Fiction writer. Expert procrastinator. This is my life.
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. ;)
Yesterday I wrote 90 words by 10 a.m., just before I took off for a day of fun.
I wrote 61 words today before lunch, even though I squeezed them in right before the line started forming at the big family cookout! ;)
I ditched the change to my mini habit that set my deadline at 10 a.m. I’m considering another option, and I plan to try it out tomorrow.
I don’t like the 10 a.m. rule. I got my minimum amount of writing done today on time, but I’m going back to the lunchtime deadline.
I need to use more sunblock next time I go swimming. A lot more. :D
I’m trying to create a habit out of daily writing. I’ve been trying to do that by having one simple rule: Write 50 words before lunch.
What I find myself doing though is squeezing my writing in at the last minute because I exercise right before lunch. I’m having to stop writing just as I get on a roll.
That’s a problem, because taking advantage of the natural urge to keep going past the basic requirement you’ve set for yourself is supposed to be one of the major ways mini habits benefit you—getting yourself started with willpower and taking advantage of momentum. This happens to me almost daily with my exercise. There have been many days where I’ve told myself I’m just going to do a few minutes, and yet I almost always end up sticking it out for at least 30.
That’s what I want to see happening with the writing. But because of the timing of it, that can’t happen without me making a conscious decision to mess up my working-really-well exercise and lunch routine. I know I could just get started sooner, but … if it was as easy as that, I would have already been getting started earlier. I’m a natural procrastinator, and even using willpower doesn’t change that. My deadline is lunch, and my subconscious has already decided it’ll be done by the deadline but not a moment sooner.
So, starting tomorrow, my one simple rule will change: Write 50 words by 10 a.m.
I don’t like it quite as much, because that’s a hard deadline. The reason lunch works for me is because I can just push lunch back by however many minutes necessary to make sure I get my words in beforehand. Hard deadlines are, well, hard.
But I want to get started earlier in the mornings and I just don’t know of any other way at the moment to encourage that habit, so this is what I’m going to try.
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.
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
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
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.
I’ve now written for ten days in a row. I need to start reaching higher word counts soon, but I’m still excited that I’ve maintained my daily writing streak. :D
I just realized how badly I contradicted myself in my last post. :D
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. ;)
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. ;)
… 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.
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: 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.
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?
I think I was poisoned by that meal I had out with my father yesterday. :o I’m still going to try to write today, but I don’t hold out a lot of hope for big word counts. I expect to be too busy napping.
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!
I’m expanding my new rule to encompass my smartphone and my Kindle. Has to be done. ;) As I suspected would happen, I’ve started turning to these devices to check my email and read websites, the two things I most need to stop doing when I’m supposed to be writing.
My rule is simple. I’m not supposed to do anything on the computer that’s not directly publishing related until I’ve done a minimum of writing for the day, probably about 2,000 words. (So I can reach my weekly goal.)
Now that rule also applies to my phone and my Kindle. :D
I haven’t done my writing for the day, and I’m not supposed to be here posting. So—
I gotta go before I feel worse about that than I already do!
Finally getting some stuff done that’s been needing done for a while. I mean, like five months late stuff.
I finished the paperback formatting of my last novel this morning when I put the finishing touches on the wrap around book cover. Yay!
Unfortunately, I discovered an issue last night after I’d submitted them, so as soon as they’d gone through review, I had to upload the tweaked cover file and submit them for review all over again. But that’s okay. Better now than after I get the proof copy of the paperback!
I put the price on the back cover and I had the price wrong. I didn’t know that until I’d hit the pricing section and realized that because of length, this one was going to need to be $2 higher than my usual. I’m not thrilled with that, but it was $2 or change my formatting, and I like the formatting as is.
So … I tweaked the cover file and resubmitted.
This cover was probably the easiest wrap around cover I’ve done to date. Maybe I really just need more practice. It’s getting easier to do the stuff that’s more technical and less about art (like the front cover—that still gets me every time).
But hey at least I’m working. I’m still having trouble getting “enough” done that I feel I can use my computer for other stuff, so here I am on my Kindle again. I was sick yesterday so I have an excuse, but I actually did pretty good anyway.
The ending of the novella is making me crazy, though. I deleted so much yesterday, that who knows what my word count might have been. :) I ended up with about 1,200. I’ll post my actual on the accountability page when I can.
I still have so much to delete if the new ending goes the way I think it will. I had to go back one more chapter, and start over there, so now I’ve lost three chapters of about 2,500 words each. I’ve rewritten from scratch a couple of those chapters so many times over the last few months that I’ve lost count.
There’s good news though! If I don’t mostly finish this thing today, I’m scrapping it. I already expect it to be a low seller—I’m not wasting any more time on it. :D
Off to write! I’ve gotta get busy, because I have kids home again and I can’t be a shut-in any longer. They need food for the week. ;)