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.

Starting early, starting tired, but it’s got to be done

Lynn

I woke up tired today. Which is a huge bummer because I really wanted to wake up energetic so I wouldn’t have to fight so hard to write this morning. I’m just… tired. I don’t really know why and I still have a bit of a headache.

I’m sure it’s all related, but for the moment, I need to set all those feelings aside and sink into my book.

I’m going to keep my sessions short this morning, and I’m not going to focus on the timer so I can ease into this. Maybe some 15 minute sessions just to have a record of time spent. No pressure. I’ll be back to post an update when I have something to report.

Praying the A/C repair people show up quickly and get my A/C sorted out before evening. (Supposed to be an all-day job, according to what I’ve been told. My biggest fear is that they won’t finish today. That would make me ridiculously sad.)

Eh. Forget that. I’m sad already. The new pen name book is doing about what I expected: nothing much. I started that pen name to do some pricing experiments, and yet I’ve fallen right back into my groove and done no real experimenting at all. And that genre? Probably can’t support the pricing scheme I’m using. I’m going to have a make a decision on that, but I feel weird about changing the price so soon after publishing, because I have sold 6 9 copies at the $6.99 price. But since I have zero intention of running ads or anything of the sort on the pen name at the moment, the books are just not going to do anything more than what they’re doing if I don’t change something. The smart thing to do here would be to get the next book out within 30–60 days, and ha ha ha, that’s a total laugh. I have too many books due for my primary pen name to even contemplate that.

And… this sent me off to create a spreadsheet to calculate just how it would be possible, and I’ve had to face the fact that it’s very possible, if I were able to stick to writing 98,333 words a month, which I’m supposed to be doing. Gah. Today is not the day to stare my failures in the face. It’s too depressing when I’m already bummed.

But yes, if I wrote approximately 3,233 a day (3,933 a day with my 5 publishing days off a month), I could have the next pen name book done in—get this—about 47 days, and that’s after completing three other books first. I’m so disgusted with myself right now, because now I know it’s possible, but I know the chance of me successfully reaching and maintaining 98,333 words a month is… not good.

Why does this feel so hard sometimes?

I make it hard. That’s why.

Time to just get back to focusing on getting my 5 hours / 3,933 words a day in, and let the rest fall into place.

Looks like I’m going to need some accountability

Lynn

Update: It looks like accountability didn’t help. I did 0 words, 0 minutes, and I feel terribly guilty about it. Yet, despite the fact that I could probably spend the next half hour writing something before I go to bed, I’m sitting here writing this update instead. :o

I’m having a very hard time getting started. I’m hot and uncomfortable and sweaty, and all I really want to do it sprawl out on my couch under the ceiling fan with a wet rag over my forehead and do nothing. But I have a book to finish and I’ve set myself the challenge to finish by the end of the week. (And tomorrow could be questionable for me being able to concentrate because the repair crew will be here working on my A/C.

Screenshot 2016-06-13 16.38.07
Screenshot from weather.gov for my location. The high today is supposed to be 90! I feel like they’re letting me down here… :o

It’s 4:15 pm already and I really need to get some words down. So here’s the plan.

I’ve sent the doc to my Kindle. I’m going to alternate reading for typos and writing as a way to get me back into this story.

I don’t think it’s realistic to expect myself to start this late and get in my full five hours of writing today, so I’m just going to make this a “less time, more words” challenge.

I’m going to push for 3 solid hours of writing and try to get as many words* as I can during that time.

  • Read a chapter
  • Write for 60 minutes
  • Read a chapter
  • Write for 60 minutes
  • Read a chapter
  • Write for 60 minutes

If the 60 minutes feel too hard, I’ll switch to 30 minute sessions. Whatever it takes to get me working on this book again. :) Heck, maybe I’ll even switch to a different book for a bit.

*Here’s the deal. In case I’ve never mentioned this before, because I honestly can’t remember if I have, but when I push for high word counts it’s always with the assumption that they’re going to be words that make sense and that don’t make a mess for me to clean up later. I write clean, and I like it that way. I just don’t have a “get the words down and clean up the mess later” attitude, and I can’t imagine why I’d want it. Tried it many years ago when I was trying to figure out how to write, and I set it aside in favor of something actually productive for me. :)

 

Editing and proofreading finished!

