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. ;)

Remember this?

Lynn

Must stop reading forums…

Especially forums that are inhospitable to writers (after quite happily benefiting from all the content many of those writers have put up on the forum over the years). Unfortunately, I have limited self-control (none) and train wrecks are riveting. Besides which, I so want to post an “I’m leaving and never coming back” post but I’d probably be lying. The truth is I’m a passive conflict junkie, because I’m mostly a lurker who doesn’t post on these kinds of threads and I certainly don’t post “I’m leaving and never coming back” posts. :)

The last forum I left, I just decided it was time to go, changed my username, deleted the posts that were a bit more personal in nature, and then deleted my account. It’s better that way, easier, more permanent. I can’t waffle on the decision. Just, poof. I’m gone. :D

Maybe it’s time I did something similar here. I really don’t want to support a site that takes advantage of writers like that, knowing how hard it would be for most people to delete all the content they’d put on the site over the years and taking away the few benefits participation on the forum provides them. It just reinforces the idea that a person should keep most of their writings somewhere within their direct control, not hosted on a forum or blog that someone else owns.

Yep. I do believe it’s time to do some injudicious deleting. In the future, if I feel compelled to comment on something at one of these places, I’ll just quote it here and post my thoughts. :)

Now, how’m I going to do this without it being just another way to procrastinate?

Quickly, I hope! :D

Update—

Holy crap. Two and a half hours later I have finished deleting every post I ever wrote on that particular forum (just over 500 that hadn’t been deleted already—I seriously doubt it was more than 600 ever, but yikes, that was a lot of deleting). I felt a bit like I had OCD while I was doing it. I … just … couldn’t … stop, until everything was gone.

Yay?

Now, time for fresh tea and writing!

That Goal Ain’t That Big—the Numbers

Lynn

Here’s why I believe 512 titles over the next forty years is not only not impossible but actually not that much of a stretch even for me.

Assume 512 titles = 412 novels and 100 shorter works

The Numbers…

412 novels x 50,000 words = 20,600,000 words

100 shorts x 10,000 words = 1,000,000 words

20,600,000 words + 1,000,000 words = 21,600,000 words

21,600,000 words / 40 years / 365 days = 1,480 words per day average (To be precise: 1,479.452055)

I had already decided to do my best to start averaging 1,667 words a day. That’s what I want to reach in 2015, and if I do, it’ll be more than enough words to put me on the right pace to meet the 512 titles goal someday.

I’m excited by this goal. Motivated. And frankly, a little shocked at how reasonable it is for the long-term. No more 4,000 to 5,000 word averages necessary. No more struggling for 100,000 words a month. This is a great goal for someone like me, who writes quite slowly but doesn’t have to do a lot of revision, meaning that if I have a 1,667 daily average over the course of a month, then I know I’ll have a book ready to publish at the end of that month.

Now, my biggest obstacle’s going to be to increase my average daily word count. Right now I’m at 693 words a day, which is just a bit shy of 1/2 of the daily word count average I need for the 512 titles pace. So, hey, even if I don’t succeed in increasing my daily word count average by anything at all I’m still on pace to get halfway there. Now that’s something to think about.

I Found a Goal

Lynn

I’ve finally come up with a massive goal for myself, something so huge that I’ll probably spend the rest of my life chasing it.

The idea came to me as I was reading Isaac Asimov’s I.Asimov: A Memoir today. That man was one prolific writer according to everyone. And although I can barely crack 500 words an hour when I’m writing, if 500-ish titles of varying lengths is all it takes to be seen as massively prolific, well, I can be massively prolific.

It won’t be easy, but it’s definitely not impossible.

So that’s my goal, my life’s work, to write and publish 512 titles, and mostly novels at that, over the course of the rest of my life.

I figure it’ll take me about forty years to reach 512. Why 512? Because that list I linked to above had 506 titles listed, and I asked my kids how many I should go for and they said 512. I accepted the challenge.

Of course, to do it, I’m going to have to try not to drop dead before I hit eighty, so there’s that, but I can’t really do a lot about that other than try to stay in good health for the next forty years.

Here’s to a fun forty years. This is going to be awesome.

