Finished 2,311 words this morning—now it’s time to do about 3,399 more.
Author: Lynn
Finished Reading Another Book—13 of 60
I finished reading another book. This one was The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold.
“Read another book” wasn’t exactly accurate, because I’ve read several non-fiction books, and started so many other books and stories that I feel weird implying that finding the time to read is an effort. It’s not. I read constantly. What I read is where the problem is. I don’t read enough fiction these days, and finding time to finish reading a book is where I seem to fall short. :D
But I finished The Man Who Folded Himself several days ago and I really liked it. I’m afraid at my current pace of finishing, I’m going to fall terribly short of my 60 book goal. So—on to the next!
In This Instance, Shorter Is Better
I’m a bit frustrated with the 15 minute sessions, because although I should be able to make them work, they’re not working. Could be the part I’m writing in my book, or just the usual I can’t quite hold my attention on my writing for the required length of time thing.
I’m willing to bet hot chocolate on the latter, and popsicles on the former. :D
Whatever the cause, the outcome is the same. Few words, and not enough progress.
So, it’s back to the 5 minute sessions for the rest of the book and maybe a trial run with the 15 minute sessions when I’m back at work on one of my other books.
I might update later with a comparison of my output with the two session lengths.
UPDATE:
I can’t really tell a difference in speed, although there is a difference in output between the two days I switched. I averaged 677 wph the day I used 15 minute sessions and 816 the day I used 5 minute sessions, which seems like a difference, but when I look several days back, I have slow days using the 5 minute sessions too, where my speed is anywhere from 300 to 600 wph. The biggest difference is that I wrote for a longer period of time with the 5 minute sessions and definitely ended with a better word count for the day. But truly, I don’t know if that’s because of session length or some other reason, because I’m on a deadline and I’m feeling the pressure to spend more time writing.
What I do know is that my ideal work day would be to sit and write because it’s just something I do each morning until I hit my word count and not have to track these metrics. If I could be confident I could sit down and write my word count every day in a reasonable amount of time, I really wouldn’t care what my words per hour and my daily average amounted to.
(Rare days off would be okay, but they tend to balloon into more off days than on if I don’t monitor like a hawk. Even after 87-ish days of writing every day, I still have that moment where I think, Oh crap. Did I write yesterday? I noticed it most when I was working on publishing my last book, but when my attention’s on something, I can become single-minded to the nth degree.)
I could easily set production goals based around daily word count goals and ignore time altogether, with the basic assumption that this or that word count goal is reasonable for me.
Ah well. I’ll figure something out. :o I don’t give up easily when I really want something and that’s the kind of writers’ life I want.
Reminder to self
I cannot even comprehend how much time I’ve wasted as I procrastinate my way out of meeting my latest deadline.
Writing In 15 Minute Sessions
I’m trying out a new writing method now that I’ve finally got back into the swing of things. I’m finding the 5 minute sessions a little annoying the last few days so I’ve reverted to 15 minute sessions. I’m trying to do 3 every hour, and hit 800 words. I haven’t done it yet, but I do think I can so I’m going to practice that for a while.
What I’m hoping to gain is the ability to write more—of course. :D Say, 5 to 7 hours a day at 800 words each… That would be a pretty nice output by anyone’s standards! I’d get 15 minutes to recharge every hour. Yep. I’m liking this idea a lot and I’m optimistic I can make it work for a while. :D
I’ll report back later today with some numbers to see if this thing’s working out.
UPDATE: I liked it. I had trouble meeting the 800 words goal (267 per session) but I think I just need to keep practicing. All told, here are my results:
session 1 – 3 sprints – 543 words
session 2 – 3 sprints – 481 words
session 3 – 3 sprints – 423 words
session 4 – 3 sprints – 521 words
I came up 1,232 short of where I would’ve been if I’d managed the 800. Still, I did like this way of working! It was a nice change from the mad pace of the 5 minute sessions and I’m hopeful I can train my brain to hit 300 in 15 minutes. ;)
I’m calling it a success and worth further experimentation. :D
Hit a Wall…
I started out weak today, writing only 1,601 words in about 3 hours. Hit a wall, and reacted by taking lunch and watching television. One quick episode of Bitten turned into the rest of the season, and when that was over, I migrated to catching up with season 3 of Revenge.
I have to say, I like Bitten, except when I don’t. I kinda hate the female lead. She kind of sounds like someone’s holding her nose while she talks. And I feel mean for mentioning that, but it truly is the reason that character annoys me. The voice. It’s all about the voice.
