Author: Lynn

Read Another Book—8 of 60

Lynn

Another book down! I read a cozy mystery this week, Strictly Murder (The Verity Long Mysteries Book 1) by Lynda Wilcox.

Strictly Murder - Lynda WilcoxIf it weren’t for the fact that the whole reason I started this reading challenge was so I could get through the backlog of books I have to read, I would definitely buy the sequel and start it next. I enjoyed the book a lot.

I do hope I’ll get to the other books in the series sometime, since the reviews make a case for books #3 and #4 in the series being even better, and then there’s a novella too.

This reading mini habit I’ve been working on, 2 pages of fiction a day, never less, more if I want, seems like it’s really going to keep my fiction reading on track this year.

NOTE: I decided to make an effort to read more books this year. And since I have so many unread books, I set a goal to read at least 60 of the books in my backlog by the end of the year. Here’s the log if you want to see how I’m doing.

Day 14 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Ha! It’s been 14 days now. I haven’t missed a day of writing on at least one of the 4 novels I most want (and need) to finish asap.

I wrote 69 words for one story and deleted 98 from another, so technically, I’m not necessarily going to end the day positively unless I squeeze in just a bit more writing, but hey, it counts.

Having such a small goal has helped make this possible. I suspect that if I’d set my goal above 50 words a day I wouldn’t have made it to 14 days. I just did a quick average on my spreadsheet and I’ve averaged 164 words a day over those 14 days. That’s really not that bad, considering. That said, I’m about to change things. Nothing drastic, but I think I need to change my mini habit.*

Tomorrow I’m going swimming. I love swimming, and I’m hoping I won’t burn in the sun since tomorrow’s high is supposed to be around 83° F. I’m also hoping I’ll come home rejuvenated and ready to enjoy the holiday weekend. I need a break. A real break, not one that’s caused by procrastination and anxiety—something I can enjoy. I need more of those, and fewer of the other.

*Posted! Mini Habit Revisions.

Day 13 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Finally, a breakthrough! For 13 consecutive days I’ve written more than 50 words each day before lunch. Today, I wrote more words of fiction than I’ve written in a day since June 6.

Today’s total stands at 590 words. I had 623 on one story but then started working on a different project after lunch and went backwards with my word count because I deleted more than I added. But—one of my stories has 623 words more in it today than yesterday and that makes me happy. :D

It’s possible I’m not done for the day, but I feel good about ending the day here if I am.

I’ve been away from all my stories too long. I could feel that while I wrote this morning. Too many details wouldn’t come to me without effort, and some didn’t come to me even then. I had to leave a note for myself in the story to look up someone’s name. Usually I can go right to that kind of information, but I haven’t read through the 10,000 words that are already written in at least a month, possibly longer. I started the book on April 11.

I should read my stories (those that I’m actively working on), all of them, from the beginning, but that’s 63,000 words, and I don’t want to. I don’t usually have to fight this hard to read my own stuff. I mean, I usually do it for fun. :D And I’m a re-reader.* So … at first I was worried that it meant something was wrong—with all 4 of the books I’ve been working on! Then I realized that my disinterest in reading and writing signaled more about my state of health than about the state of my books, so I added some daily exercise to my routine, and more recently, daily reading.

*Books are almost always better the second time around. Without the tension of worrying what’s going to happen, I can enjoy the anticipation of the good stuff more. :D

I’m currently at the 70% mark reading the next book in my reading challenge. This one’s a full novel. My effort to create a daily reading habit consists of a 2 page a day goal. I’m reading considerably more than 2 pages most days, but I’m happy to say that I’m not letting it overtake my life as I’ve had a tendency to do in the past.

And I just had a thought. I can add a daily reading habit to my days for my fiction too. Another mini habit. 2 pages a day. I already store copies on my Kindle using the Send to Kindle app, so this isn’t going to be any trouble whatsoever, unless I catch up to myself. In that case, I’ll just start over at the beginning. Or, you know, write faster. ;) Or even read previous books in my series again, so I can stay immersed in my worlds.

I just do not write short paragraphs that often. Sorry about that. :D

Results vs. Intentions Take Two

Lynn

Intentions?

I intended to write more tonight.

Results?

I spent two and a half hours shifting the posts on this website into and out of the different categories I have, until I realized what I was doing.

Then I stopped.