Day 16 of NANO 2014

Lynn

I’ve been reading The War of Art the last couple of days in between writing sessions. It’s a lovely book. I’m almost at the end and I’ve highlighted several lines in the book that seemed especially relevant to me.

One particular section that I highlighted seemed a little more relevant at the moment than the others.

Resistance outwits the amateur with the oldest trick in the book: It uses his own enthusiasm against him. Resistance gets us to plunge into a project with an overambitious and unrealistic timetable for its completion. It knows we can’t sustain that level of intensity. We will hit the wall. We will crash.

It’s time I stop being apologetic for my speed. I understand that there are writers who are considerably faster, and there are writers who might look at my 500 words an hour and wonder what I’m doing wrong. I’ve thought the same. But I don’t care any longer what anyone else thinks, because my speed is what it is and after several years of collecting data and trying different things to try to speed up, I’ve accepted that how I write is how I like to write, and that means I write about 500 words an hour.

The unfortunate effect of this being that I’m looking at my numbers, thinking about how much effort I’ve put into the last 6 days of writing and knowing in my heart that I probably can’t reach the 2,866 words a day I’ll need to hit every day the rest of this month to reach 50,000 words in November.

These have been my word counts over the last 6 days (technically, today is still in progress but I doubt I’ll add much to my total).
1,445
1,938
1,890
571
2,418
1,989

And I’ve written for this many hours getting those word counts.
3.83
4.77
5.18
1.25
5.50
4.34

And these have been my average words per hour for the book I started for nanowrimo.
377
406
365
457
440
458

Meaning I’m only averaging 412 words an hour on this book so far. Meaning I’ll need to write for just over 97 more hours to reach the 50,000 words by the end of the month. I just don’t see it happening. That’s just a hair under 7 hours of writing every single day for the rest of this month. Daunting to say the least and knowing my history, probably a formula for burnout if I’m not careful. So this post is me being careful. I’m reminding myself that avoiding burnout is much more important than hitting some magical number by the end of the month.

I wish I could write for 7 or 8 hours a day, but I just don’t want to. I generally sit at the computer for 10 to 12 hours just to hit a 6 hour writing goal. I know that seems like an awfully low level of efficiency, but that’s what it takes. I’ve timed and tracked and it is what it is. And I’m willing to sacrifice a lot for my writing career, but I need what time I have left for my children and my life. If I were someone who could decide to write for 7 hours, sit down and write for 7 hours and then flit away to live the other parts of my life, things would be different. But if you’ve been reading any of my posts over the last couple of years, then you know how many times I’ve tried unsuccessfully to be that kind of person. It’s time to start putting the focus on working with myself, my abilities, and my limits instead of trying so hard to change them.

It’ll be a nice change of pace. ;)

All that said, I’m not dropping out of nanowrimo. But I am saying now that the likelihood of me finishing 50,000 this month is slim and I’m not going to be that worried about it if I don’t. If I can start getting closer to that 1,667 words per day average I set as a goal for myself back on the 5th of the month, I’m going to be very happy with my progress. Getting my daily word count average up is my number one priority going into the new year, and this post is really just a reaffirmation of that. I love the energy I get from nanowrimo, but I can live without the win if it means I don’t push myself so hard I start avoiding writing again.

Day 15 of NANO 2014

Lynn

Today I’m hoping to stick to my plan to write abut 4,750 words. :)

My first session just ended (I started considerably late, but still managed to get 666 words!). I’m a bit iffy on how much time I spent writing because I didn’t note the time when I sat down to turn on the computer and type in my password so I’m just going to say about an hour and a half. (I wasn’t intending to write. I haven’t even had breakfast yet.)

Although I’m a little under 400 words short of my first 1,000 word goal, I definitely prefer to just stick to the plan I made last night instead of trying to rearrange the schedule I made up for today.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 666 words, 1.5 hours

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 781 words, 2 hours

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 971 words, 2 hours

1.5 hours (goal: 750 words)

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Update (5:32 p.m.)— Oh my. I took a much, much longer break midday than I’d planned. I’m still feeling a little icky and I’m going to blame that for the time-creep today. Now, to get back on track and finish up at a reasonable bed time tonight, I need to write for 5.5 hours straight and only take breaks if I reach my goals early. :( This makes me sad because I don’t have a good any track record for this kind of uninterrupted work. I’m going to try it anyway and start my first time the moment I press the “update” button on this post.