Logan is my darling on that show, although I admit to a certain appreciation of Jeremy, Nick, and Clay, in that order. Although let me be honest, I kind of thought Nick was going to turn out to be a gay werewolf and then that never happened. :D Philip was a cutie, but honestly, that story line was played up way too much for what happened in the end. I know cliffhangers and shock value are important for these kinds of shows, but yuck. I was just disappointed.
Now, the other shocking revelation? I’m sorry to say that reveal wasn’t that shocking. I have no idea what gave it away, but three episodes from the end, I started to have a strong suspicion that what was going to turn out to be true, would turn out to be true, and oh, boy, I was exactly right.
Back to Philip though. What a waste. There were so many other chances for something to have happened to make an impact and yet… there you go. Throw it in at the end to fulfill the gore quotient. I mean, she’d already made her choice! How did that accomplish anything? Here’s hoping they do a Bobby Ewing or something and have those last thirty seconds be nothing but a bad dream. Doubt I’ll get my wish, but I’m making it anyway. :)
As for Revenge, well, Emily has become quite unsympathetic to me and I often find myself rooting for Victoria as often as Emily these days. If not for Nolan and Aiden, I might be tempted to jump ship (lol) but I do like some of the characters on that show and they keep me watching even though the underlying premise is starting to wear. I want to see someone important go down! Soon! And I just googled spoilers for the rest of the season I’m watching and it looks like I might not be disappointed. Then again, I’ve now lost all interest in watching the remaining episodes, so there ya go.
I love spoilers but they do sometimes make me less interested in a show, especially if the only thing keeping me watching is my desire to know what happens next. These are the probably won’t watch these episodes a second time shows. When there’s more going for a show for me than the simple desire to just know what happens, those are the shows that I rewatch. Sometimes so many times I even lose track. The sad news is that these shows are much rarer these days. I don’t know if it’s a change in me, or a change in the shows. But I’ve seen the episodes of SGA, SG-1, Voyager, ST:TNG, Grimm, and a few others many more than once. What is it about those shows that makes them rewatchable? I have no idea. Wish I did, because then I’d write all my books that way. :D
Gah. I clearly watched entirely too much television today.
But back to the real business here and that’d be my writing. I need some good ideas to get this story moving again. Boo hoo. Why can’t I think of anything fun to throw in? This deadline is going to kill me if I don’t get moving again.
Ah well. It’s 11:51 12:28 am (where’d the time go?!) and I’ve got to come up with something or I’m decidedly not going to make my quota the next few days. That would be really, really bad news for me. :o
If you’re looking for a way to make yourself feel hopeless…
If you’re looking for a way to make yourself feel hopeless, I don’t know of a better way than to compare yourself with another writer.
—Lawrence Block, Spider, Spin Me a Web: A Handbook for Fiction Writers
Book Published; Writing Next Book; Dining Room Chair
I got my book published last week. I’ve been trying to get started again on my next book, which is already 55% written as long as I come in close to my word count goal on it.
I haven’t had much success so far, having only written about 930 words on this next one since I finished the other book. But I’m giving it a stronger push today. I did, however, have to push aside my nice cushy chair and put the spindle-back dining room chair at my desk again. It makes me sad to know that if I get too comfortable, I can’t write, but it appears to be a demonstrable fact these days. Cushy chair is good for lots of stuff, but not serious writing.
I also am revisiting my thoughts on the 5 minute sessions. I definitely think it works for me, and even though I had trouble with the last book, as I’ve re-read parts of this one (huge amounts of it written with those 5 minute sessions, and alongside other stories while I wrote on as many as 4 books in one day some days), I’m finding that it doesn’t have any of the same issues I experienced with the other book. So, I don’t think either of those methods is to blame for my feelings on the last book, or even my troubles with tying up my loose ends and my ending. And since both methods work so well for me, I’m not abandoning either strategy. (Also, this book has actually gotten me my highest average rating on one of my books on Goodreads to date, so what do those feelings actually mean?)
For the foreseeable future, I’ll be using 5 minute sessions, and I’ll work on more than one story a day if I start to slow down too much on any one story.
And now, I need to get back to writing. I’m going to do several hours of 5 minute sessions so I can up that word count. I have a deadline to meet for this new book. :D
I’m also still pushing for the elusive 200 words in 5 minutes goal. I’ve done it exactly 1 time out of 623 attempts. I know, because I’ve got a spreadsheet. ;)
Editing Still
Ouch. I had hoped to be done by now. I’m at 71% done. The good news is that the last 20% or so should be in much better shape than the other 80%, the bad news is that I don’t actually know that.
