Year: 2014

Last Push to Finish Book Tonight

Lynn

So, I’d kind of like to finish my book tonight. I mean, I’m days behind my deadline. So yeah, finishing would be nice. Really nice. :D I think I’m just about there, maybe a few thousand words. No guarantees, because there never are, but if I can just get moving on this ending, I think it will all fall together.

I realize starting it at 10:37 pm isn’t exactly the best example of time management. I’ve spent the day avoiding writing this to the point that I’ve been writing notes to myself in Evernote that say things like “Start the timer. Seriously. Start the timer. Right now.” And yet, I haven’t started the timer. I started this post, probably for the sole purpose of not having to start that timer.

But it’s time.

Start the timer. Come on. Right now. Go…

Yay! I started the timer. After 1 hour of writing, which has somehow managed to be 2 hours later, I have… wow. 454 words. Hahahaha…!

You know what? I think too much when I’m writing.

Also, I made a decision today to end my participation in one writer’s forum. I kind of hated to do it, on the one hand, because there are some nice people there, but on the other hand, one writer’s forum is enough of a distraction from my writing. I compared the forums and made my choice. Even so, I plan to take a one week break from the forum I didn’t leave! (Starting now. I actually felt compelled to go check one last time for PMs and topic updates, just… in… case, yikes.)

Now, I need to start that timer again. I’m not anywhere near done with this book yet. Come on. Start the timer…

And I’m back. I’m up to 864 words now, after 2 hours. I… probably shouldn’t do this but I think I’m going to turn in. I need to dwell on a few things before I write the next scene. The book is in the validation phase of the ending now, and I want to be sure I’m not missing anything. Because I feel like I might be.

So, break time. But I’ll be back bright and early in the morning so I can get this finished up.

My Internal Critic & Tonight’s Writing Goal

Lynn

See previous post. I have a kick-my-ass, soul crushingly strong internal critic that turns writing into hard work that’s not nearly as fun as it should be. Therefore I spend a lot of time procrastinating when I should be working writing.

What that all means is that I have about 4,200 words I need to write tonight and I haven’t even started. It’s 7:55 pm. It’d be no problem if I was one of those writers who could sit down and pound out 2,000 words an hour (or even 1,000 words an hour). I don’t begrudge them their abilities, but I do wish I could figure out why I have so much—nevermind, I think I answered that in the second sentence of this post. :o The internal critic makes me second guess everything I put down, and also pushes me to seek perfection (when we all know perfection doesn’t exist). Sigh. Downer moment here: Sometimes it just really feels like such a hopeless battle fighting perfectionism. Ah well. Moving on.

However long it takes me tonight, I’m going to have to get these words out. Maybe this will be the night I kick perfectionism’s butt and start pounding out my own 2,000 words an hour. Wouldn’t that be nice?

On that note, I think I’m going to have to pick up the planning posts again. As soon as I stopped with the planning posts suddenly writing started to get hard again, and that was after me reaching some really great word counts. So those planning posts might be coming back, if not here, then at least in Evernote. :)

Holy crap. I dropped in at one forum, wrote two posts, and bam, it’s 9:34 pm now and I still have this post sitting here waiting on me. @o_o@ Those are my fists raised in aggravation.

Time to get to work. I really do have to write those 4,200 words tonight, unfortunately, even if it means I don’t go to bed until … tomorrow. Ouch. Really wish I had some regular coffee in the house. :o

Finished Reading Another Book—14 of 60

Lynn

I’m sure there’s some literature out there somewhere that explains why we engage in self-sabotage. I’m not that interested in reading it right now. I just know I’m probably doing some of that engaging at the moment and I’m annoyed with myself.

On that note, today, when I should have been writing my fingers to the bone because… deadline! I was instead reading another book of fiction. I should’ve been writing. Yes indeedy.