I have no idea if the sorting of my posts makes any sense, because I’m not even sure my categories make sense.

What I Learned?

I need to block this website when I sit down to write.

:D

Day 12 of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

My daily writing streak is 12 days long now. The numbers continue to be minuscule, but I’m excited to be writing daily again. I know, I know, it seems weird to be excited to have written 65 words, but it’s not a 0 on my spreadsheet and these last few days have felt like 0 word days so I feel lucky that I don’t have 0s on my spreadsheet.

That said, I hope I’m not done for the day. I really need to get back to some real writing.

It’s time to raise my daily writing expectations. That’s not to say I’m raising my required daily writing, just my expectations. If that’s possible. I mean, I hope it is. I don’t want to damage my progress, but the fact is, deadlines are looming—and fast. :o I need to write more than 50 or 100 or even 200 words a day, and I need to get started on that ASAP so I don’t screw up the last half of the year.

Also, I’m going to have to power through something that just isn’t working for me in the novella that just won’t end and deal with the consequences. That book has so not been worth it and I have no idea what happened.

Or maybe I do. I’m not writing what I thought I was writing. I stumbled over the focus of the story, and I’ve never recovered. I’ve gotten all tangled up in a rushed ending and I can’t see my way out. It’s like my brain is on a rail and I can’t get off. I keep looking for a different track—I’ve deleted thousands of words trying to backtrack and take a different rail, but I can’t reset my focus. So I’ve been trying to force things. As my current writing woes will attest, that hasn’t worked out well for me, and it’s bleeding over into everything I write until I just don’t even want to write.

I should abandon the book. I know I should. But I don’t want to. I want it done, so I can move on. Otherwise it will haunt me.

I’m serious. It will haunt me.

Read Some More Books—4–7 of 60

Lynn

NOTE: I decided to make an effort to read more books this year. And since I have so many unread books, I set a goal to read at least 60 of the books in my backlog by the end of the year. I’m even keeping a log. :)

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading short stories. And although I meant to keep all my reading limited to the backlog of books I have in my personal library, I can’t always help myself when it comes to picking up books that sound interesting. Some of the following were not part of my backlog. :o

As always, this challenge isn’t about reviewing books. I just want to read more fiction this year and this is how I’m staying accountable to that goal. ;)

I recently picked up an anthology and read Just for You by Rosalind James. It was a sweet romance set in New Zealand and it’s a tie-in for a series I haven’t read, but the short story was a successful stand-alone.

After that, I read Patriotic Gestures by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Then I read When Tony Met Adam by Suzanne Brockmann. I stayed up late and read it last night to be exact. I’ve been meaning to read this one for a long time. I should have read it sooner. It was great. I’m a total sap and it pushed all my buttons. I nearly cried. Of course, I get mushy reading angsty romance. That’s probably why I avoid angst, but it was worth it.

Finally, I read Baring It All by Megan Frampton this morning.

All in all, it’s been a good few weeks for me for fiction reading. I enjoyed all these stories. :)

At the moment, I’m about 21% in on a murder mystery novel that I won’t name until I finish, but I’m pretty confident at the moment that I’ll finish it and it will be book #8. I’ve been reading it for a couple of days now, and it’s nicely entertaining! :D

Results vs. Intentions

Lynn

I have a hard time avoiding the trap of talking about my intentions instead of just reporting on my results. I do believe I need to work on that, so for the next few weeks, I’m going to make a concerted effort to not talk about what I’m going to do, and only talk about what I’ve done. :D

Yesterday, I wrote 178 words. It was day #8 of my current streak of no more zero word days (which has a 50 word minimum).

Now, off to write my 50 words so I can exercise, have lunch, and charge this laptop while I do. My battery is at 21%. :D

Also, there’s thunder rumbling outside. So that battery charge needs to happen asap. ;)

Nearby Thunderstorm

Habits Revisited

Lynn

Mini-habits.

There’s this thing I do where I set the kitchen timer to run while my tea or coffee brews. By the time the buzzer goes off, I’m usually always doing something else, so I jump up, go into the kitchen, put on my pot holder and open the oven.

Yes, I know. There’s nothing in the oven. But that’s what habits will do to you. I’ve watched myself do this time and again, and yet I still do it without thinking.

