Tag: Writing fiction

I write fiction—it’s how I earn my living—and I like to ramble. Just so you know. Nearly everything I do these days relates in some way to writing and publishing, so most of my posts are here.

Accountability Check-in: 1/15 Friday

Lynn

You could say that my fiction reading habit took over my life on Friday. I read most of the day and enjoyed the rest of the book I mentioned reading on Thursday (Frost Station Alpha).

I also read many articles about procrastination, because I feel like procrastination has a stranglehold on me at the moment. I just cannot seem to get restarted with my writing—or anything related to it.

Friday evening is when I realized that caffeine is doing me no favors and that I was starting to develop a coffee habit again.

  • words: 0
  • fiction reading: >2 pages
  • falling behind on my tiny gains challenge!

Typing Improvement

Lynn

Another thing I’ve challenged myself to this year is to improve the accuracy of my typing. I’m a touch typist, something I learned in high school, and I can type about 60 words a minute. My accuracy is terrible and I expend a lot of effort backspacing and correcting errors. I can’t go on if I know an error is there. So the first thing I need to improve about my typing is my accuracy.

I did a few typing tests and some exercises. My speed is just over 60 wpm (not slower unless I’m trying to type numbers and special symbols), and a bit closer to 70 wpm if I’m typing plain text.

I think I’ll do some self-study on this for a while instead of using online tools and practice stroking the keys I’m most likely to confuse or miss until I can hit them every time without thinking about it.

 

100 Design Tutorials Challenge: Soft Light Photo Effects

Lynn

I decided not to do a cover design challenge just yet. I definitely feel like I need to learn more before I start pushing myself in that direction. Instead, I came up with something I think is more in line with what I need right now: I’m going to watch or read 100 design tutorials that will help me understand more about design, what I can do, and how to do it. I’ll also practice what I learn, but that’s not something I’m going to make part of this challenge.

Today I watched this tutorial.

https://youtu.be/6vVKC7yweFo

My plan is to keep up a log here of the tutorials I’ve watched or read as an easy way to keep track of my progress with the challenge.

This particular tutorial taught me that it’s a fairly straightforward and simple process to swap out similar backgrounds in a photo. Also, playing with color and light can make a huge difference in how warm a photo looks. Adding shadows gives depth. The final image shown here would make a really nice cover for a romantic YA story, whereas the original seems much too harsh for a successful cover.

I’m definitely going to practice some of the stuff I saw in this video.

Accountability Check-in: 1/12 Tuesday

Lynn
  • Words: 0
  • Tiny gains challenge: putting off until tomorrow because of injured ankle
  • Fiction reading mini-habit: >2 pages (I also read a lot of a nonfiction book today: The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin)
  • Editing mini-habit: none

Yikes. I might still make it through a couple of these. I’ll update if I do.

Updated to add the things I managed to get done before I called it a night!

 

No Accountability Check-in Yesterday Because . . . Ankle

Lynn

Yesterday was one of those unexpected days off. I’ve had more of those than I want lately, but yesterday was the first one I can actually blame on something besides my issues with procrastination. I even forgot to do the accountability check-in.

Today turned out to be one of those days too. I had a major interruption today that took me away from home for the entire afternoon, although I didn’t mind so much (my folks have finally stepped into the internet age!).

The ankle is a problem, but it’s healing and I don’t think anything’s broken or permanently damaged. It is, however, crazy swollen on both sides of my foot/ankle and I’ve got muscles sore in places I never expected to be sore! (I had to catch a ride today because it’s my driving ankle. I wouldn’t have wanted to end up stuck somewhere because I realized I couldn’t work the gas and brake pedals!)

Anyway, moving on. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get back to writing and get this year started. :D

 

Accountability Check-in: 1/9 Saturday

Lynn

Ah! I almost forgot to post my first accountability check-in. I had an ugly fall earlier tonight and I’m sitting up in bed with my ankle throbbing like it has a heartbeat all its own.

I did get some of my stuff done tonight though. (Not writing. That restart will have to wait for tomorrow.)

  • Words: 0
  • Tiny gains challenge: 1 push up and 1 sit up*
  • Fiction reading mini-habit: Much more than 2 pages (38% of Split Second**)
  • Editing mini-habit: 1 chapter of my current WIP

*Normally the plan is M, W, F, but I kept forgetting this week and I fell behind. Embarrassingly enough, I was sore yesterday from the two push ups and one sit up I’ve already done this week.

**I’m always excited by time travel (I’m going to write my own time travel book someday, yes I am), but so far this isn’t the kind of time travel story I’m usually interested in. It’s much more thriller and much less time travel. We’ll see if I finish it. It’s a Kindle Owners’ Lending Library loan, so it was a bit of a random pick on the 31st so I wouldn’t miss (again) a chance for a free read.

Holy crap, I just twisted my leg wrong. My ankle is seriously paining me right now. I think I’m going to call this post done and hope I wake up in the morning feeling a lot better than I feel right now.

I kind of regret that push up and sit up earlier. If I get sore again while also dealing with this ankle… Yikes. Tomorrow should be fun.

