappointed about that). I wish I could say I have faith in the designer, but the truth is, I’m just not sure. I like the designer’s portfolio but after a quick review last night to remind myself of that, I started to notice a distinct pattern to typography placement that does not fit what I have in mind for my series. In the end, I didn’t succeed in coming up with an alternate design I liked, and considering how hard it’s been for me to make these particular covers, it’s probably unrealistic to expect myself to do so without an excessive amount of obsessing over them.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally in the mood to obsess over my covers right now, but I also have a book that is getting really close to the end and I need it done three months ago. :D
So today I will write, at least for the morning hours.
Yesterday, I finished only two 40 minute sessions.
Block #1
Scheduled: 7:30–8:55 (40m, 40m)
Actual: 9:49–10:29 (40m)
Block #2
Scheduled: 10:30–11:55 (40m, 40m)
Actual: 10:30–11:34 (40m)
Block #3
Scheduled: 1:30–2:55 (40m, 40m)
Actual: none
I didn’t keep my table of word counts for some reason, so all I can say is I wrote 823 words in 80 minutes total for a pace of 617 WPH yesterday.
I also started reading another book—not one of my own. :)
Which brings up a point. I’m a bit worried about that. I usually love reading my own books and I’ve done anything I can lately to avoid them. :o And especially the first in the series of the one I’m writing now, and I really need to read that book again! I’m sure I’ve got stuff that I’m going to have to fix because I put it off and this book has taken so long to write that I’ve forgotten so much about the world.
I just don’t know what’s going on. :(
I thought I’d track my schedule today, to see just how far from my planned schedule I end up, but it really didn’t work out. I forgot to record more half the data. :o
Block #1
Block #2
Block #3
Still NO TV until I’ve finished my book. That’s been really hard on me, by the way. I miss TV something fierce. I have, however, read more fiction since the ban started. I’m really hoping to end this book this weekend so I can binge watch the latest season of Grimm. I’m hearing some good things about it, and since I put off watching because I was afraid it was going to be terrible, but I really do love the show, I’m really looking forward to this binge as a reward for finishing this book. If I don’t finish by at least midday Sunday, there’s no way I’ll have time to binge watch anything. I have another book to start right away that I can’t put off!
| Minutes | Words | Session | WPH |
| 40 | 502 | 502 | 753 |
| 40 | 1,207 | 705 | 1,058 |
| 2 | 1,248 | 41 | 1,230 |
| 40 | 1,871 | 623 | 935 |
| 40 | 2,368 | 497 | 746 |
| 40 | 2,868 | 500 | 750 |
| 11 | 3,051 | 183 | 998 |
| 213 | Total minutes |
| 3,051 | Total words |
| 859 | Total WPH |
Yay! for being over 3k today. It was my first since February.
Boo for not sticking it out and getting my full 4 hours. (Came in at 3.55 hours.)
I came up 27 minutes short. Those minutes would certainly have been enough to put me over my goal of 3,233 words, but it’s bedtime and I put it off too long. I shouldn’t even be writing this post. So… goodnight! I need my sleep after that 2 hour night the night before last!
I had zero words yesterday. I’m not surprised. I did get a few things done though! I made a cover for the pen name book 2.
Unfortunately, the new cover for book 2 means revisiting the cover for pen name book 1, because my skill level is such that I can’t count on matching up the covers when I hit on a design the works with my stock art choices (I’m really bad at choosing good images!). I thought I’d be able to match the design easily when I came up with it for book 1, but when I started working on the next one, nothing I came up with worked. I’ve been playing around with it a little here and there for months with no luck. So, a new series design was the answer.
On the fortunate side, the pen name book is still sitting in KU doing much of nothing so a new cover for it before I put it out everywhere is the best time to do it. :D I’m going to be sad, though, because I really like the cover. It’s especially pretty on the paperback. :(
So, onward with today. I had the same schedule as usual, but started too late this morning to keep to it, and now I’m about to start my second block of writing. (At 1,248 for the day so far.) I’ll talk about that later though. I have writing to do!
I started working on some book cover practice yesterday and got sucked in so I missed my last writing block.