Lynn

Finally, I finished reading the last section of the book this morning, and the edits for that bit were super quick. I actually like the book much more than I remember thinking back when I finished it! :D

But it’s been more than a month since I finished the book, so I guess that makes a difference. :)

So, now I’m onto formatting and publishing. I need to finish all that today. :o

Also, I’m still trying to decide if I want to go back into KDP with this pen name or not. I pulled the book out when the last renewal came up, in anticipation of making sure both books were either in or out, on the same time line.

This is the second pen name book, and I’m not expecting great things from it, not after a wait of nearly a year since the last book came out. :o

So: do I want to put the book into KDP?

  • In favor of KDP
    • Time saved by publishing only at Amazon (about a day)
    • First book was in KDP, so I might see better results for second book if it goes in for at least a little while
  • In disfavor of KDP
    • The first book will be a new book on all vendors other than Amazon, so I’ll have two new books on those sites
    • I like my books being available in lots of places
    • I don’t like being paid by page reads. Reminds me too much of the rip-off that is Google Adsense, etc: big companies taking advantage of small publishers to make big money and share only a pittance with the person responsible for the actual content. Amazon’s page read program isn’t that bad, but it feels bad.

Hmm. I’ll have to decide, but I can finish the formatting first!

Finally, do I want to continue with a pricing experiment (which is one reason I created the pen name) or do I just want to price at $6.99?

Both questions I need answers too by the end of the day today.

Now here’s some accountability for today’s activities. (I’ve decided I really like using lists for this stuff, no idea why.)

  • 11:29 am
    • Time to format my Word docx, will try to finish before I stop for lunch today.
      • Stopping at 12:30 pm with only the table of contents to finish. The other formatting only took so long because I was puttering with my styles and updating the formatting of the first book in the series.
  • 4:10 pm
    • Starting on the table of contents
    • Finished shortly thereafter
  • Worked and reworked the blurbs (descriptions) for the current book and the one before too many times to count before I came up with something I really liked. Two hours at least, although I didn’t really keep up.

Uh, I gave up. It’s just been ridiculously hot in here this afternoon/evening, with 90° Fahrenheit and sun outside, making it hard to cool down at the computer. I’ll get back at it in the morning when it might be at least a little cooler. (Did I say they’re finally coming on Tuesday to fix the A/C? Yay!)

Also, I got distracted by a movie I didn’t intend to watch to the end while I ate supper. But it was lovely and wonderful and I couldn’t turn it off. Consider this a rec for The Age of Adalind. I loved it!

Supper was frozen blueberries, fresh cherries, and plain Yogurt and just enough honey to make it sweet (makes a really cold desert), a peach, an orange, and some strawberries. Too much fruit, I know. But I’m not cooking in this heat. Forget that.

Anyway, I’ll move on to generating my EPUB tomorrow and publish sometime after that.

The truth is, I haven’t decided on the KDP or pricing issue anyway, so I’ll make a commitment on those tonight. Then I’ll get up and get this stuff done, so I can get back to writing, ASAP.

Now, off to bed so I can be up early enough to get some windows open and get this house cooled off before facing another 90° day.

Editing and proofreading continues, redux

Lynn

I’m restarting yesterday’s challenge for today, because today is really do have to finish this editing and proofreading! I have another book to finish, and I need as few as 10k words to finish it (although it might go long, in which case, I’m really hoping I can do 20k in a week again, because a week is about all the time I have left for that one).

I’m starting at location 1997 of 4185 total locations this morning, so I have 52% of the book left to edit and proof. But really, I have a bit more, because I haven’t yet fixed the stuff I found to fix in my last reading session. So… Yeah. I really have to do a better job staying on task today and not letting my breaks eat up all my time.

Time to get to it.