Accountability Project

Lynn

I’m impulsive, and I admit, I’m writing this post on impulse. However, I think I’ve come up with a good idea and I want to write it down before I forget it.

I’d like to make this blog my 2016 accountability partner.

Posts will be lists, because I like lists and they’re much easier to maintain when things get busy or I get tired.

Here are some of the things I want to be accountable for:

  • words written
  • tiny gains challenge progress: push ups and sit ups (because my core has been cored by my sedentary lifestyle over the last two years!)
  • fiction reading mini-habit of 2 pages a day
  • editing mini-habit of one chapter a day (just a quick read for typos, etc)
  • cover design challenge (not started yet, but will soon)
  • other possible challenges

I’m excited to get started with this. I think I’ll start right away and make my first post tonight. Look for “Accountability Check-in: 1/9 Saturday” later. :)

My January Goal

Lynn

JANUARY GOAL: 95,333 WORDS
Current January total: 394

I’m trying to write 95,333 words for January. I’m getting a late start to the month, because of the school holiday and having family underfoot. Concentrating and getting started has been much harder than I had hoped. But I still have time to reach my goal and I’m going to start trying today to get there.

December has become my best sales month

Lynn

I didn’t think December would make it, not with how quickly sales slowed down toward the end of the month, but it does now appear that December has become my best earning month to date for my self-publishing business (highest revenue and most units sold). The numbers are preliminary and do not include my international sales because I don’t know what they’ll come to once currency conversion happens.

If I had wanted to make this claim a few days ago, I could have, but I wanted it solid, with U.S. dollars. Now it is. :)

This is one reason I’m trying so hard to write more books in the coming year. I’m very close to a milestone earnings number and I would like to reach it within the next six months.

Currently, I earn a modest full-time living off sales of my fiction.

I want more. :D

 

Yesterday was not the start to the new year I wanted it to be

Lynn

I ended the day with 1,467 words, and that’s only because I pushed myself to get started again despite really not wanting to. The story was boring me! That’s what I ultimately decided, so I’ve tried to pep it up with some really crazy detours. I can’t stand being bored and I can’t write when I’m bored with a story.

I’m doing better today, so maybe it worked to get me interested again. :)

Now I just have to figure out how to get my main characters together again instead of off doing their own things. I don’t like story lines where my main characters are split up for long stretches of time.

Anyway, updates later on today’s progress (new post probably), because this was really just a follow up post regarding yesterday’s goal.

An early beginning for the new year

Lynn

I’m hoping for a successful return to work today. This isn’t January 1, but it’s the beginning of the new year to me, and I want to start off strong. My plan is to aim for 4,558 words on every day that I’m supposed to be writing. That’s most days.

Here’s my schedule of days off for the next 12 months.

Holidays – 4 days a year
Unexpected – 12 (sick days mostly)
Vacation – 14
Occasional weekend – 48 (that’s 4 days a month)

Total days off – 78
Total working days – 287

Publishing days – 36 (3 days each month I won’t be writing)
Writing days – 251 (21 approx writing days each month)

Some months will have more, some months should have less, because of the fall of holidays, sickness, vacation time, and weekend days, but overall, I’m aiming for 95,333 words each month, and that’s what I’ll push for each month.

This works for me because I don’t have a lot of leisure activities I like as much as I like writing, and I cannot stand telling myself I can’t write because someone else thinks I should be doing something besides “working” (yet I have a history of taking way too much time away, but that’s another issue!). And seriously, 21+3=24 work days a month on average, and that’s just a bit more than a regular work week, but not when you take into consideration that I almost never get in 8 hours of work time a day.

I’d say this schedule is very average for number of hours of work each month. The only time I’m really pushing myself is during publishing weeks, and that I have to admit usually has me working 16 hour days. On the other hand, recently, that’s only happened about 4 times a year (definitely happened more when I was just starting out because I spent so much time learning). Going forward, I’ll be trying to cut those days down into more reasonable chunks.

I have never written that many (fiction) words in one month (95,333), but I want January to be the first month I do it. The month has very few holidays (none for which I plan to take time away from writing), and it’s a long month. I’m feeling good about it right now.

So, time to get started. I will post about today’s progress at the end of the day today. My aim is to have 4,558 words finished as early in the day as possible today. I’d aim for a record but I can’t. I have some important things to do, so when I hit 4,558 words, I’m stopping until all those other things are done.

Another nice day but not quite there

Lynn

I’ve ended tonight with 3,577 words. I’d really like to make it to my 4,558 words but it’s just not going to happen. I’m tired and I screwed up today not getting my words done earlier. Still, the gift wrapping had to be done!

It was the lunch break and movie that I should have skipped. :o

I’m still not sure how I ended up watching Deep Impact for the umpteenth time. Great movie, but I had a headache when it was over from trying not to cry so much. ;) It’s a tearjerker there at the end and it gets me every time! Anyway, I might have time to write a bit in the morning, but only if I call it a night right now. So… that’s what I’m going to do.

Today’s final numbers

Lynn

It was a fantastic day for writing, I have to say. I made a great recovery after yesterday’s apparent self-sabotage (I did get 720 words yesterday so it wasn’t a total loss).

