Fiction writer. Expert procrastinator. This is my life.
Coffee. I shouldn’t have drank it and now… I’m still up at 1:00 am and I know better. Tomorrow is supposed to be me getting back to writing one of my books and working on hitting a word count record.
Holy crap. I’ve lost all self-control.
I hate caffeine.
I’m apparently not writing today. It’s 10:30 pm and I haven’t done diddly. Zero words so far, which of course, I’ll have to correct, because I can’t go to bed without keeping my no more zero word days / write everyday streak alive. :o
I worked on a cover upgrade that turned out quite nicely (a tweak really, because I just made some simple adjustments to the artwork and text to make it look nicer). I just didn’t finish it. I should do that. I have a bad habit of starting these things and never doing anything with them.
Hmm.
I’ve just realized I need to practice follow-through. Because not following through isn’t a habit I want to reinforce.
I know! It was supposed to be Friday, then Saturday. Instead, it’s today.
Every publishing task I did took longer than usual this time. Then, yesterday, it was time to get my accounts in order for the coming months…
I brought my sales spreadsheet up to date, balanced some accounts, and planned my spending for the next few months.
I’m a huge fan of YNAB, a handy little piece of budgeting software that I’ve been using for years (still on version 3 because it does what I need). It works really well with the writing lifestyle and lets me plan my spending months in advance to match incoming royalties. If you depend on your publishing income the way I do, you need to be able to plan months in advance for cash flow if you don’t want finances to stress you out. YNAB is particularly suited to the task and I love it. I don’t go overboard, and I use only 3 master categories: Payments and Bills (Mortgage, Insurance, Electricity, Internet & Phone, etc.), Savings Categories (Maintenance, Doctor, Gifts, Long-term Savings, a.k.a. stuff that’s needed to address the “not if, when” vagaries of life), and Flexible Spending (Food, Clothes, Entertainment, blah blah).
Now I’m all planned up through February and I can turn my attention back to other things. :)
Time to try to break my one day word count record again!
And format a paperback or two, finish some paperback covers, redo some images, make a few typo fixes in a couple of my previously published stories I recently read as research for my next book, and copy edit a story I finished back in October, make a cover for it, and publish the danged thing!
Whew. I have a lot to do.
I kind of wish it wasn’t already 1:42 in the afternoon. I have a feeling my goals today have gotten a little out of hand. :o
Still working on those publishing tasks for that book. The cover took too long, and the copy edit is dragging. I’m going to be lucky to get back to writing on Friday. It was supposed to be Monday. Didn’t happen. So seven days off writing instead of three.
Pulling out my hair here. But … onward. I’ll get it done.
Have I mentioned before that designing covers for my books frustrates me? Yes? I thought so.
I’ve been trying to learn more about all of it, but I still can’t visualize what I want and then translate that into something that makes sense. I usually have to have a really good piece of stock art to get what I want quickly. Doesn’t usually happen. I’m not good at picking stock art, because I’m not good at visualizing what I can do with it once I have it. I seem to buy licenses for all the wrong stuff and then have to try again. And again. ;)
Today, I seem to have come up with an okay design for my next release, although something’s still off about it. Still, it will be a record-breaking achievement if I only make a few tweaks to this and consider it done.* It came together so much quicker than I’m used to stuff coming together. Or maybe it just feels that way because my new “publishing days” workflow gives me an entire day for cover design and nothing else! That my dear has turned out to be a genius move for me. I feel a distinct lack of stress about this cover. Also, I have finally accepted that covers just have to be good enough not to suck and they’ll get the job done; I’m sure that attitude is helping too.**
Finally, I do want to devote some more time to tutorials, but I’ve been so focused on increasing my daily word counts that I just haven’t had the energy left for it. Nor to spend on practicing cover design.
I have no interest in doing nothing but writing; I like having hobbies, and designing my own covers would be a great one to have. But I’ve had to focus on priorities right now, which is learning how to get more words written each day without it taking me all day to do it. :D I’ll get there, and then I’ll turn my attention to become a better cover designer for myself.
I want to redo a lot of my covers, and tbh, I would like to hire it out, but every time I consider it, I think about how that will bottleneck my publishing workflow and I really can’t stand the idea. If I had unlimited money where I could get anyone at any price to do the work on my timetable and do it exactly the way I wanted, then I think it would be easier to let go. But there’s also the fact that I want to be a good cover designer. Because of these things, I always keep coming back to the idea that I just need to suck it up and keep trying. If I don’t give up, eventually I’ll learn how to design great covers myself.
*I redid the cover and then redid it again and then again. In the end, I spent three entire days on this particular cover. :o
**Apparently that attitude didn’t help after all. See note * above. :D
Addendum: I tried hiring it out and I learned a valuable lesson: hiring out doesn’t work for me, at all.
