Author: Lynn

Sunny, beautiful, and cold enough to freeze the R off winter

Lynn

My kids’ school had a two hour delay today because of the weather, so my writing is having a two hour delay.

It’s just a few minutes after 9 am and while my day might be off kilter, I just had breakfast and I’m going to try really (really, really) hard to get my 5 x 50 minute writing sessions done before lunch so I’ll have time to finish (and begin) formatting some paperbacks I need to format but that I haven’t gotten back to since I started the project.

This is one reason I’m trying this experiment to stop my writing time from sprawling across the entire day. If the writing comes first, I end up doing nothing but the writing and there are other things I need to do to keep up the publishing side of my writing career.

Optimistic about tomorrow’s writing

Lynn

I’m hoping I’ll make progress on the ending of my novel tomorrow. It’d be great if I could actually finish it. That’s actually a possibility now that I think about it. I’m sitting at just over 48,000 words. My original aim for the book was half that. Then I jacked it up to 30,000, at which point I realized the book was most likely going to make novel length and so I quit aiming for any particular word count.

When I went looking through the “deleted” editions to find some bit of info I was sure I’d already written about, I discovered that several of my previous versions were actually remarkably good and probably even better than what I ended up writing this time.

In all likelihood, they shouldn’t have been deleted in the first place. If I hadn’t been so stuck on the idea of reaching the end of the book by 25,000 words, any of these versions could have led to a perfectly good story.

Ah well. Live and learn.

I’m okay with the book as is, even if part of me might always wonder what might have been if I’d kept going with one of the other plots.

But I can’t go through another redraft of any of it or I’m just going to abandon it. That’s all I can really say about that. There’s no more going back with this book. Moreover, I don’t believe the book will ever earn enough to make all the work I’ve put into it worth it, but I wanted to write this book and I did.

I wish I cared more about the market, because if I did, I’d probably be many thousands of dollars ahead of where I am, but I don’t and I can’t make myself so I just do the best I can doing what I can tolerate when it comes to the business end of publishing and writing only what I want to write. I’m sure the big sellers don’t begrudge me my modest success doing things my way—more sales for them! ;)

Setting aside feedback from others

Lynn

Not being interested in the feedback of critics is almost a necessity for long-term mental health when it comes to putting out books. I’m very lucky I’m already in a place where I can set aside the comments of others about my work. I’m a perfectionist who’s learned that it’s okay to suck. Sure, it’s embarrassing when I mess up, but at least I try. Brené Brown’s insights are worth a listen if you have the time to watch a 22 minute video at YouTube.

Yesterday’s “slow start” turned into a “did not start” day

Lynn

Yes, that’s exactly right. I wrote nothing yesterday, and I’m not sure why. Today is going to be a better day though and I’m starting that better day right now. Today’s Monday, which means it’s the first day of a new week.

I’m going to be aiming as hard as I can for that elusive 600 words in a session that could put me at 3,000 words each day once I finish all my sessions. I’d like to make up some ground (ground that I never had, actually, if one considers the fact that I’ve been behind on my 2,000 word average from day one). At the moment (counting today’s unwritten words) I’m 6,704 words behind my 2,000 a day average. If I write a bit over 3,000 today I could cut that in half and chip away at it the rest of this week. That’s the plan!

Stats posts revisited

Lynn

I’m not really seeing the point of these posts when I can just redo the accountability page I created last year and keep it updated once a week or so instead, so that’s what I’m going to do from here on out. That way I don’t have to keep remembering how I did the last stats post when I’m ready to update! :)

My writing and publishing (non)strategy

Lynn

I price high(ish) for the genre I’m in. Mostly so that I won’t have to go in and change prices anytime soon. Nothing lower than $2.99, and novels for $6.99. Collections at $8.99, but I don’t bundle novels. Too much work, tbh. Someday I might though and sell them only on non-Amazon stores where I can make a decent royalty for stuff over $9.99, because I’d likely want to charge $16.99 for a 3 novel bundle.

I don’t run sales on my books. Mostly because that would mean I had to go to some dashboard somewhere and change prices. So let me add a caveat. I’ve given away a code on my author website for my main pen name that allowed my site visitors to get a book of mine for free for a limited time, and I’ve done this twice in the last two years. It was a gift to anyone who came by my site.

