Category: Writing

Posts about writing. Writing is my work but since I work better when I pretend work isn’t work, I mostly call it fun—even when it isn’t. ;)

I have two writing streaks going!

Lynn

Addendum to the aside about my writing streak: I have two writing streaks going now.

  1. >100 words a day for three days
  2. increasing words per day for three days

So—awesome?! start to the new year. ;) (Stop laughing! *evil glare*)

Not only that, but I don’t feel feverish today, don’t feel sick, and don’t feel all that tired either. So good health too.

I think I’m losing weight but since I’ve abandoned my scale (it’s in the closet) I can’t say for sure.

I’m pretty happy with abandoning all these metrics of success and failure and the goal setting stuff. I feel free.

I need, now, to translate that into more writing and some real weight loss. 2017 seems like just the year for it. :D

Happy new year, everyone!

Coming up next: a new year’s update on the progress I’ve had building a pen name. Spoiler! I should’ve just written more books for my main name.

Why I don’t like goals

Lynn

I’ve been thinking about goals and habits and systems again. I’ve talked about those things many times in the past, and I have continually chased goals and failed to meet the vast majority of them. I’m really getting tired of failing.

A forum post I read today talked about how binary the whole goal mentality is: succeed or fail. Sure, you can play mind games with yourself and try to remember that you haven’t actually failed if you’ve made progress, but… really? When you set a goal, if you don’t reach it, your brain is going to tell you you’ve failed. And too much failure definitely takes a psychological toll.

Just yesterday I had a talk with my son about how I’d made 2016 sound like my worst year for writing since I’d started publishing. But it wasn’t. It was very close to an average year, and better even than 2014.

2012: 146,821
2013: 268,191
2014: 217,641
2015: 250,011
2016: 220,017

The monthly averages show how close those numbers really are:

2012: 24,470
2013: 22,349
2014: 18,137
2015: 20,834
2016: 18,335

But it felt like a terrible year, all the way around, because I had set such large goals at the beginning of the year and I came nowhere near reaching them. 2016 was the year I tried to write 1,180,000 words in 12 months; it was the year I decided 4,558 was a reasonable number of words to expect from myself most days.

Looking back, I have no idea what I was thinking.

Getting back to work

Lynn

Headache is better today. Now I need to get back to my writing.

I’ve been hoping I would write if I didn’t have a plan other than my 2,000 words a day goal and took some time off from the timers. But so far nothing is happening. Maybe because of holidays and being sick so I’m not going to give up on it yet. I’m tempted, mind you, but I’m not doing it. It’s time to settle in for a longer experiment with this and see what happens.

On that note, I’m going for lunch, then getting started on something. My list of things I want to do today is significant. I won’t get to them all, but it’d be nice if I got to some of them, and still wrote my 2,000 plus words today.

Changes coming to categories and tags

Lynn

It’s about time for my annual sweep up of categories and tags on this blog. I haven’t figured out a better system for organizing my many posts yet, but as soon as I get a good idea, I’m going to make some changes. I really hate the current arrangement of categories and tags. They just don’t work well at all for me!

Update: I’ve started making changes. They’re small so far, but more are coming.

Update the second: I think I’ve decided to let the old posts rest as they are, updating them as I feel like it, and go forward with the changes I want. That’ll mean a bit of a mess, but not too much of one. :)

The new year… I’m not ready!

Lynn

Well, back in mid-December sometime, I decided I was going to get myself to 2,000 words a day and stick there so I’d be all ready for the new year and my goal of 2,000 a day. :o

Then the holidays came. Then I got sick. I felt better yesterday, but stuff happened and I ended up doing other things (necessary things, actually). Today I don’t feel so well, because the headache is more present today, and I found out my phone lines were down after a storm yesterday evening. I hadn’t noticed because I hadn’t tried to call anyone and my DSL internet service was still working, although it was acting up a bit.

So, another derail. And as I’m typing this, my connection is gone again. I assume it’s the repairman still trying to fix things. He’s been at it for a while now, because the outage isn’t just with my house; there are several houses in the area that are out according to him.

