Day: June 14, 2014

UPDATE: I don’t like it so much after all. For reasons that probably have more to do with me than with it.

The StayFocusd extension for Chrome is fantastic. I’ve thought about installing it several times and talked myself out of it every time. This time I didn’t. I really like it.

I set my ACTIVE hours between 7:30 am and 4 pm, 7 days a week, and blocked all the sites I visit when I should be concentrating on writing. I also turned on STEALTH MODE. I gave myself 15 minutes of time each day to browse my BLOCKED sites, after which the extension blocks all the sites until 4 pm.

I totally used up all my time before lunch today and had to cheat by using my phone when I was taking a break. I don’t want that to become a habit, but today was a different kind of day, so I forgive myself for that. Tomorrow I won’t be so lenient. The phone will stay upstairs, I think, until I’ve done my writing for the day—as will my Kindle.

I set up the NUCLEAR option for .45 hours (about 25 minutes) for use outside of those active hours, for days when I still need to write after 4 pm…

What I most like about this extension is that I don’t have to turn anything on, on a daily basis. It remembers those ACTIVE times and just works when it’s supposed to. I don’t have to think about whether or not I need it, or if I want to use it. It’s there, and I have 15 minutes I can use for breaks during the day.

My hope is that it will keep me from wasting away all my time online, on sites I really shouldn’t spend too much time on, and give me time to just let my mind rest. A week or so ago, I made a decision to stop reading so much junk online. I also want to read more fiction. It’s been hard to do that. I’m trying to make it easier. :)

*Had to block www.amazon.com, but allow kdp.amazon.com so that I can still publish my books during the daytime hours. :) Got that wrong the first day.

 

It’s been a strange day. I had plans to write a lot more than I’ve actually written today.

I got 400+ words, then deleted a few notes I’d left myself and dropped back down to 304, which is where I sit now. I was there at 5 p.m. and at 6, then at 7 and at 8. Now it’s 8:38 p.m. and I still haven’t made any additional progress. I wanted to, but obviously not bad enough.

I got up excited, then got some bad news about a family member, and although I’ve tried not to dwell on the issue, I don’t think I’ve let it go either. Suicide is one of those things I just don’t understand. I’ve battled depression before, but the one thing I’ve never battled is the urge to hurt myself. But maybe because I don’t understand it, I’ve found myself thinking of it off and on today, and feeling a lot of feelings about it, and a great deal of empathy for my dead relative.

I guess you could say I’ve spent the day in a more contemplative than creative mood and my numbers show it.

I was randomly flitting around the internet a few nights ago and came across a post on a blog that said a lot to me. I can’t even remember how I ended up on that site, but I saved a quote from it with the “Press This” shortcut for WordPress. In the meantime, I forgot to get back to it and actually turn it into a blog post.

Well, I saw it today and remembered, so here it is.

There is something that will make your stories unique—if you let it.  Perhaps your upbringing or beliefs, the way you tackle stories, or some aspect of characterization or storytelling.  As you keep learning, you will find it.  But if you try to write like you think you should, or like “everyone else writes,” you could lose the things that make your stories unique.  You might very well end up writing stories just like some other author.  But they won’t be as good, and you’ll never reach that point that you’d really like the reach, the spot where someone says, “I would quite like to read a story by [your name.]  That’s what I’m in the mood for.”  (Think about how you feel when you want to read one of your favorite authors.  No one else’s work will quite do, because they’re unique!)  Having stories that are a bit different will make some people dislike them.  But you’re not writing to keep your head down and hope that you’ll blend into the crowd.

Take the things that hurt you, and turn them into stories.  Take your deepest pain and tears and the things you’ve learned the hard way in life, and put them into your stories.  It’s the hardest and best thing you can do for your writing—to make it deeply personal.  Nobody will actually recognize the parts that are about you, but you will always know—and that can make it terrifying to put your work out there.  But it can also make your stories matter more and mean more.

via Love Stories About Men: some writer advice, Hollis Shiloh.

It’s good advice. I mean, really good advice.