That’s why I’m starting to think habits might be the answer to the question of how to get myself writing consistently and regularly long-term.

A few days ago, I started trying to add some habits to my day that will lead to long-term changes. Mini habits. Something I decided to try after reading an article by Stephen Guise at developgoodhabits.com.

Right now, I’m focused on consistency, so I picked a teeny tiny number of words and got started habit building.

My daily goal is to write 50 words (of fiction) before lunch.

I also set a goal to read 2 pages of fiction a day. This fits in with my goal to read more fiction this year. :)

I now have 7 consecutive days of writing behind me. I got my 50 today (133 actually) somewhere between writing the first paragraph of this post and the last. :D

And it feels GOOD. ;)

I did my morning reading…

Lynn

… when I was supposed to be doing my morning writing. Or maybe not.

I’m not even sure anymore when I’m supposed to do what. Not because of a schedule (done with those, remember?) but because my life is one big jumble of time and it gets away from me before I even have a chance to breathe.

Living without a schedule isn’t as easy at it should be: I need a stronger routine. I’m trying to fix that, but habits are slow to form and, frankly, I’m not sure I’m forming the right ones when it comes to writing. :D

I like having a routine though, and I do want to spread it out from the center so it encompasses most of my day. At the moment, the strongest part of my routine is the midpoint of my day. I exercise before lunch and I have lunch about 5 to 6 hours after I have breakfast, whatever time that happens to be.

I’ve added writing 50 words before lunch, a mini-habit in progress, if you will, whose purpose is to help me build up some consistency.

Today’s Count: 289 Words

Lynn

It took an hour of timed writing, but I wrote 289 words on the cursed novella. Think “curs-ed” not “cursed.” :D

Anyway … not that unhappy with that because at least it’s progress and I’ve managed to keep my “no more zero word days” streak alive for one more day.

Update on Personal Challenge

Lynn

Yesterday, I managed to keep my current “no zero word days” streak going with 225 words. I did not manage to get started on my latest personal challenge. I’m not sure if I’m going to attempt to start it today, or just see what I can get before I call it a night. That feels  a little like cheating—do it before I claim I meant to do it, lol, so that if I don’t do it, I can claim I wasn’t trying after all—but I’m just not sure I have it in me to go the distance tonight. It’s already late here, and I came home so tired, napped, and now I have a head full of cotton. :D

That said, I’m going to try to get some momentum going and see where I end up shortly.

Time for a Personal Challenge

Lynn

UPDATE: I’m putting off the start of this until tomorrow. I did get 227 words today though, so yay for that! Tomorrow there won’t be any allowance for exceptions, so I’ll either succeed or fail.

3 days – 2,000 words or more, every day.

Now, caveat. On day 2, I have a funeral to go to, and my kids will return home in the evening after a week away. On day 3, I have to go to a birthday party for my 80 year old grandmother and then to a baby shower.

Getting 2,000 words done around these events could become stressful. I still don’t want to wait to start. I need to start producing words regularly, daily, and 2,000 is doable, even writing slowly. I will need about 4 hours a day to get this done, and honestly, I can’t expect everything in my life to just stop so I can write all day every day. Even if I might prefer it that way. :D

I fight against structure so hard you would think I should have whiplash by now. Some days I feel it, no kidding. :D If I can’t make a decent routine work for me, then I have to find something that will work. :) A word goal is what I decided would be my best bet. I haven’t changed my mind. Long-term, I don’t expect to write every day, but the reality is I do need to write most days.

Also, I need to start using my work space more. My days are just one big blog lately, and I still think I need some kind of structure even if the routines and schedules haven’t worked well for me.

0 Words Yesterday

Lynn

I ended up with a massive headache by the end of the day, just about the time I started feeling well enough to actually do something. :) The good news is that after a good night’s sleep I feel 95 percent better today. So bring on the rest of that ending of that novella! Strangely enough my phone keeps auto spelling novela with one L. See? I fixed the first one. I’m going to have to look that up and see why and then fix it! It’s the voice recognition program in the phone that I’m taking about. But still, why 1 L in novela?

157 Words Today

Lynn

Probably won’t get any more than that. I was gone a lot of the day, and now I have the worst stomach ache I’ve had in months. I wondered why I felt so tired earlier—now I know. Unfortunately.

