Author: Lynn

I wrote 1,577 words this morning—but I almost didn’t. At 51 minutes left on the timer, I was only about 100 words from my projected minimum (1,084 words at 500 wph) and I thought seriously about quitting as soon as I hit it. I hadn’t made up my mind when I passed that number but I wasn’t paying close attention to the timer and the next time I stopped it, it was at 21 minutes. I decided to work on my last paragraph just a bit more and restarted it. Then at 10 minutes left, I was over 1,300 words and I was so close to giving up, but… I only had 10 minutes left after all so I managed to convince myself to persevere, so I doubled checked a plot issue that crosses over from the last book to this one and by the time the timer went off, I’d written another couple hundred words. Yay!

I enjoyed a successful morning and that’s even including a phone call from my sister. I really like talking to my family and I almost never turn them away. So… I just have to work around it.

I admit, 8:55 am to 12:50 pm for 2 hours and 10 minutes of writing isn’t exactly efficient, but it seems to be about the best I can do. :o I really should have started at 7:30 and this morning I’m not really sure why I didn’t. Oh well. I’m happy and I have a long break ahead of me regardless because 7:30 pm is still many hours away! Toodle-ooh. :D

So, today I’m really going to push for that second session tonight. I did manage to pull up my morning pace so that I finished only 65 words under my minimum. I wrote 1,019 words this morning. If things go okay tonight, I might be able to make that up without too much trouble and end the day where I’m hoping to end it: >2,000 words!

But I am taking a break because my head feels funny and I can’t concentrate. I had to turn the heat up. I also had a really strange dizzy spell, while sitting down!, but I think it’s because I’m still phlegmy from that cold (or another one, who knows at this point), and it’s possible I’m having some ear trouble.

Anyway, that’s just to say I’m having trouble staying in my story and my mind keeps wandering. I’m going to give myself 5 more minutes and then I’m getting back to work to try to plow through the hour and twenty minutes I have left of this morning session. I’m bummed because my pace right now is only 371 wph so if I don’t pick up speed, I’m not going to reach my minimum for this morning’s writing. Wish me luck. :)

I wrote 153 words today and every bit of that was the 23 minutes I needed to catch up from yesterday. After that, I had planned to write at 7:30 pm, but I never got started.

I’m noticing a pattern here. I think I’m going to have to push for the time in the evening because I’m not doing it just because I ought to. Finally, the morning time is really going to have to be the one session I prioritize every single day because if I don’t do it, I don’t seem to do much writing at all.

Now, to figure out how I’m going to push for that evening time… My current habits don’t seem to want to give way for it (and that’s probably the biggest problem with it, but I’d LOVE to be able to make it work as is).

One last note. I found out today that my toddler niece has the flu. Yesterday she sat directly across from me at a small card table and coughed in my direction more than once. I knew she wasn’t feeling well but I didn’t imagine she had the flu, poor thing. Either way though, I have my fingers crossed that I haven’t caught the flu. I really meant to get the flu shot this year and I just never got around to it. According to the CDC, it could take 1 to 4 days to show symptoms, with 2 days being average. You can bet I’ll be watching with an eagle eye for any signs of illness!

Still, I better get on the ball tomorrow and get some decent word counts in because I definitely need to build up a buffer. This is not a month in which I want to fall behind.

I wrote 244 words yesterday. I lost a lot of time to a scene I wrote the day before. In an hour I’d managed only to add 52 more words than I deleted. The scene didn’t need that kind of work, either, so that’s kind of a bummer.

I’m not getting sucked into that again until the final read through (when it’s possible I’ll ignore it then too). :D

I came up short about 20 minutes on my morning time, so I’m going to make that up today before I start this morning’s time.

My average since I got back on the daily writing wagon is still over 1,000 words a day. If I can push myself to start hitting that evening session (still haven’t done it), that’ll double my word count and push me past the 2,000 a day average mark. Good luck me! :D

Hmm. Although I wrote 1,103 words today, I’m noticing that I’m spending a lot of time in the afternoons and evenings watching television instead of doing something more important (like reading! writing! or publishing tasks!).

That said, I’ve made it to day 5 of this streak with an average of over 1,000 words a day. Now to convert that to 2,000 words a day without derailing my progress. I think I’ll let it ride just a little longer before I mess with the good thing I’ve got going here.

What is it I have going here? Well, I’m writing in the mornings and planning to write in the evenings. I say planning because I haven’t actually done any writing in the evenings yet. My routine is simple: I write for 2 hours 10 minutes in the morning first thing, and then write for 2 hours 10 minutes in the evening last thing (start around 7:30 am and 7:30 pm). This leaves the vast majority of my day completely free. :) I am loving it.