Day 14 of NANO 2014

Lynn

And here it is, another beautiful but frigidly cold day in November, when it’s supposed to be fall but in actually feels a hell of a lot like winter around here. I mean, there aren’t that many 30 and 40 degree days in winter where I live and to have a week of them in November like this is horrible. I don’t like it. Too bad I don’t have a choice.

My plan to write 4,000 words today

Funny, that, right? I went from a 3,000 word goal that I haven’t yet been able to meet to a 4,000 word goal that I hope to meet two days in a row so I can have Sunday to get those paperbacks finished.

I’ve been trying to do a few hours of those paperbacks each night for weeks now and it just hasn’t happened. So last night I decided that what I really need is to get started on it and then have the time to keep with it until I’m done. This seems to be my pattern. When I finally manage to get into something, it’s hard to shift my mind into a different space. I have no trouble focusing deeply on something, but I have significant trouble focusing on what I think I should be focused on! And that statement deserves that exclamation point because it is key to understanding my problems with procrastination. I procrastinate so well because once I’m working on the wrong things, I can’t seem to break away from those things to put my focus on the right thing. Just like with this blog post. I wanted to start writing at 7:30, but decided I absolutely needed to start this post first and now it’s 7:51 but I could not stop until it was done (which it isn’t yet but will be as soon as I add my session goals).

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – actual: 565 words, 1.25 hours – If I want to make this goal today, I really need to get my speed up. I’m getting into flow, or at least I feel like I am, but I just can’t seem to go.

Interlude: I started my second session and 27 words into it, I needed to revisit one of the scenes from my last book in the series and bam, I read almost half the book. That’s the trouble with writing exactly what you enjoy reading! I need to have these scenes solid in my head for the sake of continuity (and to figure out how the hell this book and that book are going to work together) and I have mentioned I don’t do any advance plotting, haven’t I? Anyway, ideas are coming fast and furious and my brain is busy sifting through them to find the ones that might work, but this is complicated. The overarching plot has grown quite a bit through books one through four and I’ve got this book and the next that have plots concurrent to the one in book four.

I’d say it was a mistake, but I actually love it. One of my favorite things is to see characters I love from the perspective of others while showing that sometimes what one person sees in an event can be totally different than another’s perspective of the same event. I get to the play with that in this series so much that it actually makes me a little giddy when I think about it. Absolutely giddy, I say. :D

But all that said, this has thrown me off my game for today because I was supposed to have finished my second 2 hours/1,000 words and I used up 1.75 hours reading my previous book instead. I can’t count the time and now I’m going to be either trying to squeeze in another two hours somewhere or lower my expectations for today’s word count.

I really don’t want to do that, so I guess I’ll find some way to fit it in.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Update (7:26 pm)—

I’m just about to start my last session of the day. I went from feeling pretty good this morning to feeling not so good at all after lunch and so I’m sitting here hoping I’m going to feel up to at least 2 more hours of writing. I’d really rather just go to bed early and sleep for the next 10 hours. But I’d also really like to end the day with at least enough words to keep me from losing any more ground this month. Just over 1,000 words would get me to 1,667 for the day, and I know I should at least try to reach that amount. It’s just 2 hours.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words)

Yeah, I know. I bailed. :(

Day 13 of NANO 2014

Lynn

My day today is one big blob of time. I shouldn’t have any interruptions so I am hopeful I’ll reach 3,000 words. In case you’re wondering, this isn’t me having rethought the things I rethought a week or so ago. This is me trying to play a bit of catch up because I’m behind in my word counts for nanowrimo. :) I’d like to win this year but I can’t do that with the daily 1,667 word goal I talked about in that post.