The plan:

  1. Read in one hour sessions
  2. Make corrections/edit
  3. Break for five to ten minutes
  4. Do it again.

Record of time and locations (percent complete):

  • 7:18 am:
    • At location 1997 (48%)
    • Finished edits through this location at 11:03 am
      • Took much too long!!! But, to be honest, this edit encompassed the scene I mentioned in this post. I guess I’m lucky it didn’t take longer. :o Although I thought I was okay with that scene when I finished it, it still had more buggy spots left than I’d realized.
  • 2:15 pm:
    • At location 3084 (74%)
      • I forgot to set the timer so I just read until I needed a break.
      • I read for about 2 hours and made it through about 25% of the book.
      • Therefore I estimate 3–4 hours to go! (reading + edits)
      • I’ll be back to input these edits after a nap. :D Brain is toast. Concentrating so hard  for that long is tough on me!
  • 7:01 pm:
    • Still at location 3084 (74%) & about to start inputting edits!
      • Nap was too long, then it was time for the regular Friday balancing of my accounts, which inevitably took longer than I planned. It always does.
    • Finished the edits for this session and called it a night! Boo!

Editing and proofreading continues

Lynn

I need to be accountable for today’s editing and proofreading work, and that’s a fact. Yesterday, I did not come close to finishing and I really needed to. So today is it. I must work, stay focused, and get this done, even if it takes all day.

Consider it a challenge: I must finish my edits and proofreading for this book today.

I’m starting at location 641 of 4185 total locations this morning, meaning I have 85% of the book left to edit and proof.

I’m going to follow a pattern today, to see if it helps me get into a groove and maybe eliminate the overwhelm that usually comes at the end when I realize I have 32 Kindle screens worth of highlights in the “Notes” section to deal with. The plan is to have nothing left there when I’m done but the bigger issues I need to double check or fix.

The plan:

  1. Read in 1/2 hour one hour sessions
  2. Make corrections/edit
  3. Break for five to ten minutes
  4. Do it again.

Record of time and locations (percent complete):

  • 8:49 am:
    • At location 641 (15%)
  • 9:43 am:
    • At location 856 (21%)
      • And I’ve already discovered that 30 minutes is just too short. I’m going to do an hour of reading for the rest of the sessions.
    • Finished edits for this session at 10:18 am
  • 2:28 pm:
    • At location 1412 (34%)
      • Finished the last reading session around 11:30 am, but then lost 2.5 hours to lunch and several interruptions, and lost another half hour to Kboards.* I also feel like I need a nap, but I really don’t have time for one.
  • 5:02 pm or somewhere thereabouts:
    • At location 1997 (48%)

It’s 9:06 pm and bedtime and I’m not going to finish. I’ll have to do this all over again tomorrow. And the high tomorrow is forecast to be 88°F, with an air quality alert for ozone, and I still have no A/C. :o I’m really starting to wonder if the part they need to fix my unit is ever going to arrive. It’s been 4 weeks now.

*I’m going to have to start staying away from forums and blogs and other writer communities unless I have real downtime (not downtime between writing sessions, etc., but actual downtime, when I’ve already finished everything I need to do for the day and just want to do something to pass the time.

This blog and the accountability I need

Lynn

I have a problem with internal motivation. I don’t have a lot of it. I use this blog to create a sense of accountability with the world at large, despite the fact that I’m mostly writing these posts into a great wide void.

I like that. I think I’d find it a lot harder to write these posts if I thought people were actually reading them. I’d want to say all the right things, and I’m not very good at that. :D

But I do like the sense that someone could be reading, and therefore, whatever I write needs to be real and I need to mean it, at least when I write it.

I admit when I fail. I fail a lot, to be honest. If you read the blog, you know that. I mean it. I fail a lot. Trying is more important to me than succeeding.

But posting my goals, even when they’re crazy and I know almost before I start that I’m going to fail, works in some weird way to keep pushing me forward and that’s important to me.

This blog is important to me, because of that.

Editing and proofreading today

Lynn

I was supposed to be on the editing and proofreading days ago, and yet… here I am, doing it today. And let’s be honest. I’m writing this to delay getting back to it just a little longer. Procrastination, you are my frenemy.