The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright - Tessa Dare

But I really did enjoy the book so there’s that. If I’m going to procrastinate, as least I enjoyed myself while doing it. My usual routine is to sit and wallow in the guilt that comes with avoiding doing what most needs to be done. So… yay? :S

I read The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright by Tessa Dare. It’s the first book I’ve read by this author, and I picked it up after starting Romancing the Duke, getting 23% in and realizing it was a longer book, and I wanted something shorter, novella length, and my Kindle sure does know how to tempt me with those little “Customers Also Bought” thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. :) Don’t get me wrong, so far Romancing the Duke is excellent, but I just don’t have time right now for a full length novel.

So it was another book that wasn’t part of my backlog and now Romancing the Duke is sitting in my backlog along with a bundle my Kindle recommended to me, Seven Wicked Nights. Sigh. I will never, ever catch up all my reading.

I kind of like that idea. ;)

NOTE: I decided to make an effort to read more books this year. And since I have so many unread books, I set a goal to read at least 60 of the books in my backlog by the end of the year. I’m even keeping a log. :)

Planning for an awesome day

Lynn

Let’s get this started on the right foot. Or maybe the left, because my right foot has arthritis or something in it after a hiking incident about 6 years ago so it’s not my best foot…

Anyway. :D Today I’m planning to write a significant number of words. 10 sessions. 620 words a session. If I do this, I’ll have created a new record for myself.

#1 (10:00–11:00): 67 words (Whoa. I ended up doing a lot of work on the scene in progress. Not a promising start.)
#2 (11:00–12:00): 207 words (Hell fire. This is not going well. I’m not using 5 minute sessions and maybe that’s a problem, but… I’m going to keep going this way for another hour or two before I give up and make myself use them.)
#3 (2:30–3:30): 417 words (Better, but not great. I lost track of time and ended this hour a bit late. I’m kind of hung up on plot issues, atm.)
#4 (4:30–5:30): 575 words (Better still, but still short. Lost track of time again and ended the hour ten minutes late.)
#5 (5:30–6:30): 526 words (I finally stopped at the right time. It’s 6:31 this time. So 526 for more like half an hour isn’t bad. Maybe I can start making up some time now if I can avoid interruptions.)
#6 (6:30–7:30): 438 words (Well, that didn’t work out. Also, I have snot and dried tears all over my face. It was amazing! I absolutely love writing melodrama. I need a break though, so I’m going to push the rest of my sessions back half an hour.)
#7 (8:30–9:30): 331 words (What happened?)
#8 (10:30–11:30): 645 words (I’m tired. No way I can keep going. I had originally planned to be done by 10. I’m calling it done.)
#9 : canceled
#10 : canceled

I’m going to update as the day goes on with my progress (this is usually motivating for me and I need all the motivation I can get today).

Now, time to get started. :D This is going to be a blast!

Quick update: Yikes! I went from planning to start at 8:30 to starting at 10:00. That’s a big deal considering how tightly I had today planned out. I’m going to have to try to write a bit faster in these early sessions and make up some of that time.

Another update (2:39 pm): Yeah, this is not turning into a great day for this plan, but it is what it is and I’m going to have to do my best to make it work. Now, back to it. I’m going to have to hit some really great numbers in the next few hours. I’m still going to try to keep working in hour chunks instead of 5 minute sessions, but if after a couple more hours my production’s not up, I’m going to have to bail on that plan and start the timer.

Third quick update (4:21 pm): My optimism about the 3:30–4:30 hour has been properly squished. Now that it’s almost 4:30, I’m finally able to pick it back up. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay on track for the rest of the night. The 8:30–9:30 hour could be tricky but I’ll wait on making another adjustment until I get to it.

Fourth update (8:35 pm): So my half hour break stretched to an hour and I’m just now getting back to it. But the rest of the evening should be set. My word count total is a bit of a joke considering how much time I’ve spent writing today. Bummer. 2,230 at the moment, and if my pace doesn’t improve, I won’t make it past 3,700 today. Nowhere near a record. I wrote more than that the day before yesterday, and it didn’t take half as long. There is good news though. I’m almost at the end of this book! I mean, I’m days passed my original personal deadline, but I’m finally almost done. Yay!

Writing, reading, and wasting time

Lynn

How do I convince myself that surfing the internet is a terrible waste of time? I always seem to do most of it when I should be writing.