I did a lot of thinking yesterday about some decisions I needed to make about covers. I’ve hired out the latest cover for one of my series. I’m so ambivalent about having done that that it’s driving me crazy. I committed, though, and I’m going to see it through.
The plan was to get the one cover, decide if I was ready to use it, then order the entire series redesigned. But the cover didn’t fit the book. It did, however, seem well-suited to the next one. So I had to decide if I wanted to commit to double the cost for two covers. In the end, I decided to go ahead. So I’ve actually commissioned two covers in that series at this point.
I probably shouldn’t have, because I’m still not sure I’m actually going to use the covers. But I want to use them. And how does that make sense, huh?
I think it’s because: (1) I like being in complete control of my publishing schedule. I can’t quite do that if I have someone else responsible for the covers; (2) I have certain expectations for how all of my covers work together and getting something from the designer means either I have to be very specific about my wants (maybe too specific to be easy to work with) or I’ll have to redo all my other covers to consolidate the branding. I’ve already run into a few issues, changed my mind about something, and now am not sure the designer is going to deliver something I’m going to be satisfied with.
In the end, I’ll just consider it a learning expense if that happens and I’ll use my own covers. (Let me be clear: the cover draft I’ve seen from the designer is great. That’s not the kind of satisfaction I’m talking about above.)
Just last night I was reminded of something I’ve said I believed (but maybe didn’t really believe, because I actually found myself surprised). I asked for and received some feedback on a few of my own covers (all variations for the same book) and surprise, surprise, it wasn’t the one that looked the most professional to me that got called the most eye-catching. That surprised me, to be honest. I thought one cover in particular was much stronger than the others, and one was much weaker, and yet the comments didn’t bear out my expectations.
And then I asked myself: why not?
I’ve said several times that once you get a certain level of decent with a cover, it doesn’t usually pay to keep trying to make it better, because it won’t really make much of a difference. I mean, yes, I do believe there are certain covers that just have something special that can attract a large quantity of people, but those are kind of like books: they happen by chance, they have a certain spark that can’t really be analyzed and recreated except on superficial levels. Then you hope for the best.
The only thing important after reaching “good enough to catch someone’s eye” is to signal to the right readers what’s waiting for them in the book.
So now I need to remember that—and use it to get past this horrible perfectionism that still ties me up when I’m working on a cover.
Finally, yes, I’m still off coffee and tea. But something’s got my brain working overtime, because I woke up at 2 am and couldn’t go back to sleep because of too much brain activity. Or maybe it’s the time change still screwing with me. Who knows? The end result is that I’m exhausted today and have a headache from a sleepless night, and I don’t really care why. I was miserable from 2 to 6.
| Minutes | Words | Session | WPH |
| 40 | 515 | 515 | 773 |
| 40 | 766 | 251 | 377 |
| 40 | 1,157 | 391 | 587 |
| 40 | 1,654 | 497 | 746 |
| 160 | Total minutes |
| 1,654 | Total words |
| 620 | Total WPH |
My pace was down and I can’t really explain why, but I’m hoping I’ll do a bit better today. It’s 12:04 pm, though, and I haven’t even looked at my book this morning, so we’ll see.
Believe it or not, I’m making fewer typos than usual, despite the lack of sleep, and my words are flowing nice and fast.
It might be a good day to write, in spite of everything. :D
Here’s today’s plan. It also lays out the new schedule I’m giving a try. There’s a planned 5 minute break between each 40 minute session. (Updates in parentheses.)
NO WIFI until I’ve finished my first writing sessions. (Did that.)
NO WIFI during any writing sessions. (So far, so good.)
7:30–8:55
40m (40m, 536 words)*
40m (40m, 535 words)*
(Total so far: 1,071 words)
10:30–11:55
40m (40m, 561 words)*
40m (40m, 537 words)*
(Total so far: 2,169 words)
1:30–2:55
40m (40m, 470 words)**
40m (40m, 255 words)**
(Total words today: 2,894 words)
And yes, still NO TV until I’ve finished this book!