I have about three hours in which to finish all this and I can already say in all honesty that that is not going to happen. No way, no how. It would take me that long just to read the rest of the book without distraction. And I’ve already discovered that there are places in this book that need more attention than that.

I use the Send to Kindle software on my computer to send my docx files to my Kindle Fire for this stage. The book has 4185 locations in Kindle (easier to read for typos there) and I’m at 583. It took me about a hour to get there.  Then I stopped to make some corrections to the book, ended up adding a few bits in to be most consistent with something that happens later in the book and that took about half an hour.

If I use today’s progress to estimate time to finish the editing and proofreading , I come up with about 11 hours total for editing and proofreading time. I’ve done 1.5 hours already, so that’s about 9 hours to finish. That’d put me finishing at 4 a.m. assuming I take no breaks whatsoever.

Then I’ll have to proofread everything I corrected, again.

So I’ll be at it again tomorrow. And I’d better put in as much focused time tonight on it as possible. I’m running up against a couple of deadlines now that I really can’t miss this time.

Oh well. Gotta get back to it, so I’ll leave it there. Maybe I’ll get through the rest of the book faster than I expect and will be able to report back something awesome!

Either way, I’m going to post where I end up. I’d like a written record. :D

I ended at location 641. Ack. I did do more edits, but mostly I spent some time with my son. Ah well. It was a trade off that was worth it in this instance. :D Back at it tomorrow.

Switching things up

Lynn

I’m going to switch things up today, by working half the day on writing, and the other half on copy editing that book I need to get ready to publish. I wanted to get started on the copy editing yesterday and didn’t but definitely should have. Didn’t get close to my word count goal either, and today I need to do better.

The thing is, I’m feeling very stressed. I’m going to have to get over that. It’s really isn’t helping me get anything done.

I think I’ll do 1 hour blocks and trade out. That wasn’t what I intended when I thought about switching out, but the thought of writing or copy editing for hours on end without a break between kind of makes me want to go back to bed instead.

And later…

Ugh! I’m not having any luck at this today. I finally bailed on it and did the books instead (my monthly accounting update to my records and my spreadsheet, etc., and then I did my personal books and my budget). It needed to be done, but not at the cost of missed writing time or another delay of the copy edit. Time is growing short, deadlines are looming, and I’m just making all this so much harder than it has to be!

Multiple stories at once: eighth week

Lynn

Thursday—Wednesday, May 26–June 1

2,220
1,852
2,854
1,181
0
0
193

Total: 8,300 words

I wrote fewer words than I wanted this week, by far (goal is 27,533) but I still ended May in a much better place than usual, so I can’t complain much. Nothing I can do about it anyway so I might as well enjoy the small win.

Probably the biggest reason for the fail is the fact that I still only wrote on one story this week, despite my decision last week not to get stuck in that frame of mind again.

My pace this week was also again much slower than I’d hoped. I averaged 516 wph over the week, and that’s in line with my old average, but much slower than I’ve been tracking since I started with the multiple stories experiment.

I’m just really at a point where I want to finish this book so I can let go of the stress that’s interfering with my ability to let myself work freely on multiple stories. I’m really feeling the pressure to finish this book, and it’s not helping me at all to push it, and yet, I keep pushing it.

Here’s hoping next week will turn out better, but I can already say based on the fact that today is Saturday, that the ninth week isn’t off to a great start.

Honestly, considering the fact that I’m obviously not working on multiple stories right now, and I know it, I’m not even sure these weeks should count.

Trying again to reach my daily goal

Lynn

Yesterday was a bit of a let down. I didn’t reach my goals—not even half.

Today I’m going to try to use the same plan I tried to use yesterday, with a minor change. I’m going to split up my writing sessions: 2 right after breakfast (right now, that is), 2 right after lunch, and the last (and maybe one extra) right after supper. So, the plan is 5–6 hours of writing today.

All with an aim to finish each block as soon as possible, so no dawdling.

Today’s goals

  • Write 3,933 words in 5 hours
  • Copy edit 1/4 of pen name 2 book #2
  • Skim read pen name 2 book #1 (checking for consistency with book #2)

This’ll be a busy day.