The book is done. That’s really all I have to say. :)
I’m still working on finishing my latest book—you know, the one that’s driving me crazy because it’s about to become the longest book I’ve written yet (since I started indie publishing—cause you know, I’ve definitely written longer books, just not recently).
I haven’t broken my 5,758 one-day word count record, yet. Today won’t be that day either. I’m not sick, but I’m not 100% either. I mean, when you’re sitting in a room with the temp set at 74°F and you’re still cold, I think it’s safe to say something isn’t right.
I’m counting today as a sick day, but I’ve still written over 1,300 words today (so far). I’m definitely writing more today, although probably not as many as I wanted to write.
I think that post about what makes a reasonable word count goal for me really did signal the start of a breakthrough.
I’ve been having some of the best word counts I’ve had in a long while. But this isn’t the first time I’ve thought similarly. I had a great month back in February 2013 and I thought it was going to last. I was consistent. I thought I had the right motivation going. There was just no reason to think it would end. But it did.
That’s my fear with this one: That as soon as the pressure of getting this latest book finished is gone, I’ll slack off and never pick up momentum again.
I get to work every day and remind myself there are lots of things in my world that I can’t control, but this isn’t one of those things. I can change. I can be the prolific writer I want to be.
And this is where I get back to writing so I can get closer to that reasonable word count goal for today.
Unfortunately, the header is also the thing I like about it. I could get rid of it, and the theme wouldn’t be that much different from the old one. But I don’t want to get rid of the header! However, on my laptop screen, it just takes up too much space and I hate scrolling down to see my last post. :(
This is what I see:
That’s it. The whole window.
It’s a say day today. :(
That’s it! I like this theme a lot! I saw it on a website I shouldn’t have been on because no, I haven’t finished my writing today and it’s not dinnertime.
That desk is where I sometimes work. (Update: pic is gone because it was a header pic and another theme change obliterated it.) I have moved it though. Now it’s at a right angle to that window and in the “command position” in that very small room. Oh, and I have a new chair. I wrote posts about both of those things but I can’t remember when. :D (Found them.)
The only thing I don’t like about this theme is how links aren’t underlined and the text color is almost a match for the link color. Hmm. I might have to tweak it! We’ll see, but absolutely not right now.* I must turn my attention to writing or I’m going to want to kick my own rear later tonight. :o
*Ta-da. I fixed the links anyway. Took about 5-10 minutes to install Child Theme Configurator, generate a child theme, find the link css in the original stylesheet, copy it, paste it in my new child theme, and save. I still shouldn’t have done it. :( Boo on me.
I don’t even want to talk about my fail yesterday, but fail I did.
Today I’m starting even later, and I don’t have any excuse at all except that it’s Saturday and apparently I’m just not “on” today.
I managed to recover enough yesterday to write 2,465 words. That was after writing only 561 (plus 277) by 5:55 pm. I’m proud of myself for one thing only yesterday and that was realizing the spiral I had fallen into and taking corrective measures.
You see, I decided to watch The Big Bang Theory at lunch. New episode. But it was short and I wanted to take a quick look at Hand of God on Amazon while I was sitting there, so I did. I watched two entire episodes, when I realized I was going to spend way too much time watching TV if I didn’t do something to stop myself.
So the something I did was skip straight to the last episode and watch it. :D
It worked. I got closure and the urge to watch more episodes disappeared. I was ready to get back to work without distraction and that was key. I could have given up at my 561 words, but I didn’t. And I ended up with 2,465 words instead.
I’m cut off from the world here, really, and didn’t hear about the terrible violence in France until I read some NPR news last night. I don’t mind admitting that I prefer ignorance when it comes to news. I haven’t stopped thinking about what I read and that kind of anxiety over something I can do nothing about isn’t helpful.
Anyway, moving on.
Despite my late start today, I’m going to try to finish my book today. It’s a personal challenge I’ve set myself for the day. I don’t know how many words that’ll be but the goal is 4,558 words, and if I have to write something else at the end of the day to get them, that’s the plan! Today is a writing day, and I really think how I’ve separated my writing days from my publishing days is a lot better way of working for me.
Updates later, in another post likely.
For now, WIFI is going off and staying off until I’ve hit 4,558 or it’s dinnertime!
I’m trying for another record one-day word count today—or to just finish my book! Either one will make me happy. But I’m starting late today because one of my kids had a dead battery and I had to hop in the car and get them to school!
Yesterday I wrote 3,435 words, but today, I immediately deleted 277 of them because I didn’t think about doing that yesterday and I no longer need those words. I’m not going to revise yesterday’s count down since I can’t go back in time and write more words. I like yesterday’s word count right where it is. :D
That means I need a lot of words today to make the record because I also have to make up the 277 words!