I don’t study the market. In fact, I don’t read that many books in my pen names’ genres. I used to read a lot of fan fiction in related genres and I’ve been a voracious reader my whole life, but I don’t enjoy a lot of the books in the genres I write in currently. That’s why I write my own books, because I’m an unsatisfied reader.

I have a mailing list. The only time I ever send a notice is when I publish something new. I didn’t even bother to notify my list that I’d published a collection of my short stories. I might throw it at the end of my next announcement for a new book. I might not.

I publish paperbacks of all my work, but I’m behind because I do all the formatting myself. In Word. And I hate widows and orphans and runts and ugly hyphenation, so I’m a bit of a perfectionist about it. ROI means nothing to me when it comes to my paperbacks even though I keep telling myself it should. ;)

I like to write and that’s what I want to do. But I want to write what I want and publish what I want and although I do hope to make readers happy, my first goal is to make myself happy. :) Of course, I don’t talk about that on my author site. That’d be a bit rude.

I … can’t really think of anything else I do or don’t do right now but if I remember anything, I’ll update. :D

Slow start

Lynn

Time to do those 5 x 50 minute sessions. I’ve already started late, so I figure I’ll get in 2 before lunch and then have to finish the other 3 afterward.

I’m assuming (hoping) that once school’s back in on Wednesday, I’ll start having some success getting my 5 sessions complete before lunch.

Another successful day

Lynn

I’m feeling very optimistic right now about this experiment. I’ve had another successful day where I completed all 5 x 50 minute sessions of writing, and today I made it to 2,318 words, with a pace of 556 words an hour.

I enjoyed the writing so much and I had several laugh out loud moments that I’m still smiling about. :)

Back at it after two not so great days

Lynn

There’s a reason I’m sticking with averages instead of a flat daily quota. :) After two not so great days, I’ve come back strong and the writing’s been going well today. Headache’s gone and I feel good, so maybe my immune system is kicking butt. That’d be nice after a couple of years where I felt like I was getting sick every time I turned around. :D

So far today, I’ve completed 4 x 50 minute sessions and written 1,862 words. I’ll be starting that last session shortly. My pace so far is 559 words an hour and that’s after a terrible first session, much like every other day’s first session these last few days.

And while I’m a bit behind my 2,000 a day average at the moment, all I need to do is beat my 2,000 a day goal by a little extra for a week or so and I can catch right up. And I’m still hoping for some 3,000 word days that I think I’ll get when I switch stories. This particular story just seems to be slower to write for some reason and nothing I do seems to speed up my pace.

Now onward to the next session so I can count this as an entirely successful day!

5 minutes is never just 5 minutes

Lynn

That 5 minute break after my third session yesterday evening turned into several hours as I fought off a headache and fatigue (headache won). I ended up giving in and watching tv instead of finishing those last 2 sessions, but only after I convinced myself that I couldn’t think of my 951 words as a failure.

I can’t, but that doesn’t mean I was exactly right last night either. The whole point of having my goal be an average daily word count instead of a flat daily quota that I must meet is to give me some flexibility. The kids are still on their winter break and yesterday was a bit of a mess, schedule wise, because I made that production schedule instead of getting started writing so I could finish by lunch.

It wasn’t a bad day when I look at it like that.

I woke up with one side of my head completely stopped up, but other than a bit of a pressure headache under my right temple and around my eye, I don’t feel that bad. However, I’m not foolish enough to believe this isn’t likely to worsen as the day goes on and I start to get tired.

So, I’m going to get right to my writing this morning. Breakfast is over and I’m ready to go with my second cup of tea, some music for concentration, and determination to reach at least 2,500 words during my 5 x 50 minute sessions.

Oh my

Lynn

I’m struggling here. I’ve finished my 3rd session today and I’m dragging so much that my current average pace is 380 words an hour. I’ve finished only 951 words in 2.5 hours and if I want to hit my minimum 2,000 words in the next 2 x 50 minute sessions I’m going to have to pick up speed.

I have about 5 minutes of my break left to stretch my legs, so I’d better get to it.

2/5 of a successful day so far…

Lynn

I’ve completed the first 2 x 50 minute sessions I planned to complete today (on the schedule I revised in my last post) and now it’s lunch time. I had an unexpected visitor that interrupted my second session and there’s just not enough time left to complete the third one I wanted to do before lunch.

So, although I’m hoping for a second successful day for my experiment, I’m only 2/5 of the way there at this moment.