  • Writing = 6 hours
  • Copy editing = 3.8 hours (I can copy edit about 5,000 words an hour. Getting through 1/4 of the book is a stretch, but possible, I think, if I’m efficient with my writing time today.)
  • Skim reading = 2 hours (I don’t want to skim so fast I don’t pick up on details.)

Total estimated time = 11.8 hours

Doable, but a stretch. I’m going for it. See you back here when I’ve got something to report. :)

Updating….

I’m really failing at this today. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I think some of it is that I need that “mull over” time I talked about when I explained why writing multiple stories seems to work to get me such better word counts.

Or maybe it really is just the fact that I’m distracted by having almost no time to myself right now.

Playing to win today

Lynn

After two more days of pathetically small word counts, I’m planning to make today a winner. I had a great night of sleep and I woke up determined to do better today than I’ve done the last 4 days. My pace has been so bad that I only made it to 477 words in 1.32 hours of writing yesterday. And no, that wasn’t because of deletions; it was because I was second-guessing every word I put down.

Here’s to making today a better day.

Goal: 3,933 words in 5 hours or less.

Second goal: 5 hours or more of writing.

I’m going to make both of those happen by doing the following.

  1. Stop trying to force myself to put all my effort and thought into the one story I most want to finish right now. It’s dragging down my interest in writing and killing my word counts!
  2. Let the stories carry me along without second-guessing them.
  3. Run my kids out of the house if they can’t respect my writing time and leave me alone for 5 hours of writing today. (Sixteen and eighteen year old kids shouldn’t need to interrupt mommy every ten minutes to complain about each other. If they do it again today, I’m putting them to work in the basement or outside in the heat. A little hard work might be good for them both.)

I’ll check in later and post an update below.

Hours Words Session WPH
1 997 997 997

Getting in the hours today has been much harder than I’d hoped! The house hasn’t been too hot to work in, but the distractions have been just as bad as ever. I’ve managed to get up some speed, but only because I followed through on #1.

Total: 1,673 words in 2.18 hours

Hmm. I need a new plan. :o

Distractions still abound but today is going to be different

Lynn

I’m coming off two days of zero word counts and I’m feeling disheartened by that. It’s been so uncomfortably hot in here without my A/C and I’m not doing well with the kids at home either. However, today I’m going to turn that all around. I still don’t have A/C and the kids will still be here, but I’m determined to write 3,933 words today at a minimum and get some copy editing done on a book I want to get published sooner rather than later.

I’m coming off a good night’s sleep and I’m ready to get started.

Here’s how it’s going.

Hours Words Session WPH
1 114 114 114

Hour 1 was a serious letdown. I know what happened though, and it was me, getting hung up on what was already written instead of moving on to what’s not.

Getting over that now, before I start hour 2. Not going change anything in the rest of the stuff I’m reading through unless it’s an outright mistake. I “fixed” an action I didn’t like on the part of the character, and as a result, I ended up sucked into changing other stuff that probably didn’t need to be changed. By the time I was done, I’d changed a lot of it back (what usually happens and why changing stuff is a total waste of my time).

1 286 172 172

So, hour 2 wasn’t really any better. The distractions here are killing my momentum.

Failure in May wasn’t as bad as it feels

Lynn

I didn’t write but 1/3 of what I wanted to write in May, but in the end, when I looked harder at the numbers, I discovered it wasn’t as bad a failure as it feels. May’s word count comes in at 35,296.

Only 7 months out of 46 have been higher. May was my 47th month of publishing, and that makes June my 4 year anniversary as a self-publisher. :D How absolutely amazing!

Between April and May, I’ve had my best two month word count, ever, by 1,470 words.

February–March 2013 = 91,075 words
April–May 2016 = 92,545 words

My next best two month period was November–December 2015 when I wrote 73,377 words.

Gotta say, I’m happier than I was after looking at these numbers. I’m still showing improvement, and I’m excited by my progress. :D Here’s hoping June is a great month for word counts. :)

Follow up to the summer routine post

Lynn

I said yesterday that I’m trying to start a summer routine, but nope, it really didn’t work. I ended up writing in scattered sessions throughout the day, and just one day of feeling like I was supposed to write on schedule was enough to make me rethink the idea of an artificially constructed routine.