Yesterday I posted a release schedule on my pen name’s author site, to motivate me to finish my books sooner rather than later. Looks like I was just asking for trouble! I swore the last time I wasn’t ever doing that again, but I had to do something. I’m never gonna finish these books otherwise!

StayFocusd Chrome Extension

Lynn

UPDATE: I don’t like it so much after all. For reasons that probably have more to do with me than with it.

The StayFocusd extension for Chrome is fantastic. I’ve thought about installing it several times and talked myself out of it every time. This time I didn’t. I really like it.

I set my ACTIVE hours between 7:30 am and 4 pm, 7 days a week, and blocked all the sites I visit when I should be concentrating on writing. I also turned on STEALTH MODE. I gave myself 15 minutes of time each day to browse my BLOCKED sites, after which the extension blocks all the sites until 4 pm.

I totally used up all my time before lunch today and had to cheat by using my phone when I was taking a break. I don’t want that to become a habit, but today was a different kind of day, so I forgive myself for that. Tomorrow I won’t be so lenient. The phone will stay upstairs, I think, until I’ve done my writing for the day—as will my Kindle.

I set up the NUCLEAR option for .45 hours (about 25 minutes) for use outside of those active hours, for days when I still need to write after 4 pm…

What I most like about this extension is that I don’t have to turn anything on, on a daily basis. It remembers those ACTIVE times and just works when it’s supposed to. I don’t have to think about whether or not I need it, or if I want to use it. It’s there, and I have 15 minutes I can use for breaks during the day.

My hope is that it will keep me from wasting away all my time online, on sites I really shouldn’t spend too much time on, and give me time to just let my mind rest. A week or so ago, I made a decision to stop reading so much junk online. I also want to read more fiction. It’s been hard to do that. I’m trying to make it easier. :)

*Had to block www.amazon.com, but allow kdp.amazon.com so that I can still publish my books during the daytime hours. :) Got that wrong the first day.

 

Feeling a lot of feelings today

Lynn

It’s been a strange day. I had plans to write a lot more than I’ve actually written today.

I got 400+ words, then deleted a few notes I’d left myself and dropped back down to 304, which is where I sit now. I was there at 5 p.m. and at 6, then at 7 and at 8. Now it’s 8:38 p.m. and I still haven’t made any additional progress. I wanted to, but obviously not bad enough.

I got up excited, then got some bad news about a family member, and although I’ve tried not to dwell on the issue, I don’t think I’ve let it go either. Suicide is one of those things I just don’t understand. I’ve battled depression before, but the one thing I’ve never battled is the urge to hurt myself. But maybe because I don’t understand it, I’ve found myself thinking of it off and on today, and feeling a lot of feelings about it, and a great deal of empathy for my dead relative.

I guess you could say I’ve spent the day in a more contemplative than creative mood and my numbers show it.

Someone Else’s Good Advice

Lynn

I was randomly flitting around the internet a few nights ago and came across a post on a blog that said a lot to me. I can’t even remember how I ended up on that site, but I saved a quote from it with the “Press This” shortcut for WordPress. In the meantime, I forgot to get back to it and actually turn it into a blog post.

Well, I saw it today and remembered, so here it is.

There is something that will make your stories unique—if you let it.  Perhaps your upbringing or beliefs, the way you tackle stories, or some aspect of characterization or storytelling.  As you keep learning, you will find it.  But if you try to write like you think you should, or like “everyone else writes,” you could lose the things that make your stories unique.  You might very well end up writing stories just like some other author.  But they won’t be as good, and you’ll never reach that point that you’d really like the reach, the spot where someone says, “I would quite like to read a story by [your name.]  That’s what I’m in the mood for.”  (Think about how you feel when you want to read one of your favorite authors.  No one else’s work will quite do, because they’re unique!)  Having stories that are a bit different will make some people dislike them.  But you’re not writing to keep your head down and hope that you’ll blend into the crowd.

Take the things that hurt you, and turn them into stories.  Take your deepest pain and tears and the things you’ve learned the hard way in life, and put them into your stories.  It’s the hardest and best thing you can do for your writing—to make it deeply personal.  Nobody will actually recognize the parts that are about you, but you will always know—and that can make it terrifying to put your work out there.  But it can also make your stories matter more and mean more.

via Love Stories About Men: some writer advice, Hollis Shiloh.

It’s good advice. I mean, really good advice.