Minutes Words Session WPH
45 863 863 1,151
45 1,713 850 1,133
45 2,312 599 799
45 3,452 1,140 1,520
45 4,241 789 1,052
25 4,951 710 1,704
250 Total minutes 4.16667 Hours completed
4,951 Total words
1,188 Total WPH -0.3307 Hours to finish

The biggest success today was how quickly I did this. Almost every one of my breaks came in under 15 minutes (not all, but most) and I was done by 3:56 pm. :)

One thing I will say, writing faster like this made my forearms hurt. I don’t usually have pain from writing, and I’m not liking this at all. I think I’ll stick to writing more instead of trying to write faster.

I was pushing, today, to finish early enough to go shopping so that anxiety would ease up, and I made it. :) I shopped, and now I’m finally done with that.

Also, I wrapped presents during my breaks—just one or two at a time, but it also helped me get a start on that. Tomorrow I’ll do the same thing and maybe get all the presents wrapped up!

Self-sabotage or anxiety, can’t decide

Lynn

I kind of hate the holidays. I can’t decide if I’m self-sabotaging by not writing or just not dealing well with the anxiety of shopping left undone.

Yeah, you got that right. I still haven’t finished shopping. I’m not even close to being done, and I don’t want to go tonight, and I don’t want to do it tomorrow because I want to write, but that was also what I told myself today, and yet here I am, having not written anything!

I did go on a Star Wars spoiler binge, but only because I need to decide if I’m going to watch it now or after the last movie in this set (trilogy?) comes out. I think I’ve decided. Later. I hate cliffhangers and it sounds as if a lot of stuff is left up in the air at the end of the The Force Awakens. I’d rather just save it and savor them all at once. Plus, if it gets screwed up somewhere in the middle, I don’t have to watch at all.

Anyway, I’m going to have to try to write something, because if I don’t… today will have been a major waste. I’ve really done nothing of note except talk on the telephone for about three hours. Ugh.

I really don’t understand why I’m having such a hard time getting started again, unless it’s just the change in routine caused by the holidays throwing me off. That could be it.

I wish… no, I don’t wish. I’m just going to have to deal with this. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be writing right now.

Attemping to break my one-day word count record—in a record short time

Lynn

It’s 5:42 pm. I’ve never started writing so late in the day and successfully written a lot of words. I can’t say what my upper limit is for such a late start, but I’d say it’s in the 2,000–3,000 word range. Definitely not 5,950 words, which is where I’m planning to end today. (Because, confession time, I totally screwed up yesterday too and wrote only the words I got as I made a couple of fixes I needed to make in my book. Or, you know, 318 words.)

I will need to write super fast tonight, much faster than my usual average. I will also need to write freely and not get hung up on anything as I go. Deep breath. I can do that. I’ve written 5,000 words in 6 hours before, so all I need to do is write fast, take super short breaks, and stick with it until I’m done.

No more tea, water, or other drinks at the computer. I take too many breaks when I have them.

I’m doing two quick things and then I’m getting started. I’m going to get this done tonight if I have to stay up half the night. Bad idea, I know, so I’m going to finish before that happens. You can’t see me, but I’m wearing my serious face. :-|

I can do this.

Update: I got started at 6:39 pm. I’m currently at 2,273 words. My pace isn’t anywhere near where I’d like it, but surprisingly it’s actually not bad either at 921 WPH. Normally I’d be thrilled at that pace. It’s 10:11 pm though and I’m not staying up until 2 am, which is how late I’ll need to stay up to write 5,950 at my current pace, so I must get faster because I do not want to stop until I’ve reached that word count! :o

Update (next morning): I reached 2,625 words, and although I called it a night after that, I think this little challenge served its purpose: I wrote more words than I would have if I hadn’t tried it! Today I try again, but this time, I have the time to make this a success. :)

Off to a slow start today

Lynn

I’m off to a very slow start today with writing, but I do have another chunk of my Christmas shopping done and am feeling a lot of relief about that!

I don’t know if I’ll be able to break a record today, because it’s now 1:02 pm, but I am going to aim to get my 4,558 words done. I’ve decided today is a restart for my 1,144,000 word goal for the next 12 months, and I don’t want to end up behind on my first day back at it.

I’m restarting because playing catch up is nothing but a sure fire way to end up procrastinating the rest of the year away.

It’s been a disappointing few days for writing

Lynn

Today is the 18th. I still have Christmas shopping to do. I really am a last minute shopper. Unfortunately, I’ve also been unable/unwilling to do the writing I need to do this month too. I have reasons, but I’m not really pleased with myself about them. They’re legitimate, when I think objectively about them, but they don’t feel legitimate. It’s that emotion versus rationality thing. Humans aren’t rational beings, and I am human. ;)

But . . . I’m going to have a few days to myself now, and I’m really hoping I can get back on track.

Today, however, might be a lost cause. I’m hoping to get something written, but I’m running out of steam fast and the night has come much more quickly than I expected. So… I’ll be back tomorrow to get moving on this book and maybe try for a word count record again. See you then. :)