I did manage 4.5 hours of writing, but did none of the other stuff I’d hoped to also do yesterday. And honestly, 4.5 is not 5. My goal is 5 hours and 3,933 words minimum. So I’m happy I did what I did, but I’m sad that I keep falling short of what I want.

Hours Words Session WPH
1 650 650 650
1 1454 804 804
1 1777 323 323
0.5 2293 516 1032
1 2840 547 547

I’m really tired of disappointing myself time and again, but I don’t think a schedule is going to get me into a routine (and that plan yesterday really was mostly a schedule).

The problem is that if I don’t find a way to get into a nice routine, I’m going to end up never doing anything but writing—even though I won’t actually be writing that much, because I never do!

In other words, when I put too much focus on meeting a writing goal, I hesitate to do anything other than writing, afraid I’ll set off my obsessive tendencies and not meet my writing goals at all because I’m too busy being obsessed with something else. So although yesterday would have been a good day to finalize the cover for the pen name book, I didn’t, because I was afraid I would become obsessed with that and spend all day doing cover tweaks instead of writing. Because, to be honest, I’ve done it enough times to know that’s exactly what’s likely to happen.

I really need to figure out how to split all this up into a work day that makes good use of my time and doesn’t make me feel like I’m wearing a straitjacket.

Today I try to settle into a summer routine

Lynn

My summer routine this year?

Try to write for 4 hours before I stop for lunch, then finish my last hour right after lunch but before a nap. That way I won’t find myself spending my time on other things and then, when I don’t have enough time left in the day to write for 5 hours, agonizing over why I didn’t meet my goals.

I like the idea of this routine a lot. Unfortunately, it’s very common for me to like a routine in theory and then not be able to stick to it to save my life. I’m going to give this one a shot today.

That means stopping this post right now and getting to work ASAP. I’ll use a lot more than 4 hours for those 4 hours of writing and I don’t want to waste time before I get started!

 

Excuses: too hot, too tired, and too little focus

Lynn
Hours Words Session WPH
1 1071 1071 1071
1 1728 657 657

1,728 words total in 2 hours of writing. If only I’d put in more hours! At today’s pace, I would have made my word count goal easy.

Here are the reasons why I didn’t reach my five hours of writing goal. Or, let’s just call them excuses.

First, it reached 82 degrees Fahrenheit in here today and stayed there for most of the day. It’s still 80 as I type this at 9:20 pm. I’m wilting in the heat. I can only boggle at how people without A/C make it through the summer around here. I couldn’t do it—not without feeling like I’m suffering great distress. The laptop gets too hot to get comfortable with, and my wrists get sweaty against the frame around the keyboard. Sure doesn’t make writing fun or interesting.

Second, I didn’t get enough sleep last night, because, of course, I started reading a book at bedtime. I knew better and I did it anyway. I was ready to kick myself today for that mistake, but alas, it was too late to do any good.

Because of #2, and possibly #1, I had no ability or interest in staying focused today when the normal interruptions that come from having kids at home interrupted me. I gave in and didn’t write almost every time I sat down to try. I spent most of the day procrastinating.

So instead of a really good day of 5 or even 6 hours of writing, I got 2.

Still, I wrote something, and that’s always a win. Hell, I almost made it to 2,000 words, and there was a time when I would’ve considered today’s word count a good day’s work.

I LOVE this new faster pace I seem to have settled into. I haven’t changed my writing at all, so I still don’t know how or why I’ve gotten faster. My only guess is that it’s because I’m doing my best to put my writing time to use writing what I’m most interested in writing at any given time. (Although that’s not strictly true for today’s writing, because I really should have let myself write a bit of something else for a while—that might have been enough to get me past some of today’s procrastination.)

Tonight I really do have to get a good night’s sleep. I know I’ll do better with my goals tomorrow if I do, even in the heat.

Reached five hour goal today

Lynn

I find it funny that the moment I stop a challenge, I immediately find it easier to focus on what needs to be done.