Still, I think I can drum up the energy to get back to writing today. Only, what I really feel like doing is working on a plan for 2017. Or taking a nap. I could really use a nap right now.

Anyway, all that’s just to say I’m not ready for the new year. I barely got into this one.

Derailed from writing yesterday by All Romance Ebooks news

Lynn

All Romance Ebooks (aka Omnilit) is closing and I received the notice yesterday. So instead of writing I spent the day inactivating my books, removing links to them from my author websites, adjusting my sales spreadsheet, and reading reactions to the news.

This led me to doing my receipts and bills which is something I usually do on Tuesdays after my bank posts weekend transactions but didn’t do this Tuesday because I was sick. Then I caught up the accounting for my writing business because I’m going to be out about $780 because of ARe’s closure.

They’re offering to settle to avoid bankruptcy and legal action but I’m undecided.

Accept $0.10 on the dollar?

That’s $78 in lieu of the $780 that I’m owed. Knowing I can sue is worth $78 to me and $0.10 on the dollar is ridiculous.

But my cost benefit analysis tells me I should take the settlement because I won’t recoup the money owed and the stress of suing would not be good for me and my writing.

If I had the money, I’d sue for the principle of the thing, but 2016 has not been my best year. I didn’t publish enough and what I did publish wasn’t the stuff I can count on to make good money.

Priorities, huh?

Maybe I’ll get them right in 2017.

Feeling well enough to write

Lynn

I’m still in bed, writing this on my Kindle Fire, but when I get up I’m going to need to get writing today. My headache is improved although my eyeballs still hurt when I move them and my head is a bit sore feeling, especially around my temples and neck area. But the fever stayed gone last night so that makes about 24 hours without a fever.

I’ve lost several days of writing time, but I don’t honestly know how much I would have written anyway so I’m just going to put that behind me and aim to do as well as I can today.

Unintended holiday break

Lynn

Sick! I have no idea what kind of illness I’ve caught but I’ve been down with a sick headache and fever for two days.

I’m hoping for a reprieve tomorrow. For the first time in two days I’m starting to feel like the headache might be easing up. It’s been a doozy.

Another false start

Lynn

Today I didn’t write, nor did I finish my Christmas shopping. :o I’m not sure when I became one of those people, but yep, I’m there. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I’ll have to finish my gift shopping in the morning.

This is not the person I want to be and that’s something I need to really spend some time thinking about because I’m there.

I am there.

Also, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I didn’t write yesterday either, except for the blog post in which I talked about how I was going to write 2,000 words.

Same goals, different day—a do-over for yesterday

Lynn

Yesterday I didn’t do any of the things I had planned, so I’m giving myself a do-over. Getting started is hard, and when I get started, I don’t plan to stop, so I’m just going to consider yesterday a false start.

Today I will write more than 2,000 words.

Today I will format a paperback and ready it for uploading.

Today I will finish my online Christmas shopping. ;)

Today I will stop making excuses for not writing as much as I say I want to write.

Today I will stop second guessing my writing process and stop wishing I was a faster writer.

Never mind when I say I didn’t do any of the things I had planned, because I did do that last one. I deleted the extra stuff on my spreadsheet that tracked my wph. Not the historical data, just the bits that tracked current day’s sessions: these things.

The first four items were really important though and I failed to do any of them. :o

So, first things first, online Christmas shopping must get done.

Then I will write some.

Then I will format that paperback.

Then I will write some more.

Then I will shop for Christmas party needs and other Christmas gifts.

Then I have no idea what I’ll do because I have no idea if I’ll reach my 2,000 words this morning, this afternoon, or if I’ll still be desperate for writing time. :D

Did resistance win today?

Lynn

I can’t decide. I planned to write this morning before I had to be somewhere (with someone, so no rescheduling). I couldn’t concentrate (something that seems to always happen when I have a trip or event planned for later in the day) so I decided to go early, thinking I’d just be back sooner. I planned for 3.5 hours away. It took 7 hours.

I could have done at least some writing when I got home but I was tired and I figured I’d just do a few 12 minutes sessions before bed. But now that I’ve turned on the computer, I don’t want to. I’m tired. Like, sit here for 3 minutes with my eyes closed before I typed this sentence tired.