*I’m looking at my 2 blocks this morning and thinking wow. That consistency in output is startling for me. Also, my average words per hour is 813 at the moment, and it’s a caffeine-free number! :D
As long as I don’t bog down in the last block of writing sessions, I should make my 3,233 word goal today. I’m really hoping I can speed up a bit and write a few extra words too. :)
**Alright. I finished the day with less than my goal of 3,233, but those last two sessions were hard. I started much later than I’d planned, at nearly 4 pm and I was tired, and it shows in my word counts. The plan is to possibly do another writing session of indeterminate length later tonight if I feel like it to make up the difference between my word count and 3,233 (339 words). I just hate to end the day that close to true success. :D
I had intentions today, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be. Or maybe it was and I just found a way around it. :D
The fact is, I made a plan last night (will detail it tomorrow), and then tried this morning to work it, but, GAH!, the time change really messed me up this morning. I was off my routine from the moment I woke up and couldn’t get back to it. But I procrastinated well today and got a lot done. (No TV probably helped that!)
Only 27 minutes and 288 words of that was writing related. Well, except for going over an email from a cover designer and trying to decide if the cover made sense for one of my upcoming (unfinished!) books. I haven’t decided.
I actually think the cover would work well for a different upcoming book in the series, but suggesting that would pretty much commit me to the new look for the series, while just today I was doing my own mock-up practice cover for the book (oh, yeah, forgot about that being writing related work today too!) and trying to figure out why I still want to make my own cover despite having already committed to having one designed by someone else!
But—I do have a session log!
| Minutes | Words | Session | WPH |
| 27 | 288 | 288 | 640 |
Update: UGH! Failed!*
Today I intend to write. Yes, WRITE. It’ll be 3 o’clock or so when I finally start on it, but when I do, I think I’ll aim for the following.
6 40 minute sessions with a 5 minute break between sessions 1-3, a longer break, then the same for sessions 4-6.
On the caffeine withdrawal, I think I can blame it for how quickly fatigue is setting in with my forearm muscles. Nothing else has changed lately, just me going from no coffee to lots of coffee and back to no coffee at all. Head still hurts a bit, feels like an ache more than a throb, but I just can’t explain this forearm pain any other way. The fact is, the only time I usually have it is when I type too fast for too long. That’s definitely not my problem this time!
*Failed to get started again today in favor of television I didn’t even want to watch. Still not sure why I hate the idea of writing the rest of this book! And still not sure why I can’t just set it aside and move on to something else for a while—although maybe it’s because I’m afraid I won’t get back to the other book in a reasonable amount of time! So, I’m just going to have to say no to TV tomorrow.
In fact, here’s a challenge for me—no TV until I finish this book. If I actually put in the time on it, it’d only take me a few days, a week at the absolute most, to finish the book! So. No TV til it’s done.
Update: Failed!*
Today’s plan is the same as yesterday: do eight 30 minute sessions of 405 words each.
Like yesterday, I’m dealing with a lot of resistance to getting started.
I’m noticing that typing with the new keyboard cover feels harder. The key presses need a firmer finger, and my forearm muscles are feeling achy. I’m wondering if it’s a problem from the new keyboard cover, of if it’s just another unfortunate side-effect of the caffeine withdrawal. I don’t know. My fingernails are annoying me, but I clipped them just the day before yesterday and they’re too short to clip again. I’ve been achy in a lot of places both yesterday and today. Little twinges of pain, like pinched nerves or tight muscles. I’ve switched out the keyboard cover several times trying to figure out if this is a real thing, but in all honesty, I can’t tell.
Either way, I need to push all this aside and get to work. Might be time for some acetaminophen. I don’t like to take that kind of thing too often, but if I don’t start to feel better, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to resist giving up before I’ve even started.
*I never got started at all. Although the acetaminophen did help me feel better, I wasn’t able to make myself start writing. I binge watched the last season and a half of White Collar, which I shouldn’t have started but then decided why the hell not? I’ve been wanting to catch up ever since season 5 started, and that was years ago! Then I spent a ridiculous amount of time last night and this morning going over the series ending in my head, figuring out why I didn’t really like it. I’ve had to resort to distracting myself today every time my thoughts wander that way again. (And yes, they do keep wandering back to that, somewhat obsessively.)