I’m feeling more apathetic about this story than I should and that scares me. :o There are sections I wrote where I had a lot of fun and sections I wrote where I was excited, etc, and now those sections are doing nothing for me as a reader. :O I write for me so I can enjoy my own stories later and as you can imagine, I’m very concerned about my own reaction to what I’ve written. I’m not usually one of those people who gets sick of their stories. And maybe I’m not sick of it now, maybe I just need some distance. Maybe I’m still in the critical space in my head I’ve been trying to climb out of over the last few months, because I admit, I’m having trouble reading and enjoying any fiction at the moment—and even my favorite television shows feel distant as I watch them. So maybe it really is just me.*
So, does this mean it’s time to panic? You’d think so, but I am taking this moment to remind myself that I’ve done the best I can at this moment in time and that’s all I can do. It’s either okay or it’s not, but agonizing over it isn’t going to help. Working over the story more isn’t going to help either. I did that with the novella that never ended and all it got me was a novella that never ended. :o
I’ll be putting the finishing touches on this thing, formatting it, and releasing it into the wild and then moving on to finish the next book.
And now, it’s time to get back to it. :)
I love all my books. But maybe it’s true that I love some more than others.
*Update: This book has gotten me my highest average rating on Goodreads to date for any of my books. So, yeah, I can’t trust my feelings on these issues—at least not at the moment.
Editing Day Do Over Do Over ;)
So, yesterday I totally blew off the editing because I made a book cover instead. It started out innocently enough, with me working over possible titles as I had breakfast. Then I decided I needed a bit more time before I sat down to read, so I hit the stock photo shop and spent an hour of the hour and a half I allotted for that looking at photographs. I found something tempting and decided to very quickly pull up the template I was going to use for my book cover, and try out the photo and my title on it.
I changed the title. I bought the photo license. ;)
At that point, I decided to go ahead with the cover design and save the editing for the evening.
I finished the cover in 5 hours and 42 minutes, plus an hour searching images, so probably a record time for me on a novel cover! And I’m quite pleased with it. I’m not saying a pro couldn’t have done better, and I’m not a pro by any stretch of the imagination, but I finally made layer masks work for me and was able to do a few other interesting things I don’t usually do. That learning curve is finally leveling off a bit. Whew! It’s only taken how many books? :)
Anyway, I’m getting to the editing now, though, so time to get busy today. I have a book to edit, files to make, an ebook to proof, and uploading to do (probably not all today, but ASAP, nonetheless).
Oh, and I finished my 50 words last night after almost forgetting to do them for the first time since starting my daily writing habit. I’ll have to remember to be on my guard about that while publishing stuff, but I wrote them in Evernote on my phone just before I went to sleep. Just checked this morning, and it was 97 words. Close call, that. ;)
Editing Day Do Over
So, yesterday didn’t work well as an editing day. Sick kid and all that. Other reasons too, but why bore you? So, today, it’s an editing day do over. :)
This morning I think I finally have a title for my book. I’m also working on cover copy. The house is cool, but I’m sweating, so I might be on my way to a cold to match the one my kids had. Yuck. I must get this book ready to go before I actually get sick though, so headache, be gone!
I’m going to have a long day, because now I not only have to finish editing the book, I have to do a cover (something that often takes me two days because I hate doing it and I’m not that proficient with the software) and cover copy, and if I have time (I won’t, but I’m trying to be an optimist) format the epub with Jutoh. :D
I always plan to have a lot more time between finishing a book and releasing it, but alas, it never seems to work out that way.
Editing Day
I’m probably going to keep my daily writing streak alive today with the bare minimum word count, because for the moment, I have lots to do.
I didn’t start editing yesterday as I had planned. Night before last, I tossed and turned and woke up absolutely certain that my ending wasn’t right. I tried to ignore that feeling, but I never could get more than a page in on the editing, and I finally gave up and read a few pages from a few different writers’ books I enjoy (Spider, Spin Me A Web; Bird by Bird; The Courage to Write; Self-editing for Fiction Writers) just to loosen my mind. Then I sat down and fixed my ending. It took me just over 6 hours and I was finished at 1:06 AM.
But I love it! This was exactly what I needed to do and I’m so glad I did it. I don’t have even one tenth of the anxiety left that was plaguing me about the book. Yay! :)
Sometimes, it’s just hard work, but it pays off in the end.
Maybe the book’s good, maybe it isn’t, but I like it and that’s all that matters to me right now. :D
I sent the book to my Kindle last night and now I’m just about (yikes!) as soon as I pick up my sick kid I’m going to get started reading it.