But then I run across posts like this and I can’t help but read them. I wasn’t so interested in the stuff about the editing process, but there was a good bit in there about word counts and being prolific that made me happy to have read the post.

I’ve watched more of Garrett Robinson’s vloganovel videos. Yes, I know, it’s weird to just watch someone typing but those are the bits I watch. I turn up the volume so I can hear the tapping of the keys and I listen to get a sense of his speed. It is weird. I know it. But it helps me write faster after the fact. Watching him write makes me hyper aware of how much deleting, editing, backspacing, and jumping around I do as I write, so that I do less of it.

I’m not sure what’s up with that, tbh, except that—and this is strange too, I know it—I’ll often type half a sentence started from somewhere in the middle and then hop to the beginning and type the beginning of the sentence. I didn’t realize how often my thoughts do that to me until I watched how linearly Garrett writes. I’m not sure if the starting of sentences in the middle is my brain outpacing my fingers (I only type about 60-65 words per minute), or if it’s a result of the way my thoughts jump around constantly—even when I’m trying to focus and concentrate. As a general rule, I’ve always thought I wrote linearly, and I do when it comes to scenes and chapters, but when it comes to paragraphs and sentences, I’m all over the place. :)

Also, I was 58% done reading a book I’d checked out from the library when it expired yesterday. I’m 42% through another that’s also about to expire. Don’t think I’ll finish it because I just don’t see myself having the time. I’m 12% into another, and 10% into another. These are all fiction, and this is why I’m probably not going to make my 60 book goal before year end. I start reading too many books that I don’t finish. :P These aren’t even the books I was supposed to be reading (my backlog of books)!

 

Self-control, forums, and procrastination

Lynn

Boisterous goings-on in forum-land have distracted me from my goal this morning! I am supposed to be writing, and yet I continually find myself refreshing the danged pages. Also, when you have people on your ignore list it’s not helpful when everyone else keeps quoting them. :D I have resisted the siren call of the “You are ignoring this user. Show me the post.” link. Quite proud of myself.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that I really should be taking a break from reading these posts and visiting forums.

Self-control, I need you. Please come back to me. :D

Finished Reading Another Book—13 of 60

Lynn

I finished reading another book. This one was The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold.

The Man Who Folded Himself - David Gerrold

“Read another book” wasn’t exactly accurate, because I’ve read several non-fiction books, and started so many other books and stories that I feel weird implying that finding the time to read is an effort. It’s not. I read constantly. What I read is where the problem is. I don’t read enough fiction these days, and finding time to finish reading a book is where I seem to fall short. :D

But I finished The Man Who Folded Himself several days ago and I really liked it. I’m afraid at my current pace of finishing, I’m going to fall terribly short of my 60 book goal. So—on to the next!

In This Instance, Shorter Is Better

Lynn

I’m a bit frustrated with the 15 minute sessions, because although I should be able to make them work, they’re not working. Could be the part I’m writing in my book, or just the usual I can’t quite hold my attention on my writing for the required length of time thing.

I’m willing to bet hot chocolate on the latter, and popsicles on the former. :D

Whatever the cause, the outcome is the same. Few words, and not enough progress.

So, it’s back to the 5 minute sessions for the rest of the book and maybe a trial run with the 15 minute sessions when I’m back at work on one of my other books.

I might update later with a comparison of my output with the two session lengths.

UPDATE:

I can’t really tell a difference in speed, although there is a difference in output between the two days I switched. I averaged 677 wph the day I used 15 minute sessions and 816 the day I used 5 minute sessions, which seems like a difference, but when I look several days back, I have slow days using the 5 minute sessions too, where my speed is anywhere from 300 to 600 wph. The biggest difference is that I wrote for a longer period of time with the 5 minute sessions and definitely ended with a better word count for the day. But truly, I don’t know if that’s because of session length or some other reason, because I’m on a deadline and I’m feeling the pressure to spend more time writing.

What I do know is that my ideal work day would be to sit and write because it’s just something I do each morning until I hit my word count and not have to track these metrics. If I could be confident I could sit down and write my word count every day in a reasonable amount of time, I really wouldn’t care what my words per hour and my daily average amounted to.