I have a reason for the 2 hours 10 minutes but I’m not going to bore you. Suffice to say, it’s on a spreadsheet and it’s a very dynamic number that I’ll revisit monthly, assuming I’m able to stick with this one for a while. :)

I wrote 1,345 words today. I’m really pleased with the plan I’m following. I might need to try a little harder with certain aspects of it if I want to reach 2,000 words a day regularly but I’m going to give it another few days before I force the issue. I might just be building up to it. Weather related school closings have continued and there are some administrative days coming, so I won’t actually be back into my normal routine until Wednesday. :o

Either way, there’s no doubt this is a streak now. :D I just finished day 4.

I wrote 1,302 words today. I’ll have to correct this tomorrow if I’m remembering incorrectly. Too tired to fire up the computer tonight and double check. :)

(Yep. I got it right.)

I wrote 1,734 words today. Two days of writing in a row. It’s official. It’s a streak. ;)

I’m not finished with the day’s writing, but I can say now that this isn’t going to be a 0 word day. I think I’m going to like this new plan. I’ll tell you about it later this week after I see if it has legs. ;)

So after having another 0 word day yesterday, I sat down and created a new plan. I’m optimistic. I’ll tell you later if it works.

Let’s see. I wrote a gigantic post detailing why I’m still not writing each day. Then it occurred to me: Don’t dwell on the past.

And stress = exhaustion.

Or that’s what I’m assuming anyway, since I’m no longer sick and I don’t have any other explanation for why I’m so tired!

Yesterday I meant to get back to writing. I didn’t. I procrastinated by finishing the interior formatting on that paperback I’m working on. It’s done now. :)

Still, I should’ve written yesterday, but when evening came, I couldn’t tear myself away from the formatting until it was finished. Once I did, I sat down for a few minutes to relax and … fell asleep sitting up again! Admittedly, it was about 9 pm at this point, but still I can’t believe I’ve been so tired the last couple of days. I’m just sleepy all the time. I think it’s coming off that nasty cold and then getting stressed about the heat pump issue and the weather.

Lots of the snow and ice have melted overnight and today because it rained and the temperature stayed above freezing, so that’s finally something I can quit worrying about.

I’m hoping a couple of days with some extra sleep is all I need. I might try another nap today if I can fall asleep. (I couldn’t fall asleep yesterday when I tried!) If not, I’m just going to assume I won’t get anything done today after 7 or 8 and work with that.

0 words today. I’ll explain in a post tomorrow. I’m too sleepy to do it right now. :o

This isn’t the same post twice… or maybe it is. The fact is I’m not two days in on a 0 words a day streak! This is one streak I want to break ASAP. Today’s been a bit slow but I did spend this morning formatting a paperback. This evening I’m going to switch to writing and aim at that 2,000 words I want to reach.

I swear, it might be time to go back to coffee just so I don’t fall asleep sitting up (which I actually did last night). :o I wish I could go back to coffee—I’ve been craving it something fierce—but alas, I’m thinking I’m sleeping better since I quit it and I’m afraid to mess up a good thing now that I haven’t been feeling so fatigued.

Although, you wouldn’t know it from my recent word counts. I’m going to fix that this week though, seriously! Starting this evening. Aiming for 2k, won’t settle for less than 1k to start off a new daily writing streak.

I’m so sad. I broke my streak before it even got started. I wrote 0 words yesterday.

The only thing I have to say for myself is that I procrastinated well. I finished my taxes. :) Taxes are always a pain and it’s nice to have them done already. Also, school has been out the entire week for the kids, including today, so I’m calling this week a holiday.

Still gonna write today, but I don’t think I’ll be getting started this morning. This cold weather is killing my heat pump. It faulted out again last night, but this time I noticed the “low water temp” error. I checked yesterday’s message and it was the same. Luckily, like yesterday, the unit started working normally once I reset it.

The error is probably caused by the fact that the unit is putting cold water back into the well and drawing out water that’s gotten too cold. Getting a repair person out isn’t likely to help. The unit is sending out water that’s about 32° F according to the thermometer on the unit’s outgoing water line where it’s mixing with the 54° F ground water and likely lowering the water temperature in the well so that what’s coming out isn’t 54°.

Anyway, the outside temperature is about 10–15° higher today than yesterday, so that’s going to help. The unit has actually shut off a few times today. Yesterday, it shut off only once all day. I’m just glad the heater doesn’t seem to need a repair! I’ve had to deal with enough of that stuff already this year. Really!

And wow, I expect my electric bill will be high this month. The house stayed 66° F last night and the night before because of the backup heat strips in the unit. Ouch! but worth it. I spent my adolescence in a house with nothing but wood heat, where the wood stove was in the basement and intended to heat the entire house. There were a few times I spent my winter break from school down there reading in a folding chair beside the fire. :o Waking up in a frigid house is just more cold than I want to deal with these days and if that means a higher electric bill, so be it. :)

Anyway, besides that, I can’t type when my fingers get cold. ;)

Hopefully I’ll have a decent word count to post later tonight. I’m keeping the laptop charged so that if the power goes out in the predicted freezing rain we’ll be getting later, I can write anyway. :D