The number to beat is 5,758, but to beat it, I’ll need to write 6,036 words. I had better get started.
Now, WIFI off and it’s going to stay off until I’m done writing today.*
*This is currently my secret to success.
Yesterday, I was trying both to break my one-day word count record and finish a book. I didn’t finish the book, but I did break the record. I wrote 5,758 words yesterday! I’m very proud of them. :)
Today I try again to finish this book. I think I can. It feels like I’m almost there. Then again, I did say that yesterday too but the scenes I wrote didn’t seem to move me much closer to the end.
Whatever I do, I’ll be working on getting my 4,558 words today so if I do finish the book today, I can take the next 3–5 days off writing to spend time publishing stuff.
I have a short story that’s either going to be published or scrapped (I’m not sure the plot makes sense, at all, and I need a fresh read before I decide if I want to start it over completely at some point, or go ahead with publishing), a novel to proof, cover to make, blurbs to write, paperback to layout, and one paperback cover to complete for my pen name book (paper layout is done, just been waiting to finish the cover for an entire month!).
I’m going to have to finish it all in those 3 to 5 days. 3 is all I’ve allowed for publishing. The extra 2 would pull from my days-off-writing allowance. (I’ve built in 4 weekend days off each month to my word count goals. Of course, I’ll still write something on every day off, just to keep my “no more zero word days” streak alive. ;) But there’s a big difference between writing 50 to 100 words and aiming for 4,558!)
And, that’s got to be a wrap so I can get started. I’m already slipping into old habits of writing crazy long blog posts about random stuff to keep from having to shut off my WIFI.
So, WIFI off!
I’m going to try again today to break my new one-day word count record. :) I didn’t do well with that challenge on Sunday, ending the day early with only 535 words.
Today I expect better. But first I have to get off the WIFI and get started, so I’ll be back later with details. :D
Success!
| Minutes | Words | Session | WPH |
| 60 | 761 | 761 | 761 |
| 55 | 1,246 | 485 | 529 |
| 39 | 1,711 | 465 | 715 |
| 30 | 2,068 | 357 | 714 |
| 12 | 2,279 | 211 | 1,055 |
| 10 | 2,405 | 126 | 756 |
| 50 | 2,810 | 405 | 486 |
| 42 | 3,589 | 779 | 1,113 |
| 40 | 4,142 | 553 | 830 |
| 30 | 4,502 | 360 | 720 |
| 30 | 4,910 | 408 | 816 |
| 30 | 5,298 | 388 | 776 |
I’m actually not done with tonight’s writing just yet, so this probably isn’t my final word count, but as of this last session, I surpassed my previous one-day word count record and I was too excited not to post about it. :D
Update: I made it to 5,758 words. New record! Next up, 6,000 words in one day. It’ll happen.
Today I plan to write a lot of words. Not hope, or will try, but absolutely plan to. I will push myself to get more if I slow down too much, and the story will come together.
I want to finish this book asap so I can write a few others I want to write before the end of the year.
Today’s plan: write in whatever sized sessions I want, and get lots of words, with an aim for hitting 1k wph as often as possible today!
So last night I realized I have a BIG plot hole to fix. So, doing that now before I start…
Plot hole resolved! Yes. Whew. Now, to move on and start writing today!
Time sure does move fast when you’re having fun. My first 20 minute session was over in the blink of an eye. Here’s hoping this means my plans for the day are going to come to fruition. I wrote at a pace of 945 wph and now I’m ready to get started again.
I’ll probably save the next update for my lunch break.
I had lunch, and a short nap. I do believe I need more naps in the winter. I feel better than I did right after lunch and I’m hoping it shows in my writing speed.
I do believe I’ve been overwriting though. I notice my speed on one of my stories is ridiculously fast compared to my writing for this particular series. Yes, they’re different kinds of books, but I think I’m overthinking and overwriting these books. I go into way too much detail trying to hit the right notes. The writing for my other series seems to go a lot faster and I usually reach much higher wph numbers without as much effort. Time to work on that. I want to write these books faster. But I don’t think I can change the feel of the stories or I risk changing them too much. So we’ll see.