I reached my five hour writing goal today, although I admit, I’m nowhere near my word count goal.

Hours Words Session WPH
1 318 318 318
1 618 300 300
1 1161 543 543
1 1382 221 221
1 1847 465 465

Total: 5 hours, 1,847 words, for an average of 369 wph.

On the other hand, even though I haven’t reached my word count goal, I am now officially past the material I needed to fix and I had just started to write some new stuff at the end of my last session.

I’m thinking of writing some more tonight, but we’ll have to see how I feel after a break, because I absolutely want to get to bed early tonight. I feel like I’m at my most creative and productive when I get more sleep and I want to give myself plenty of opportunity for that after several nights of less than optimal bedtimes.

This writer does not subsist on coffee and tea; she needs her sleep! :)

ETA: I did write a bit more, although not as much as I’d hoped to.

0.46667 2220 373 799.286

So new total: 2,220 words, 5.47 hours

But look at that! A major improvement in my pace now that I’m writing new material again! ;D Whew! I’m excited about tomorrow. Finally, some momentum again!

Now, must get some sleep so I feel good tomorrow and can write nice and fast.

And as an aside, my A/C is still broken and it’s starting to get hot around here. :o I’m getting worried that the part I need won’t arrive before it gets really hot. And I hate leaving my windows open: I just found a bug floating in my glass of water. Yuck. I’m too delicate for this crap. ;)

Failed the challenge five out of five days

Lynn

So, I failed the challenge five out of five days. I am stopping that particular challenge, because obviously eight hours of writing in a day is just not going to happen right now. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s the end of the school year and my routine is a mess, or maybe it’s just because I almost never write for more than four to five hours in a day and it’s like exercise, I’ll have to work my way up to it. Either way, that challenge is done.

I’m going to resume jumping between stories, with an eye toward working as much on the book I want to finish ASAP as I can without bogging down in it, and I’m going to enjoy myself.

Every day, my main goal is to get in my 5 hours of writing, and 3,933 words, and take time off writing to publish so I can enjoy that process too.

Well, that all needed saying, and I feel better now.

Multiple stories at once: seventh week & summary to date

Lynn

I thought I’d list this week’s progress and then list out how I’ve been tracking from the beginning and maybe even compare it to this time last year and a few of my more productive 7 week periods from the past just to see if there’s anything there to learn.

Thursday—Wednesday, May 19–May 25

(9)
907
1,201
951
1,511
730
1,299

Total: 6,590 words.

My pace was down significantly this week too, the average coming in around 356 wph.

I worked only on the book I was trying to finish this week. Not even one word for another book.

As I said in another post, this week has been the second week I’ve had to get through that is completely out of my routine because of the end of the school year for my kids. I did better than last week, but not by much.

I don’t honestly know how much of that to blame on the messed up routine and how much to blame on trying to work on only one story. I’ve decided the latter is just not going to work, not even with me knowing I need to get this book I’ve been trying to finish finished. As soon as I started telling myself I needed to work on one book and one book only, my word counts plummeted.

So, I’m backing off the deadline. It was a personal deadline anyway, and it’s not the end of the world. It feels like a big deal, but I’ll just have to let that go in favor of getting more words so I end up with more books, faster.

Now, for the summary.

Week 1: 21,873
Week 2: 10,959
Week 3: 16,927
Week 4: 11,948
Week 5: 11,282
Week 6: 4,296
Week 7: 6,590

Total: 83,875 words

To compare previous 7 week periods:

  • Last year: 7 weeks ended 5/26/15: 40,035 words
  • My highest word count from any 7 week period since I started keeping records ended 3/24/13: 89,587 words
  • The highest I’ve made it during any other 7 week period is in the low 60,000s.

I believe the downward trend in my word counts isn’t something problematic so much as it’s a result of my shifting routine with the end of the school year.

The next couple of weeks should provide evidence of that, or to the contrary if it turns out I’m wrong. Still, I’m convinced this method is exactly what I needed to increase the number of words I write every month and that it has serious long-term potential for me. :)