I’m going to bed. I’ll have to answer the question about resistance later.

 

Not going to let resistance win today (It didn’t! Yay!)

Lynn

I’m going to sit down five times today and write at least 600 words. That’s the plan.

This little table of word counts that I put into my spreadsheet fits just perfectly on the main page so I don’t have to flip between worksheets. I’m hoping it will keep me on track.

The 12 is minutes. I do find it easier to keep my pace high in shorter sessions, so that’s the reason for that.

12 is .2 hours so all my decimal equivalents for the day’s writing will be nice and even.

20 x .2 = 4 hours

Now, time to write. I’m going to update this post regularly with my session counts today, to keep my mind focused on my plan.

Update #1

273 words in 4 sessions. The screenshot from my spreadsheet shows how poorly I did during each session. Only the last one shows promise.

I spent most of my 4 sessions working my way through already written material so maybe I can make up for some of this deficit in the next group of sessions.

Update #2

495 words in 4 sessions. Still under-performing.

Update #3

475 in 4 sessions.

Resistance hasn’t won, but something is sure holding me back. I’ve not reached 600 a group yet.

Update #4

558 words in 4 sessions.

There’ll be no more updates tonight because I had a few interruptions and came up short on time.

I finished the fourth block in two batches of two sessions each (notice that 49 when I came back? Obviously lost some momentum there…) and won’t finish the last block at all. It’s already past my bedtime by an hour or more. :)

However, I do feel like this little plan worked great and I’m going to try to keep it going, starting with tomorrow. Tomorrow might just have 4 blocks, but we shall see if I can fit one more in there. :D

Writing plan for Dec. 16, 2016

Lynn

Today I’m planning to do 10 sessions of 24 minutes each. (There’s a reason.)

It’s 11:19 AM and the day is dreary but writing is going to make it more fun. On the other hand, because I’m freezing, I’ve decided my character should be freezing too, and I’ve put him in a situation that makes that possible. ;) Poor baby. I’ve made him miserable, but hey, misery loves company as they say.

Anyway, I have to get busy if I want to do 10 full sessions today and I DO.

Also, no caffeine this morning and no headache so we’ll see how long that lasts!

Somewhere in the realm of 6 hours later…

I’ve had no caffeine today. I’ve also done no writing today.

Not sure what’s going on, except that my fingers are cold and stiff even though the outside temperature is about the same as yesterday (frigid), and that’s kept me hesitating every time I think of writing because I hate feeling cold and I find it impossible to write when my fingers are cold.

I’ve turned the heat up to 72. We’ll see if that helps. I won’t hit 10 sessions today, but I’m not going to bed until I get over the 1,000 word mark.

No early bedtime for me tonight!

And it was like a scrubbed launch. Crap.

An experiment for today

Lynn

I wrote a post or two yesterday but decided after posting to delete them because they just didn’t feel like they represented what I was really thinking and feeling even just a few hours later. That happens sometimes, so the best way to deal with it seemed to be DELETE. :D

I’m doing an experiment today, with breaking up my writing into chunks that I’ve scattered throughout my day. I’m really hoping to get 12 sessions of 24 minutes each done by the end of the day. I’ve already completed two.

Hours Words WPH
1 0.4 86 215
2 0.4 213 533

.4 hours = 24 minutes :)

I’ve scattered them out with breaks between pairs, but the breaks aren’t really meant to be breaks as much as opportunities to do other things—distractions, in other words, but useful distractions.

The hope is that by allowing the distractions, and planning for them, I will accomplish a lot more and not feel a bit of guilt about any of it! Let’s just call them structured distractions. :D

And I did put these on my calendar, but it’s not a schedule, it’s a plan. :D

Schedules feel so set, don’t they? As if you miss a start time, you’ve failed. Plans feel flexible. Sure, it’s a bit of a game, but all of life is in our heads, and I’m just playing to the referee.

I have several things to do today that ARE on my schedule, and those can’t change, so I’ve used it to see how many sessions I should do at various points in the day to stay on track. It’s working well so far.