None of that withstanding, I’m still working hard to increase my daily word count average, because as I mentioned, it’s not where it needs to be. Since that post on November 5, my daily average has dropped to 687 words a day, because I had several more zero word days that dragged it down including a day where I ended with −2,312 words and the few good days since haven’t brought it back up yet. I’m working on it. :)

My plan to write 3,000 words today

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 859 words and 2 hours on my nano story; I’m really not sure why I’m writing so slow these days but even though it’s coming slowly, the story is moving along. Of course, I go from first draft to final draft as I write, cycling through, so I try not to agonize too much over my speed. When I’m done, I’m done, and that’s the way I like to write. :D

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 380 words and 2 hours (still working the nano story); holy crap I have no idea why this is going so slow. This is like molasses speed or something. I didn’t delete; I didn’t rewrite. I wove parts of the story together, adding continuity and finessing my way forward because … I don’t know. But yeah, even I admit that this pace is ridiculous. If I didn’t have that timer to prove how long I’d worked, I wouldn’t believe it myself.

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 651 words and 1.183 hours (nano story)

I didn’t reach 3,000 words. Not even 2,000 actually. But I’ll try again tomorrow because I’m not ready to give up on winning nanowrimo yet.

Day 12 of NANO 2014

Lynn

I seem to be holding steady to my motivation to write. Now if only I can form an awesome, indestructible habit before the next crushing bout of disinterest hits. :D One can wish, right?

My plan to write 3,000 words today

2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 575 words and 1.45 hours working on story #1 because of a couple of unavoidable interruptions
2 hours (goal: 1,000 words) – Reached 325 words and 1.32 hours on story #2 (nano story) because I spent too much time reading parts of my previous book starring my current main character. The timeline in this story is going to be a bitch to get right because there’s some considerable overlap going on. I’m not sure this is a good idea. Yikes. But … not sure I want to work the story differently either so I guess I’ll keep moving.
1.5 hours (goal: 750 words) – Reached 350 words and 1 hour working on story #2. I actually napped! I thought I hadn’t fallen asleep but since 40 minutes disappeared in the blink of an eye, I’m going to have to accept that I did. ;) Because of that, I got started late and had a hard time deadline that I had to stop at.
.5 hours (goal: 250 words) – Reached 688 words and 1 hour working on story #2. 

The weird split is because of having to be somewhere in the middle of what I’d planned to be my third session of the day. I decided I didn’t want to cut it short, so I just split it up in a way that fit into my day.

Well, it’s definitely not looking like I’ll make it to 3,000 words today, unless I’m able to write 1,750 words in the next half hour. :D

So, I’m ending the day with 1,938 words, 4.77 hours of timed writing time, and an average pace of 406 words per hour. It’s unlikely I’ll do more, although not impossible.

I did a lot of redrafting stuff today in my early sessions, and in my later ones, I was working on scenes that overlap a previous book’s timeline so I’ve had to put in a lot of attention to detail. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be faster when I try this again!

Day 11 of NANO 2014

Lynn

I climbed back on the writing wagon today! I have no idea what made today special, since I couldn’t even start writing until late afternoon today because of an out of town appointment that kept me busy from 9 AM until 3 PM.

I’m very happy but I’ve got to make this short so I don’t short change my night’s sleep.

1,445 words in 3.83 hours working on 2 stories for an average speed of 377 words per hour.

I did lots (and I mean lots) of redrafting of the last scene I’d written on story #1 and the opening of story #2. So I feel like I came out really good for the time I spent and all that I deleted. I wanted to work for 4 hours (in two 2 hour blocks) and my goal was to write about 500 words an hour. So really, I did do great.

I updated my NANO word count (which is for story #2 only) but since I didn’t record anything for a few days between the 1st and today my total’s off a bit at 1,515 on that story. Going forward everything should be correct.

Yes, I’m back to tracking my time. I’ve decided I actually like comparing myself to myself.

A Writing Dead Zone

Lynn

That’s where I’m sitting right now, in a writing dead zone. I finished that last book and I just can’t seem to get moving again. Momentum lost.

This is another tick in favor of writing on multiple stories each day, because it’s unlikely I’ll finish all these drafts at the same time, so when I finish something, I won’t have the letdown that comes with a finished project while, hopefully, I retain my momentum because I’ll just keep writing on all the other stories each day.

