Year: 2016

Less time, more words_v2

Lynn

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.

Less time, more words; goal today is 4,526 words in 5 hours

Lynn

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.

Saturday’s session log

Minutes Words Session WPH
60 800 800 800
60 1,338 538 538
60 2,363 1,025 1,025

 

Ever listen to a song so often on repeat you hear it in your head ALL THE TIME?

Lynn

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.)

Not enough writing; obsessing over covers

Lynn

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.

Yesterday’s session log

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. :(

First 3,000+ words day in a while; schedule tracking

Lynn

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

  • Scheduled: 7:30–8:55 (40m, 40m)
  • Actual: 8:30–10:07 (40m, 40m)

Block #2

  • Scheduled: 10:30–11:55 (40m, 40m)
  • Actual: 12:07–

Block #3

  • Scheduled: 1:30–2:55 (40m, 40m)
  • Actual:

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!

Today’s session log

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!

Zero day yesterday but today is looking up; more cover talk

Lynn

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!

About yesterday, book covers, a sleepless night, and work

Lynn

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.

Tuesday’s session log

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

Today’s plan and a new schedule

Lynn

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

Lynn

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

Late start today

Lynn

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.

Today’s intentions: resist the resistance

Lynn

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.)

Today’s intentions

Lynn

— To Remember —

* (Re)Committed to 1,180,000 12-month experiment
* Never try to catch up more than one day
* If I want days off, should finish week early
* Don’t need to track progress on goal (1)
* Just keep striving for my word counts daily

Today’s plan is to do eight 30 minute sessions of 405 words each.

Update: No writing on this day (yesterday now). Too much resistance. Every time I thought about getting started on that book, I had this uncontrollable urge to do something—anything—else. (Seems to be repeating itself this morning, but I’m going to have to find a way to resist the resistance.)

(1) Doing the best I can every day, only a few outcomes are likely from tracking: demotivating failure or temptation to ease up with success. Neither of those outcomes will make it more likely I’ll reach my goal.

Maybe I’ve been wrong about intentions

Lynn

Okay, I’m really just thinking out loud here, but I’m going to try an experiment.

I don’t know that limiting myself to talking only about results and not intentions is actually helping me. I don’t have to admit I screwed up by not following through, sure, but… where’s the motivation to get going? The accountability when I don’t? The excitement and joy when I do?

So—the experiment. I’m going to post my (writing) intentions each morning. Although I’d like to get on track to meet my 12-month 1,180,000 words challenge, the day to day work might change based on what I want to do on each particular day. I’ll keep the post short so I don’t use up a bunch of thought energy on it, and I’ll follow up with a results post later on that I can ramble in if I want.

I’ll start this tomorrow morning and see how it goes. :)

No more coffee—really!

Lynn

I’ve quit coffee again. I’m not having a hard time of it this time, no coffee cravings, I mean, and maybe that’s because I was off it for a while—and all these withdrawal symptoms have just made me stubborn.

I’m tired of coffee/caffeine having this power over me and making me feel this way just because I decide to skip it for a day or two. I’m done with it. I’m not going back. Not even for the occasional, recreational coffee when I’m out. I’m just done, done, done.

I had my last cup of coffee on Saturday and it’s Tuesday afternoon now. The headache didn’t get bad until yesterday. Now it’s just lingering, annoying me when I move my head. The worst symptom has been a surprise, because I don’t remember having it before, but for the last three days, I’ve felt like I’m starving. Absolute, stomach-growling starvation. I cannot get enough food. It’s crazy!

Luckily, I track my food intake because I’ve been working for a year to lose the weight I gained when I swapped the job for the writing, so I’m monitoring the problem. But as I said, it’s been a surprise withdrawal symptom this time, because I don’t remember having dealt with this one before. Usually it’s just the headache and neck ache, a feverish feeling, and maybe some irritability.

I had hoped to do a better job with the writing today, but it didn’t happen, so I can either be mad at myself about that—or be mad at the caffeine. I choose caffeine.

Caffeine is a drug and withdrawal sucks.

Now I’m going to cook up some dinner and think about how to get myself writing again before I have to give up entirely on my 12-month 1,180,000 words plan. >:(

 

Losing focus, not writing, and why not?

Lynn

My post titles are not the best. But this one says everything I want it to say. I got started this morning on today’s writing plan, and although I started late (no real reason, unfortunately), I did get in 25 minutes by 9 am. I wrote 183 words. That’s SO SLOW at 439 words an hour.

I took a break and should have gotten back to the computer at 9:15. I lingered, though, and ended up back here at 9:23.

I haven’t been writing. When I sat down at 9:23, I closed my eyes and tried to stave off the headache that had started twinging behind my right eye. Then, after I gave up on a quick nap, I took a look at a book on Amazon, thought about sending the sample to my Kindle but decided against it, and here I am, at 10:02.