(Rare days off would be okay, but they tend to balloon into more off days than on if I don’t monitor like a hawk. Even after 87-ish days of writing every day, I still have that moment where I think, Oh crap. Did I write yesterday? I noticed it most when I was working on publishing my last book, but when my attention’s on something, I can become single-minded to the nth degree.)

I could easily set production goals based around daily word count goals and ignore time altogether, with the basic assumption that this or that word count goal is reasonable for me.

Ah well. I’ll figure something out. :o I don’t give up easily when I really want something and that’s the kind of writers’ life I want.

Writing In 15 Minute Sessions

Lynn

I’m trying out a new writing method now that I’ve finally got back into the swing of things. I’m finding the 5 minute sessions a little annoying the last few days so I’ve reverted to 15 minute sessions. I’m trying to do 3 every hour, and hit 800 words. I haven’t done it yet, but I do think I can so I’m going to practice that for a while.

What I’m hoping to gain is the ability to write more—of course. :D Say, 5 to 7 hours a day at 800 words each… That would be a pretty nice output by anyone’s standards! I’d get 15 minutes to recharge every hour. Yep. I’m liking this idea a lot and I’m optimistic I can make it work for a while. :D

I’ll report back later today with some numbers to see if this thing’s working out.

UPDATE:  I liked it. I had trouble meeting the 800 words goal (267 per session) but I think I just need to keep practicing. All told, here are my results:

session 1 – 3 sprints – 543 words
session 2 – 3 sprints – 481 words
session 3 – 3 sprints – 423 words
session 4 – 3 sprints – 521 words

I came up 1,232 short of where I would’ve been if I’d managed the 800. Still, I did like this way of working! It was a nice change from the mad pace of the 5 minute sessions and I’m hopeful I can train my brain to hit 300 in 15 minutes. ;)

I’m calling it a success and worth further experimentation. :D

Hit a Wall…

Lynn

I started out weak today, writing only 1,601 words in about 3 hours. Hit a wall, and reacted by taking lunch and watching television. One quick episode of Bitten turned into the rest of the season, and when that was over, I migrated to catching up with season 3 of Revenge.

I have to say, I like Bitten, except when I don’t. I kinda hate the female lead. She kind of sounds like someone’s holding her nose while she talks. And I feel mean for mentioning that, but it truly is the reason that character annoys me. The voice. It’s all about the voice.

Logan is my darling on that show, although I admit to a certain appreciation of Jeremy, Nick, and Clay, in that order. Although let me be honest, I kind of thought Nick was going to turn out to be a gay werewolf and then that never happened. :D Philip was a cutie, but honestly, that story line was played up way too much for what happened in the end. I know cliffhangers and shock value are important for these kinds of shows, but yuck. I was just disappointed.

Now, the other shocking revelation? I’m sorry to say that reveal wasn’t that shocking. I have no idea what gave it away, but three episodes from the end, I started to have a strong suspicion that what was going to turn out to be true, would turn out to be true, and oh, boy, I was exactly right.

Back to Philip though. What a waste. There were so many other chances for something to have happened to make an impact and yet… there you go. Throw it in at the end to fulfill the gore quotient. I mean, she’d already made her choice! How did that accomplish anything? Here’s hoping they do a Bobby Ewing or something and have those last thirty seconds be nothing but a bad dream. Doubt I’ll get my wish, but I’m making it anyway. :)

As for Revenge, well, Emily has become quite unsympathetic to me and I often find myself rooting for Victoria as often as Emily these days. If not for Nolan and Aiden, I might be tempted to jump ship (lol) but I do like some of the characters on that show and they keep me watching even though the underlying premise is starting to wear. I want to see someone important go down! Soon! And I just googled spoilers for the rest of the season I’m watching and it looks like I might not be disappointed. Then again, I’ve now lost all interest in watching the remaining episodes, so there ya go.