But first, I have to pick myself up and start writing again. Today was supposed to be a 3,000 word day, but then I decided 2,000 would do, and then 1,500. As of now, it’s 7:07 p.m. and I’ve still not written a word on that novella—or anything else.

It’s like I’ve decided that if I can’t write on the novella, I can’t write anything. Which is stupid. Of course I can still write something. And maybe writing something will be enough to keep me from losing any more momentum as the second week of November really starts to take hold.

I’ll be really glad when I get this figured out.

Day 5 of NANO 2014

Lynn

There’s no day 3 or 4 of NANO 2014 because I wrote zero words on those two days. I’m not sure why I’ve decided a late start is going to work out well for me this month, but hey, I can work with it. Day 5 is going to be a zero word day also because I’ve spent all the time on the computer I want to spend today.

As an aside, I spent most of the day updating my financial records and sales spreadsheets instead of writing and, after some messing around with a few calculations, came to the conclusion that it was time to reset.

I’ve been experiencing word-count-goal creep again, harboring unrealistic (for me) expectations and setting silly goals that have nothing to do with what I need and what I can do.

My all time daily average word count (for the last 28 months) is 693 words a day. It needs to be better. But it doesn’t need to be that much better. So I’m aiming for a 1,667 words a day or higher average for the foreseeable future. Write daily when I can. Try not to fall behind. Try to keep myself writing, because we all know how momentum works. Objects in motion and all that. :D

Day 2 of NANO 2014

Lynn

I didn’t write a thing. I did, however, watch a lot of television, get a crick in my back, sniffle a lot because of a runny nose, and have a weird little drink I mixed up before bed. Then I looked at the clock on my stove, saw it was 12:35 a.m. and thought I was seriously late going to bed. But when I sat down to shut down my computer, I noticed it said 11:35 instead. That’s when it hit me that the time changed—over 22 hours ago and I didn’t even notice.

Well.

Tomorrow isn’t quite here yet after all. Goodnight anyway!

Counting Words Before They’re Written

Lynn

I’ve had more than one occasion in the last week or two where I’ve implied I was about to write a bunch of words—but it never happened.

Kind of like counting my chicks before the eggs crack. ;o

And yet, here I go again.

Although let me just say now that unless I update with a glowing post about how much writing I got done, it’s probably fair to assume I didn’t get all that much writing done. ;)

I’m making an effort to get back to writing today. But first I’m going to try a few more pages of a book I’m thinking of reading. I’ll be back, whether sooner or later, but let’s not count those words before they’re written. :D

Update: I’ve written 746 words—on the wrong story!

I have no idea what came over me but I got into this scene in a book I started a few days ago, really just messing around, and although it’s going in a bit of a different direction than I expected, I’m really liking it. :D But, I’m starving. Gotta go for some lunch before I get back to writing.

Update deux: I didn’t get back to writing (except for a teeny tiny amount while my food cooked) because I let myself get sucked into a book instead. :) Unfortunately, it’s a long book! It’s taking quite a while to read and I’m debating stopping. But if I do I might not go back to it,  and it’s actually an entertaining book and I’m not sure I want it to be just another book I didn’t finish and then moved on from. ’Cause that happens all too often—it’s how I end up with so many unfinished good books lying around!

But, I was supposed to finish that novella in October. Oops. I really have to get on that. I mean it. This weekend. Seriously.

Not sure exactly what I’m going to do the rest of the evening, but I do know that I’ve got to start spending more time writing each and every day (with few exceptions). I’m a binge reader and a binge writer, can’t deny that, but right now for the next few months, I really need to concentrate on learning to be a better binge writer.

If I binged often enough and kept at it long enough (in a day), I could write enough that I wouldn’t have push myself toward being a daily writer. Honestly, I think that’s what I want. I’ll detail this crap in another post though. This one’s running long. ;)

Reading Binge; Why I Write

Lynn

So I’ve been in the midst of a reading binge this week. I decided I needed some time off from the pressures I’ve been putting on my writing and reading felt like the thing I really wanted to do. So I’ve been reading. A lot.