The acetaminophen I took during the break has finally kicked in and the headache is very light at the moment. I want to get back to writing, but I’m not sure I will. I’m tired and I want to write about as bad as I want to move right now—not very damn much. ;)

Besides which, the book I’m working on is in a weird place and I don’t know what to do with it. Too much focus on people other than my main characters. This book has been like that from the beginning and I’m not sure why. All I’ll say is if it doesn’t recover, I might be done with this series. I just can’t keep up the interest, and I won’t make myself write (can’t really) if I’m not enjoying it. It was an experiment, so I’m not going to agonize too much over abandoning it if it’s not working for me.

Anyway, hour #3 of morning writing is supposed to start around 10:30, so I think I’ll try a 10 minute session, take a short break until 10:30 and then get that last hour in. Even if I just tinker with the text, that’s going to be better than sitting here doing nothing but longing for a distraction.

I’m trying to exercise my willpower today and avoid most of the normal distractions: certain forums and blogs where I can read comments all day and still not run out of new comments to read. Deciding to visit those places can definitely trigger an addictive cycle of F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out), and make me want to click refresh all day. So, avoid avoid avoid. That’s the plan.

If I’m feeling desperate for a distraction, I’m going to try to turn to reading some fiction instead.

I picked out a disaster book about a modern plague yesterday since nothing else has been appealing lately and surprise, surprise, I’m actually really interested in getting to sit down with this one and do some reading. I’m sure it helped that the opening started right off with someone feeling sick, which is great!, because one thing I hate is a plague story that makes me wait more than a page for someone to get ill. ;)

Anyway, time is flying and I’m now without enough time to write before 10:30 (it’s 10:27), so I’ll just do that break and then do an hour of writing before I go ahead and stop for lunch. I’m already hungry. :o

It was stupid of me to ever start that caffeine habit back up. Let’s hope the lesson sticks this time.

Goal for the next hour: Prove the caffeine wasn’t the only reason I was writing fast last week.

Update: I didn’t prove what I wanted to prove. I wrote 414 words in two separate sessions that totaled 55 minutes. That means I was writing at 452 wph, which isn’t even my average pace. Ugh. The story is bogged down again, and I just want to give up on it. I can’t do that!

Fake tea works for me

Lynn

I decided to try a fake-out this morning, and I’m surprised but it actually seems to be working. I boiled up some water in my teapot as usual (I love my little blue teapot!) and poured it into a tea cup on top of 1/2 tsp of lemon juice and 1 drop of lemon essential oil. It feels like I’m drinking herbal tea. I’m not, but it has definitely worked to fake out my need for something hot by my side as I work.

I wasn’t sure it would work, but there you have it: fake tea has done the trick.

I think I’ll buy a fresh lemon and try a slice of it in my water instead of the juice and essential oil. Maybe a slice of orange would trick me into thinking I’d had my orange jasmine green tea? I think I’ll try it next! :)

There is no magic pill

Lynn

I’ve spent the whole day planning.

I’ve planned my calorie intake (11850 per week if that’s of interest to you).

I’ve planned my menu (just eat as much of the same thing every day this week as possible to save time).

I’ve planned to quit drinking coffee again and do it with as little agony as possible, because caffeine withdrawal SUCKS and since I had 4 or 5 cups of coffee today (can’t remember exactly) plus three cups of green tea and I’ve been having that much every day for over a week now, I know I’m going to suffer tomorrow no matter how much green tea I drink trying to offset the problem.*

I’ve planned how to catch up on my writing goal of 1,180,000 words in 12 months.

I’m tired of planning, but the truth is, I don’t feel well enough to do much more than plan. Mentally, my thoughts are a jumbled mess. Physically, I have a bellyache and a headache. I blame the coffee.

*Why? Why, oh, why am I stuck on this coffee question again? I had a moment today where I realized I just don’t feel well. I’ve had a lot of headaches this week, many more than is usual for me, and my stomach has stayed upset. All the energy I had when I first started drinking coffee again is already gone. I did great with my focus and concentration for a bit less than a week and now it’s just gone. I feel terrible physically. Worse than I did, for sure. I’m also right back where I started when it comes to my writing. And if I’m not going to get the benefits, why the hell am I drinking the stuff? As desperately as I want to find one, there is no magic pill.

Thinking out loud helps me think better

Lynn

I started wondering at the purpose of this blog again this morning, just as I was about to write another “I’m not meeting my goals at the moment, but I’m going to do better” post and discovered it would be post number 721, and I actually came up with a couple of interesting (to me) answers today.