I love spoilers but they do sometimes make me less interested in a show, especially if the only thing keeping me watching is my desire to know what happens next. These are the probably won’t watch these episodes a second time shows. When there’s more going for a show for me than the simple desire to just know what happens, those are the shows that I rewatch. Sometimes so many times I even lose track. The sad news is that these shows are much rarer these days. I don’t know if it’s a change in me, or a change in the shows. But I’ve seen the episodes of SGA, SG-1, Voyager, ST:TNG, Grimm, and a few others many more than once. What is it about those shows that makes them rewatchable? I have no idea. Wish I did, because then I’d write all my books that way. :D

Gah. I clearly watched entirely too much television today.

But back to the real business here and that’d be my writing. I need some good ideas to get this story moving again. Boo hoo. Why can’t I think of anything fun to throw in? This deadline is going to kill me if I don’t get moving again.

Ah well. It’s 11:51 12:28 am (where’d the time go?!) and I’ve got to come up with something or I’m decidedly not going to make my quota the next few days. That would be really, really bad news for me. :o

Book Published; Writing Next Book; Dining Room Chair

Lynn

I got my book published last week. I’ve been trying to get started again on my next book, which is already 55% written as long as I come in close to my word count goal on it.

I haven’t had much success so far, having only written about 930 words on this next one since I finished the other book. But I’m giving it a stronger push today. I did, however, have to push aside my nice cushy chair and put the spindle-back dining room chair at my desk again. It makes me sad to know that if I get too comfortable, I can’t write, but it appears to be a demonstrable fact these days. Cushy chair is good for lots of stuff, but not serious writing.

I also am revisiting my thoughts on the 5 minute sessions. I definitely think it works for me, and even though I had trouble with the last book, as I’ve re-read parts of this one (huge amounts of it written with those 5 minute sessions, and alongside other stories while I wrote on as many as 4 books in one day some days), I’m finding that it doesn’t have any of the same issues I experienced with the other book. So, I don’t think either of those methods is to blame for my feelings on the last book, or even my troubles with tying up my loose ends and my ending. And since both methods work so well for me, I’m not abandoning either strategy. (Also, this book has actually gotten me my highest average rating on one of my books on Goodreads to date, so what do those feelings actually mean?)

For the foreseeable future, I’ll be using 5 minute sessions, and I’ll work on more than one story a day if I start to slow down too much on any one story.

And now, I need to get back to writing. I’m going to do several hours of 5 minute sessions so I can up that word count. I have a deadline to meet for this new book. :D

I’m also still pushing for the elusive 200 words in 5 minutes goal. I’ve done it exactly 1 time out of 623 attempts. I know, because I’ve got a spreadsheet. ;)

Editing Still

Lynn

Ouch. I had hoped to be done by now. I’m at 71% done. The good news is that the last 20% or so should be in much better shape than the other 80%, the bad news is that I don’t actually know that.

I’m feeling more apathetic about this story than I should and that scares me. :o There are sections I wrote where I had a lot of fun and sections I wrote where I was excited, etc, and now those sections are doing nothing for me as a reader. :O I write for me so I can enjoy my own stories later and as you can imagine, I’m very concerned about my own reaction to what I’ve written. I’m not usually one of those people who gets sick of their stories. And maybe I’m not sick of it now, maybe I just need some distance. Maybe I’m still in the critical space in my head I’ve been trying to climb out of over the last few months, because I admit, I’m having trouble reading and enjoying any fiction at the moment—and even my favorite television shows feel distant as I watch them. So maybe it really is just me.*

So, does this mean it’s time to panic? You’d think so, but I am taking this moment to remind myself that I’ve done the best I can at this moment in time and that’s all I can do. It’s either okay or it’s not, but agonizing over it isn’t going to help. Working over the story more isn’t going to help either. I did that with the novella that never ended and all it got me was a novella that never ended. :o

I’ll be putting the finishing touches on this thing, formatting it, and releasing it into the wild and then moving on to finish the next book.

And now, it’s time to get back to it. :)

I love all my books. But maybe it’s true that I love some more than others.

*Update: This book has gotten me my highest average rating on Goodreads to date for any of my books. So, yeah, I can’t trust my feelings on these issues—at least not at the moment. 