Too many books to keep up with! I’ve added those I’ve finished to the reading log. I’ve also read several of my own books again and some of my fan fiction too. Counting the started but unfinished books off in my head, there are more of them than I’ve finished. And I was pretty far into some of those books.

I can feel the binge slowing though. I’ve spent more time today looking for something to read than actually reading. I’ve read some good books that have made me crave other books that are similar but just a bit different, with this thing or that, and I’m kind of stuck in that place where nothing’s satisfying now, because nothing’s just what I want.

Meaning I’m feeling the urge to write my own stories, ones that satisfy me exactly. Last night I put down 300ish words on new story, trying to get a feel for it since it’s a bit different than my other books. Although truthfully I’m not sure it’s going to go anywhere. I start stuff a lot that never goes anywhere.

And I left my novella characters in the middle of a foot chase, so there’s that too that I need to get back to.

Another thing I realized while reading my own fan fiction though (something I finished days before I turned to writing original fiction again) is that I still feel like I’m trying too hard with my current stuff, having a hard time enjoying myself because I’m just not relaxing into the writing like I should. Ego or not, that fan fiction was good. I remember a few issues I had with the beginning of the story and how I had to do some edits on it to get it the way I wanted it to feel as I read it, but I certainly didn’t agonize over it and it reads as good as or better than some of my most recent stuff as best as I can tell.

The fact is, I can’t be objective, and I know that, but I know how it makes me feel when I read it and I’ve said it before, I love my own stuff the way a reader loves those great stories that make you want to re-read a book over and over again. I won’t ever let myself put out a book that I don’t love that way. But it’s possible I’ve come close.

When I go over my books in my head, there’s one that I haven’t re-read but a few times—many fewer times than any of my others. It’s not my worst selling book, not by far, but it’s book two of a series I have and when I think of it, I don’t get flashes of scenes that I remember that are just so juicy they make me want to go back and read them again just to feel the feelings those words make me feel. Even writing this I’m struggling to remember any one scene in the book that just makes me go—oh, wait. Maybe I’m forgetting something here because now the ending is coming to me and I’m realizing that I have read that section of that book quite a few times. I can remember the way one of my characters looked in that scene, wearing a t-shirt, belt and gun, even visualize how his hair looked and how he was standing, and how it surprised another character to see someone they’d never thought of as dangerous looking quite a bit less harmless than usual. It was a good scene. So never mind. Maybe I just need to read the book again from the beginning. ;)

The thing is I want to remember my stories. I want to remember every little detail of each one, and I enjoy going over bits and pieces of them in my head like a movie on an automatically replaying loop.

This is why I have trouble with the idea that writing is a way to get a story out of my head. Because that’s not how it is for me. Writing is the way I get a story into my head. Reading has exactly the same purpose for me.

This is also probably some of the reason I’ll never be able to write to market. I don’t control the stories I write. I write to passion. It’s the only way I can write. Some of those good books I’ve read this week have made me wish this book or that had had just a bit more of this or less of that, just missing the spot for me and in the process giving me lots of intriguing flashes of ideas that I’d love to be able to take and write stories to them. But I can’t write in most of the genres I’ve been reading in. I don’t know how to create a good story out of the daily trials of a normal life. I like big, and bad, and over the top, and what ideas I get, I don’t know where they come from, but the small moments, the tension of a slow story eludes me in my writing.

I guess it’s time I made myself try one just to push myself as a writer. I honest to God didn’t think I’d be able to write the third book in one of my series because it went somewhere I wasn’t sure I could go as a writer—a character had to change significantly from the start of the book to the end. I remember conversations I had about that book with my mother where I worried I wouldn’t be able to make that change, turn a fairly unsympathetic character into a good guy. A hero.

And it worked out. I am really proud of that book. But I definitely had to push myself—step out of my comfort zone—to write that story. Maybe it’s time to do that again very soon.

Anyway, just some thoughts I’ve been having this afternoon. I think I’m going to let this be my cue to get back to writing now since I don’t have another book I want to read queued up. :D

Early Start!