Once I break away from my writing, making it back becomes a real trial, so today I’m going to need to be on my guard for the kinds of distractions that usually grab hold of me and won’t let go.

Anyway, I wrote 584 words in 1.67 hours, which kind of sucks, but most of that suckage came from the mere 85 words I got in the first 50 minutes. I spent way too much time going back over what I’d written in the last few paragraphs yesterday and essentially rewrote the whole thing trying to get it right so I could move on.

So 85 words in the first 50 minutes and 499 in the second. Hopefully I can keep that momentum when I come back after lunch. :)

I made a production schedule for 2015 (and screwed up my morning’s writing)

Lynn

Boo. I started to write this morning and got distracted and created a production schedule for 2015. It’s no big deal, except for the fact that it completely threw off my morning writing and really, that was the main goal I had today, to get my writing started early and finished by lunch.

Crud.

Anyway, I’m resetting myself and I’m about to start my sessions and I still plan to get 3 in before lunch. :) Then I’ll finish the other 2 right after and move on to other stuff I need to do, like prep those paperbacks I keep putting off. At this point, I actually need to finish them ASAP.

I like my production schedule though and I added those books to my list of WIPs in my spreadsheet (series notation, no titles yet for the majority of them) in the order I want to finish them. :)

If I can maintain a 2,000 word a day average and don’t go long on most of my books, I’ll complete 18 books this year, most of them novels. :D

Here’s to a happy and productive writing year in 2015.

Finally, a successful day for this experiment

Lynn

I finished all 5 x 50 minute sessions before lunch today. I went over by an hour and a half but that’s not too bad. I’ll just work to get better.

I made it to 2,276 in 4.17 hours, for an average of 546 words an hour. Not the 600 per session I wanted, but better than the 400 minimum I needed to reach 2,000 words. Now, what to do with the rest of my day?

I make no promises to write more today, but that 3,000 is beckoning, so you never know. :)

I’m going to make it

Lynn

Only one session to go. I completed writing sessions number 3 and 4, and I’m sitting at 1,634 words at 3.33 hours. That’s an average speed of 490 words per hour. If I maintain that, I’ll at least hit my 2,000 minimum word count goal for the day.

Now back to work. I’m starting to get hungry but I’m finishing this last session before I stop for lunch! When this 50 minutes is over, my writing block will have stretched from 8:30 to 2:10, or about 40 minutes longer than it should have. Meaning I took 1 hour and 40 minutes of breaks. I wish it felt like I’d had that much break time!

It’s tomorrow … again

Lynn

So far, not so great. I ended my first 50 minute session with 363 words.

Then I ended my second 50 minute session with 490 words. Cumulative.

It’s like I write, and then I spend the next however long tweaking and tuning and there’s no way out of that because what I wrote the first time wasn’t complete and didn’t have everything the way it needed to be. I’m not talking about word choice or flow or anything like that, although I admit I do tweak a bit of that as I go. What I’m talking about is the actual scene—what happens, when, and in what order.

If that isn’t right, I can’t move on.

Ugh. Well, my break is over and I have to get on my next session before I fall behind. BBL.

But… yay! 2 x 50 minutes sessions down and 3 to go before lunch and I think I might actually make it today, which will mean my first success with this experiment!

High hopes for tomorrow

Lynn

I’m going to call it a night, optimistic that tomorrow will be a great day for writing. I’m thinking I have to be close to finishing this novella turned novel, and so I’m going into the next couple of days with the attitude that any one of them could see me write the end of this book. :)

As far as today went, I made it to 1,454 words and I’m happy enough with that to call it a day so I can get some extra sleep and stave off all the sickness going around. I seriously do not want to get sick this winter.

Also, I’m going to have to go check out a noise or I won’t sleep. I don’t know why I have to be so paranoid sometimes. I really wish I could let these things go, but I live in a house with hardwood floors and a basement and I hear all the same pops and cracks every night and sometimes they set off my imagination and sometimes they don’t.

My grandmother had a similar issue and I probably picked it up from her. But hey, we all know a writer is well served by an active imagination, and when my writing is going well, I often have disturbing dreams of the kind that wake you up and keep you awake.

So maybe the one is related to the other and I just haven’t recognized that fact.

Let’s just call it a personality quirk and leave it at that. ;)

And seriously, why does it always have to be spiders in my dreams?

Bleep … bleep … bleep

Lynn

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.