Editing Day Do Over Do Over ;)

Lynn

So, yesterday I totally blew off the editing because I made a book cover instead. It started out innocently enough, with me working over possible titles as I had breakfast. Then I decided I needed a bit more time before I sat down to read, so I hit the stock photo shop and spent an hour of the hour and a half I allotted for that looking at photographs. I found something tempting and decided to very quickly pull up the template I was going to use for my book cover, and try out the photo and my title on it.

I changed the title. I bought the photo license. ;)

At that point, I decided to go ahead with the cover design and save the editing for the evening.

I finished the cover in 5 hours and 42 minutes, plus an hour searching images, so probably a record time for me on a novel cover! And I’m quite pleased with it. I’m not saying a pro couldn’t have done better, and I’m not a pro by any stretch of the imagination, but I finally made layer masks work for me and was able to do a few other interesting things I don’t usually do. That learning curve is finally leveling off a bit. Whew! It’s only taken how many books? :)

Anyway, I’m getting to the editing now, though, so time to get busy today. I have a book to edit, files to make, an ebook to proof, and uploading to do (probably not all today, but ASAP, nonetheless).

Oh, and I finished my 50 words last night after almost forgetting to do them for the first time since starting my daily writing habit. I’ll have to remember to be on my guard about that while publishing stuff, but I wrote them in Evernote on my phone just before I went to sleep. Just checked this morning, and it was 97 words. Close call, that. ;)

Editing Day Do Over

Lynn

So, yesterday didn’t work well as an editing day. Sick kid and all that. Other reasons too, but why bore you? So, today, it’s an editing day do over. :)

This morning I think I finally have a title for my book. I’m also working on cover copy. The house is cool, but I’m sweating, so I might be on my way to a cold to match the one my kids had. Yuck. I must get this book ready to go before I actually get sick though, so headache, be gone!

I’m going to have a long day, because now I not only have to finish editing the book, I have to do a cover (something that often takes me two days because I hate doing it and I’m not that proficient with the software) and cover copy, and if I have time (I won’t, but I’m trying to be an optimist) format the epub with Jutoh. :D

I always plan to have a lot more time between finishing a book and releasing it, but alas, it never seems to work out that way.

Editing Day

Lynn

I’m probably going to keep my daily writing streak alive today with the bare minimum word count, because for the moment, I have lots to do.

I didn’t start editing yesterday as I had planned. Night before last, I tossed and turned and woke up absolutely certain that my ending wasn’t right. I tried to ignore that feeling, but I never could get more than a page in on the editing, and I finally gave up and read a few pages from a few different writers’ books I enjoy (Spider, Spin Me A Web; Bird by Bird; The Courage to Write; Self-editing for Fiction Writers) just to loosen my mind. Then I sat down and fixed my ending. It took me just over 6 hours and I was finished at 1:06 AM.

But I love it! This was exactly what I needed to do and I’m so glad I did it. I don’t have even one tenth of the anxiety left that was plaguing me about the book. Yay! :)

Sometimes, it’s just hard work, but it pays off in the end.

Maybe the book’s good, maybe it isn’t, but I like it and that’s all that matters to me right now. :D

I sent the book to my Kindle last night and now I’m just about (yikes!) as soon as I pick up my sick kid I’m going to get started reading it.

Finished Book Woes

Lynn

I am totally and completely freaking out about this book I just finished. It’s the first novel I’ve completed since January and … it feels like my writing abilities took a huge step backward in the intervening time.

I’m going to read this thing today and hope my insecurities are a product of my imagination.

Hmm.  That was a bit of an unintentional pun.  Ah well. :D

Time to get to work!

Finish the Book—Day 2 after the Deadline

Lynn

The good night’s sleep has helped immensely. Writing is going well this morning, and the ending is back on track! Yay! :D

UPDATE: I’ve deleted over 2,400 words (bye bye gunfight! but this ending is moving right along now! Love it. Whew! I might actually make it today. :D

I can feel the book coming to a close. I actually had to go back and find my ending (that’s why all the deleted words), because I overshot it. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I had a scene that probably should have been the end but I was treating it as just another thing… I fixed that and voila! 

UPDATE: Done!