Finished Book Woes
I am totally and completely freaking out about this book I just finished. It’s the first novel I’ve completed since January and … it feels like my writing abilities took a huge step backward in the intervening time.
I’m going to read this thing today and hope my insecurities are a product of my imagination.
Hmm. That was a bit of an unintentional pun. Ah well. :D
Time to get to work!
Finish the Book—Day 2 after the Deadline
The good night’s sleep has helped immensely. Writing is going well this morning, and the ending is back on track! Yay! :D
UPDATE: I’ve deleted over 2,400 words (bye bye gunfight! but this ending is moving right along now! Love it. Whew! I might actually make it today. :D
I can feel the book coming to a close. I actually had to go back and find my ending (that’s why all the deleted words), because I overshot it. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I had a scene that probably should have been the end but I was treating it as just another thing… I fixed that and voila!
UPDATE: Done!
Finish the Book—Day After the Deadline
I do not like drama of the personal kind. But of course, drama is impossible to get away from completely, and this afternoon I completely failed to escape a diabolical attempt to interrupt my ridiculously tight schedule.
Because of that, I lost a few hours of writing time, and, yeah, this is where I admit I didn’t finish the book yesterday even though yesterday was my seriously serious deadline. Now I’m going to be up tonight later than planned trying to finish, and will probably get a late start tomorrow as a result, and … this is why I hate drama!
But I also had a sick kid home from school today and that weighed on my mind, making it a bit hard to concentrate in my earlier sessions.
After giving it a few minutes thought, I actually think I’m going to get some extra rest tonight and give this a fresh go in the morning. I don’t want a lack of rest to make me more susceptible to catching the cold my kid has. I do not have time for a cold right now, so I’d appreciate it if it would stay away until at least September 19th. ;)
Also, I’m not sure where the ending it going. I’ve stalled out and I don’t really like what I have, so it could be that I need some additional thinking time on this. I’m going to use my beloved “send to Kindle” app to send this book to me for a quick perusal before I drift off to dreamland. I doubt it can hurt! :D
Finish the Book—Deadline
Okay, so I didn’t finish last night. I wrote a lot, and ended the day with a net word count of 2,419. That put me 304 words over my goal for the book. There was plenty of working over of the last few scenes as I worked stuff out, but I ended up with some really good stuff. ;)
I still have to write the climax and ending. Ah, the beauty of deadlines. I’ve done much better on this book than my last few, which all went way over the goal word counts, by tens of thousands of words. My very last book, in fact, went 27,000+ words over.
I feel like a total success with this one even though I know I’m going to end just a bit high! :D
My goal today is to end the book in 3,000 words and to write all those 3,000 by 1 PM. It’s possible I’m being optimistic here about how few words I need for a good climax and validation, but we’ll see. I’ve already managed to get a bunch of my threads tied up in the last couple of chapters and set everything up to go boom in the very next scene. :D
UPDATE: Gunfight! :)
UPDATE 2: I wrote 1,265 before I broke for lunch. I came up quite short of my goal. Now I’ve swapped out my spindle-back dining room chair and settled into my new seat because it’s more comfortable and my plan is to write straight through for 4 hours with as few breaks as I can manage. Can’t do that in the hard chair. I do 5 minute sessions in that chair and yeah, maybe that’s 60 sessions but that’s also 60 breaks! I don’t want to be taking breaks for the next few hours. I want to fall into my story and just write toward that ending I need to get done tonight. :) Wish me luck!
Good luck, me! :D
Finish the Book Challenge—Day 3
Still working on finishing the book. Today I’m going to push hard to get to the end.
I’ll be over my word count goal in less than 2,000 more words, but I’m hoping I don’t go too long! ;) I need to be done today because tomorrow is the deadline and I’d like to finish early. :D
UPDATE: I’m over my word count goal for this book at this point, although not by much (216 words). I took a quick break to have supper and watch a favorite show, and now I’m getting back to work. I have a bit to delete as I go, so I doubt I’ll increase the count by too much at the moment, although later tonight, as I really get into the climax, I expect to grow the story by another few thousand words. But I’m so happy the ending is finally coming together. I had a strange twist happen, but it fits so perfectly, it’s like I set it up intentionally, and I love it when that happens!
Finish the Book Challenge—Day 2
I did not finish my book yesterday, so I’m trying again today. :) I have 3 days until my self-imposed deadline that is not as self-imposed as it sounds. If the book isn’t done on Thursday, my publishing schedule will be completely messed up and I will in all likelihood not publish by the date I promised the book, something to be avoided at all costs.