Lynn

I’m getting an early start today. I finished reading a book this morning (yes, it’s 6:44 am as I write this). I woke up at 5:55 and started reading after falling asleep trying to finish the book last night. I pushed to finish because I was intrigued by the story enough that I knew I’d have trouble getting and staying started with my writing this morning if I didn’t get it out of my system.

But now I’m up and I’m ready to make sure I don’t get derailed before I start writing. I do well writing early in the morning when I can get started and keep myself from wanting to take a nap (usually a side effect of thinking too much and not moving around like I should early on). I need breakfast and then it’s right to finishing the novella, then on to my in-progress novel and a short story. I’m planning to write on 3 stories today. Of course that plan might change depending on what ideas start flowing but that’s still the plan!

I’m hoping to write quite a few words today (my definition of quite a few is anything over 3,000 because those numbers are so much rarer for me) although I’ll take what I can get if I actually stay focused and write. So truly if you were to say I had a goal today it would be to spend as much of the day writing as possible.

Bored!

Lynn

I’m bored with my routine. So, so bored. Which is funny, because I don’t even know if I can call what I have a routine.

I’m not sure what to do about it.

I’d like to write about 190,947 words more by the end of the year. That would get the books I want done done. I feel like I need some kind of routine to make sure I make it, because right now, I’m not writing. I have five 0 days behind me now, and if I don’t do something about that today, it’ll be six.

I read something today about productivity that I thought was interesting. It was the only post under “productivity” on the site—I went there looking for a discussion of widows and orphans and somehow wound up reading about productivity. It made me wonder if the reason for the unwanted throttle on my productivity is because I care too much about being productive.

On the other hand, if I let myself go and just create, I don’t create as often as I should to keep food on the table, lol.

Quite the quandary and one I’m not sure how to tackle. It’s going to take some ruminating.

Derailed By a Continuity Error

Lynn

So, I think I’ve mentioned that I read my own books for fun, yeah? Well, day before yesterday, I did that with my newest release. Just wanted to check something and before you know it, I’d read half the book. And then I hit a continuity error that I had written into the book, and it was trivial in a way, but oh so obvious in another. I mean, I noticed it.

Usually I don’t bother fixing things in my already published titles until I have enough things to fix to make it worth my while. That’s actually only happened a couple of times, and usually when I want to do something like when I added in my link to a new email list I created. That was when it became worth the effort for me.

Not so this time. This continuity error bugged me. I thought hard about not making the change, but I couldn’t let it go.

So I did it. I deleted half a sentence and changed five or so words in another, and then I regenerated all the formats and republished the book everywhere with the corrections. I’m still in the process of formatting the paperback edition, so that’s not a concern. But I don’t really feel better for having done it.

The fact is, the level of goof in this continuity error is about what you’d see on a television show—noticeable if you’re really paying attention but not that big a deal. And there’s also the fact that I actually like the visuals of the original bit best but had to change it because of the continuity issue and there was no way around that.

Still, I fixed it and I’m not unhappy that I did. I just … actually don’t like knowing there are two different versions of my book out there now. That is where I’m having my issues.

It sounds silly, but there you have it. Part of me really wishes I’d just left the error in there and done my day’s writing yesterday instead! :o

Oh, and to make things worse, my internet kept going out yesterday, so publishing the other book and re-publishing the fixed book? It was a pain in the ass. It’s obvious I cannot be objective about this at the moment. I didn’t get to write yesterday and I regret that more than the boo-boo.

Today’s Goals and the End of No More Zero Word Days

Lynn

Well, I looked at the 50 word minimum on my 123rd day of writing every day and I quit. I have no idea why, still, but it was a conscious decision. I stared at the page, knowing I would be writing the 50 words just to keep the streak alive and I very deliberately closed my document and set my computer aside and went to bed. That was a couple of days ago.

If you want me to explain why I did that, you’ll have to ask me another day because I don’t know the answer.

Yesterday, I proofed and began formatting a book I’m preparing to publish and I didn’t write. So now I have a two day 0 word streak that I plan to end today after I finish my formatting. My biggest challenge will be staying focused enough on the formatting not to get sucked into doing related but less important tasks. I’ve already slipped off track this morning and reformatted an older story (the book I’m preparing is a bundle of the short stories I’ve written over the last few years) that needed updating (two typos, back matter updates, etc).