I’m at 2,000 even for the day. I need 2,558. I did those 2,000 in just over 3 hours. I can write 4 more hours and reach my goal. If I can write more, I might break my new record. That’d be nice, but it’s not a requirement for success today. I’m just trying to finish this book in the next 3 days.
| Minutes | Words | Session | WPH |
| 20 | 315 | 315 | 945 |
| 20 | 583 | 268 | 804 |
| 10 | 594 | 11 | 66 |
| 40 | 950 | 356 | 534 |
| 33 | 1,297 | 347 | 631 |
| 60 | 2,000 | 703 | 703 |
I’m resetting my “goal” so that it appears smaller this evening so I’m posting my numbers for the morning before I delete them.
| 183 | Total minutes | 4.91355 | Hours to finish | |
| 2,000 | Total words | |||
| 656 | Total WPH | 3.05 | Hours completed | |
I’m very close to my goal. I’m going to finish it without the timer because I need to get it done quickly so I can go to sleep early enough to get a good night’s sleep.
| Minutes | Words | Session | WPH |
| 60 | 582 | 582 | 582 |
| 60 | 1,354 | 772 | 772 |
| 60 | 1,974 | 620 | 620 |
| 180 | Total minutes | 0.887538 | Hours to finish | |
| 1,974 | Total words | |||
| 658 | Total WPH | 3 | Hours completed | |
That puts me at 3974 today so far, so just over 500 words to go.
I ended the night with 4,149 words. Not bad, but I’m still falling short of my goal. I’m just going to keep trying.
*Written in Evernote and posted after the fact so the WIFI wouldn’t become an issue! What is it they say about temptation? Paraphrased, I think it’s something like this: Stay away from it! ;)
Today I try again to break my new one-day word count record. The target is 5,221 words and I’d like to smash it, really. If not, then I’ll settle for 5,222. :D
I have a chicken/egg dilemma: I’ve been having a lot more thoughts and breakthroughs with the story since I started writing at an accelerated pace. I had not been having much luck beforehand. I can’t say for sure which came first though. Was I primed to start writing faster because I’d started to become more energized about the story, or did I become more energized about the story because I started pushing myself to write more?
Ah. It’s an unanswerable question as of yet, though I lean toward the idea that writing more generates its own momentum and inspiration. I’ll go with that and use it as a reminder to keep going even when it feels like I’ve outrun the story. That’s happened a few times, but I’ve kept at it and seen decent results.
On the other hand, I freely admit I think everyone’s going to hate this book, and it is by far not my strongest work. I persevere anyway!
Fail!
I wrote 535 words. I blame a headache. (It started on Friday and I blame it for both of the two unexpected days off I had, Friday and Sunday—Saturday was an expected day off.)
Luckily, the headache finally went away Monday and I got a really good start to the week.
No joy today on my attempt to break my new one-day word count record. I’m sitting at 3,291 words after going backwards! from 3,327 in my latest session. I could theoretically continue the attempt, but I just haven’t felt up to it this evening and found any number of things to do that are easier than getting back to writing.
I’m tired and I don’t want to screw up tomorrow by staying up tonight, when I’m already sure I won’t do much more than I’ve already done.
Also, I’m trying to work into the reasonableness of this goal. Staying up late to get the words doesn’t fit into that in my mind! I mean, if I was wasting away most of my days every day, yeah, maybe, but I’ve been giving this a real effort so I’m not going to knock having expectations that I’ll get a good night’s sleep every night. :D
That’s also no way to run a business. ;)
Okay, this all sounds like justification for something I already want to do, so I’m just going to accept that and move on. :D Goodnight!
Tuesday I reached 2,625 words, quite a ways away from my very reasonable 4,558* word goal. (I can’t say how sure I’m feeling about that “reasonable” right now, so consider this a side-eye.)
I’m doing better today at 2,978 words so far, although I really wanted to be at 4k by 4. :o It’s 6:18 right now, and that puts me almost 1k off the mark. But—I’m about to shut down my WIFI and give it another go.
Because, yes, I’m still trying to beat my new one-day word count record of 5,221 words. With the way I’m behind today on that goal, I’ll settle for 5,222 words, today, and don’t think I won’t. ;)
So, off to work!
*I adjusted the 4,521 that I came up with in the original post, to 4,558 because it’s the number that worked out best when I reconciled my reasonable daily number with how many books that means I could write. I didn’t want to use a number based on writing only part of a book. :D But yes, I realize my estimated word count per book is just as random as anything else and I’d be perfectly happy to reach 4,521 each day instead of 4,558. ;)
So I’ve been trying to reach my reasonable daily word count for a few days now, and I’ve had some minor success but I’m definitely not there yet.
Of course, Friday I made it—that’s the day I broke my one-day word count record and set a new one. :) Every day since? Not so close.
5,221 – Friday
2,530 – Saturday
3,300 – Sunday
243 – Monday
I’m doing better today, with 2,142 so far. I’m hoping I’ll end the day a lot closer to my goal. :) I have a new no-WIFI rule, so I needed to go ahead and write this post if I was going to write it!
I’ll be shutting down WIFI here in a minute to get back to writing, and since I’ll probably be writing right up until my bedtime, I won’t have another chance to write this update until tomorrow evening. That was my thought yesterday and the day before too, and I never did get a post written. :D
Tomorrow I think I’ll try to break my new one-day word count record. :)