I’m excited because I think this book is winding up for a finale and that gives me hope that I’ll be done on time.
I’m planning to get started early today, so off for breakfast and I’ll be back to start writing very shortly. :D
Finish the Book Challenge
I’m hoping to finish a book today! :D I supposedly need about 5,240 words to finish. Supposedly, because that’s how many words it will take to reach my goal word count for this novel. I actually have no idea if that’s going to be the end of the book, but I’m hoping to find out today!
I’ve set aside 7 one-hour blocks of time today to work on finding out and to reach 5,240 words.
I need a decent climax for the book and it hasn’t come to me yet. In fact, I’ll be completely honest here, I don’t have a clue if this book is even going to hold together. I’m trying to wrap up a plot that I don’t have figured out and I’m also trying to find something in what I’ve written that I can bring together into a satisfying ending for this story.
It feels kind of like a collection of events with no true—and ah ha! I might have just had a realization. The plot is secondary to the relationships in this one and I think I need to have one of my characters have some kind of realization about this relationship, then I can wing it with the plot and end that and the book might be done.
I’m really hoping I don’t do another book like this one for a while. The plot just never has come together for it. I’m not even sure what promise the beginning makes—seems like it has to do with the relationship much more so than anything else now that I’ve had that thought, so we’ll see!
Oh, and there is one other element that absolutely must be addressed and now that I think about that—that could definitely be part of the promise and should be part of the climax as well … which will create an issue for the relationship and will hopefully all fit together nicely.
Time to get to work!
I Must Stop Visiting Most Writers’ Forums and Blogs
It’s time I started to avoid the self-sabotaging habits of visiting certain writers’ forums and blogs.
There are a few blogs I read that I find helpful and inspirational, even motivational, but there are also a number of blogs I’ve had to quit reading altogether. One makes me mad every time I read it, one disappoints me, a few more just leave me feeling disheartened when I read them—I face reality every day and I completely agree that writing is hard work and you have to be willing to put in so much more than you’re going to get back to start with, but the constant refrain of “if you don’t do this, you have no chance of success” annoys me when I clearly don’t do “this” and yet am not a failure.
I guess what I’m saying is that I didn’t realize so many writers were assholes. :D I’m not sure I like having found that out, and I definitely don’t feel like reminding myself of that every time I open a web browser.
Several forums make me feel the same.
Maybe a better way to explain it is that reading these forums and blogs on a regular basis sucks the creative energy right out of me. I lose my enthusiasm for my stories, for writing, for creating. These places make me feel all tangled up inside. I want to spend time with other writers, but I really don’t want to spend time with people I don’t like. That makes it sound like I don’t like most of the people I’ve met on forums and through blogs, but that’s not true. Not true at all. But I find being around people I don’t like so destructive that it completely overwhelms the joy I get from being around people I do like.
I don’t know why. I’m sure there are lots of writers who enjoy these places and receive more energy from these places than they lose, but that’s not me. Interacting even with people I like takes a lot of energy from me. Putting myself in the position of interacting with people I don’t like? It’s starting to feel a bit self-destructive, tbh.
I’ve become a conflict junkie. I don’t create it or participate, but I find myself drawn to those threads and those blog posts, reading about how horrible all writers are for not caring about this or that—or readers. Good Lord, am I tired of that one! I am a reader. I care about readers. I just chose to care mostly about the things that I as a reader would care about and that’s not the things that some of these other people care about—obviously—but my reader concerns (and therefore writer concerns) are apparently wrong.
Anyway, didn’t mean to go there, but maybe you’re getting the point here. I need to get away from that stuff.
I need contact with other writers, and I’m not sure how I’m going to get it, but I’ll have to figure something else out.
I need to spend more time reading good fiction (without discovering how much I just don’t like some of the authors of some of that good stuff because it completely ruins the reading experience for me). I need to spend more time reading and re-reading good craft and writing life books. I need to spend more time learning new things because this inspires my creativity like almost nothing else.
Now, this has made me almost an hour late getting started on my writing today so I’ve got to wrap it up.
Finally, here are some blogs that I still love.
- J.A. Konrath’s blog (lots of conflict but his stuff is different because he’s so inspiring)
- Hugh Howey’s blog (such a positive person that his posts are easy to read and enjoy)
- Dean Wesley Smith’s blog (sometimes abrasive but inspiring and very helpful and friendly when you have real questions)
- I’m sure there are more but I can’t think of them—the pressure! I’m in a hurry to get writing before this post starts eating into my second hour of writing time! :D