It comes down to this: I think better when I’m talking or writing. Or I shouldn’t say “think” better, more like, I think in a more organized way—writing things down, or talking them out, is a way for me to unravel the thoughts that knot up in my head. Because that happens a lot. I can get caught up in circular thinking and I lose track of what I’m thinking about even. Since I don’t always have people around to talk to—or I just don’t want to bother those people—I choose to write the thoughts down instead.

I like writing things down. I have lots of journals and notepads and Evernote, and when I get antsy, I start writing it out. I write down so much stuff that I often look back at it and wonder what’s the point, but I do it anyway, again and again. I cannot resist the urge to write stuff down. I don’t really want to resist that urge, tbh.

That still leaves unanswered the question of why I choose to blog those thoughts instead of just leave them in Evernote or in a tablet somewhere (where, tbh, tons and tons of those thoughts still end up despite me having the blog!). I don’t actually know the answer to that. I’ve tried to figure it out a dozen times or twenty, but I never seem to come up with an answer that satisfies me. I’ve tried several times to just limit myself to writing about my writing in Evernote or a journal, and yet, I always end up back here, ready to make all this stuff public.

Maybe it’s a form of accountability that I can’t get anywhere else and I just don’t know where to draw the line about what I share and what I don’t share in the effort to be accountable.

Could be. Could also be—simply—that I like imagining someone reading this stuff and commiserating with me and being hopeful that I’ll eventually reach one of my crazy-big goals. :D

Can’t do that with a private blog in Evernote. No one but me will ever read those things and I’m not enough of a narcissist to think they will. After I die, my journals and computers and files all will end up in the trash or a box in someone’s attic to molder and fade and become obsolete and unusable.

TBH, I don’t mind that. People get on with their lives even after someone dear to them dies and that’s just natural. But while I’m here, I’d prefer to write here, on the blog, and hope that maybe someone will get something—even just a moment’s entertainment—out of my words.

That feels real to me and I think I finally understand why I can’t just keep this all to myself in Evernote.

Sorry, but post number 722 is coming soon. :D

A few fallow days but not done for

Lynn

Here’s a bit of an accountability check-in: I’m falling behind on my 1,180,000 in 12 months goal. I didn’t do well with the writing on Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday I did no writing at all.

The school had some admin days and the kids had a four-day weekend. They returned to school Wednesday. I did okay, although not great, the first day, Saturday. I was still hanging on on Sunday. Monday I was finding it really hard to concentrate when I sat at the computer but I got lucky and got some words done really early that day, but the rest of Monday I gave up on and just worked on my tax return instead. By Tuesday I was completely off my routine—and getting back to it is the big challenge now.

Even the smallest of bumps in the road tend to throw me into a ditch. I’m attempting to climb out now, by writing this post and reminding myself that the embankment isn’t as high as it looks. It’s an illusion.

I’m now 19,402 words behind on my goal. The daily word count needed to catch up is still very close to my current goal: 3,233/3,286. It’s still a reasonable number! If I can reach 3,233 each day, I can reach 3,286—so I’m not giving up and I’m not going to reset my start date.

I’ll just keep trying to write four hours each and every day and plan for success.

Also, I’m going to work on limiting myself to reporting results instead of intentions.

Does that mean I shouldn’t post this? :o

Probably. Ah well. It’s already written so I’m posting anyway. :D

Too little writing but still better than average

Lynn

Yesterday I found myself, again, with fewer hours of writing than I had planned or hoped for. I wrote for 2 hours and spent most of the rest of the day working on getting ready to do my taxes. :D

Yes, I had quite a bit of clean up of my accounting to take care of so I could reconcile my accounts and compare my numbers to the 1099s I received. As far as all of that goes, I tend to put it off until I have about 3 months to catch up and then I catch it all up at once. I don’t want this to be my method, but it’s definitely turned out that way. I took the time to schedule time into my calendar for this every month, so we’ll see how that goes in the next few months. :D Maybe well—I can certainly hope!

Today, I still need to reconcile the bank statements for those last few months of the year and then I can move on to actually starting the tax return. Yay. (That’s sarcasm, just so you know.) :D

As far as yesterday’s writing goes, here are the session logs I recorded.

Minutes Words Session WPH
44 540 540 736
65 1,602 1,062 980
11 1,885 283 1,544
120 Total minutes
1,885 Total words
943 Total WPH

I can blame some of this slow down on the fact that my kids have been home for a long weekend. They’re still here today, but I’m hoping to overcome that and get my 4 hours in anyway. :)

Well, it’s 8:08 and I don’t want to start any later than it already is, so I’ll be back later!*

*I’ve noticed on short days I tend to keep hoping I’ll make up the time and hit my goal and update then, but on days I finish, I update right away. That’s what I’m going for today. :)