Now, I’m off to heat up my tea and get back to formatting the new one. I’m trying to finish by 9:30 am.

Today’s goals

I’d like to write about 3,000 words and publish that book I’m formatting by 6 pm.

Today’s progress

Well, it’s 11:24 am and I just finished that formatting. I got my EPUB, MOBI, PDF, and Smashwords DOC all fixed up, and they do look fabulous if I do say so myself. :D I use Word and Jutoh, and to be honest it was the PDF that took all my time.

I forget how finicky Word gets when you start adding in headers and footers and set the layout options to different first page and different odd and even pages. That doesn’t work well when you don’t want extra pages added into the PDF (something that’s all right when you’re doing paperback formatting but when the PDF is for general downloading, not so much). It really makes those headers and footers tricky business! But as a struggling perfectionist, I can’t seem to help the compulsion I have to get those headers just right.

I’ll be working on paperback formatting for this book and three others the rest of the week and I can tell you now, I’ve heard a lot of self-publishers talk about how they can generate their paperbacks in an hour or two, and I can only guess that they don’t bother with hyphenation, widows and orphans, fancifying, or much else or they’ve done some fantastic systemization of their process because that stuff takes some serious time.

I usually spend about 15 to 20 hours on a book to get it print ready, although I’m thinking of taking a page out of some of these other authors’ playbooks and limiting what I do. I don’t make enough on paperback sales compared to ebook sales to put as much work into the formatting as I do. I go line by line looking for hyphenation and widows and orphans issues and let me say, that takes what feels like forever.

If you have tips for how to format for print efficiently, I’m all ears. Seriously.

Well, back to work. Time to do some writing before I start publishing later. 3,000 words is probably not going to be possible today by 6 pm since I’ll have to stop around 3 pm to start publishing but I’ll take whatever I can get! :)

HA HA HA HA!

As soon as it came time to write, I remembered a very important thing I needed to do today—shop for a replacement health insurance plan, because my current plan is ending at the end of the month. So there went my afternoon. I’m pretty sure the dude who was answering my questions about the healthcare marketplace hung up on me. :D In the end, though, I didn’t need his help and I found what I was looking for. I admit it took me from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm to narrow it down to 9 policy options and then choose one. But I feel good about my choice. Only now I have the issue that the healthcare.gov website went down (likely because open enrollment starts soon and they’re doing site improvements—that’d be my guess from the error message) and I either have to try to “confirm” my choice again tomorrow or call them. I really wish it was done but hey, at least I didn’t wait until the last day!

I’m going to fit in one hour of writing here shortly but that’ll probably be it for tonight. I’m actually kind of pooped right now. :)

Tomorrow, my plan is to start writing early-ish, but I’ll still probably go ahead and publish that book first since I meant to do that today. I estimate an hour and a half for the publishing. When I can get going in the mornings, I really do perform better and stay focused longer.

Somehow I think I need to figure out how to do that every day.

Today’s Goal Is a Work In Progress

Lynn

1st: Write
2nd: Write some more
3rd: Write enough so that it approaches some quantity that passes for real writing
4th: Keep writing
5th: Finish the novella that was supposed to be finished in January so I can write another book that’s supposed to be finished by the end of this month

Seriously. I need to finish that novella. I don’t usually outline these days. I hate outlining. However, I do believe I am going to have to sit down and outline the rest of this damn novella. If I don’t, I’m thinking I will never finish it. Never, ever, ever.

Since I don’t want to set it aside again, I am going to figure out a way to finish it this time. :D

UPDATE: I’ve written 1,677 words in about 4 hours today, and although I’m about to take a break, I’m planning to try to write at least 2,600 words today … so I’ll be back! :)

UPDATE #2: I was wrong about making it back. I haven’t had time to add any more words to my daily total, but I’m okay with that as long as I have a good day tomorrow. Again, I’ll be trying to finish this novella! I’ve noticed that I only seem to have problems with the writing when I get in a hurry to end it. The book wants to take its time getting to the end and I’ve had to stop pushing and let it take as long as it takes.

See ya tomorrow. :)