I need to finish 4 before lunch, 4 before dinner, and 4 more before bedtime. If I finish all these today, I’ll end up with 4.8 hours of timed writing.

Anyway, off to write more, because I do want to finish the next two by lunch and stay on track. :)

3 0.4 276 690
4 0.4 299 748

And the numbers continue to improve. :D

Hours Words WPH
1 0.4 86 215
2 0.4 213 533
3 0.4 276 690
4 0.4 299 748
5 0.4 287 718
6 0.233333 207 887

My final numbers. Unfortunately, I had to take a nap. The caffeine withdrawal is getting to me. I had a cup of decaf coffee hoping that would be enough to stave off the headache, but it didn’t work. Just not enough caffeine. I finally ended up drinking about 3/4 a cup of green tea when I was supposed to be finishing session #8 but was in actuality only on session #6 because of the desperately needed nap. Said session was interrupted when I had to leave for a family event.

The event lasted longer than I thought it would and made me more tired than I expected. I came home and did some puttering around online and didn’t even finish session #6 (as you can see in the table above).

Well. Tomorrow is a new day. :) I can only aim to fit in 10 sessions because of more family obligations, but I’m going to try for a full 10 sessions! :D Wish me luck.

Today’s “must make myself write” progress report

Lynn

Well. Some stuff happened. That stuff interfered with my writing stuff, so I haven’t written as much as I’d hoped, by a lot.

2 sessions of 36 minutes each got me 505 words. The first session was terrible. I deleted more than I wrote and ended up at -18 words. The second went much (much) better and I wrote 523 words.

I’m going to get 2 more before bed, and see where I end up for the day.

I did not manage to format that paperback, so over to tomorrow it goes. (Can’t say I’m surprised. I’m never surprised by this kind of thing anymore.)

I did pay bills, catch up my checkbook, and shop for groceries. I also put a sick kid to bed and

I did not read a book, any book, and I did not drink coffee today. I forgot to drink the tea before I left for the shopping, but I didn’t get a headache until nearly 6 p.m. so it worked out okay. I drank the green tea at about 7 p.m. and it did take away my headache but it took longer than the coffee and I still feel the faintest twinges but I’m calling it a win.

Tomorrow I will avoid all caffeine until I feel the twinges of a headache coming on and then I’ll do the green tea again. It contains between 25 to 35 mg of caffeine while the coffee contains between 95 to 200 mg.

Also, my stomach is feeling much better and the jitters are much improved.

All right, I’ve finally had enough of that

Lynn

I very much dislike the way my categories and tags for this blog are set up.

I also dislike the extra sheet in my word count tracking spread sheet. I mean, I don’t really dislike it as much as I’m just tired of the extra record keeping. Why should I care about tracking my word count for a specific book? I don’t. I really don’t. I’ll still write the same books, even if they’re slow. I want to finish each book I write faster, to take advantage of momentum, but I’ve found over the last 2.5 months that keeping up with the exact numbers isn’t helping me finish my books faster. Not at all. The deadlines aren’t helping. Only getting to the computer and setting myself goals for how much time I spend writing is helping. And I’m not doing great with that, by any means, but it is helping.

What isn’t helping is ignoring these posts, reading Kboards and DWS’s blog and The Passive Voice and NPR and the trending news stories on my Kindle tablets’ silk browser. (God, I hate Silk and trending; it plays on every obsessive personality trait I have; I’m never buying another Kindle tablet. NEVER.)

And I’m self sabotaging again, dammit. I’m supposed to have started writing for 1.5 hours at 10:45 (and I was already behind on the 1.5 hours I was supposed to do from 9 to 10:30) and here it is 11:31. Okay, I’m done with this for now. Maybe I’ll revisit later, but I’m getting back to the damn book before I just start hating myself today.

Word count post for November 2016

Lynn

November word count: 27,423
Cumulative word count: 1,092,076
Daily average: 914
Number of zero word days: 9

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
326
548
2,369
2,612
1,178
3,113
224
1,846
1,054
3,073
1,977
218
393
3,325
315
1,033
103
0
0
970
1,867
176
703

I considered a nicely formatted table but decided this is just fine. I do have the other posts that label dates, and that’s good enough for me. :)