Category: Challenges

Challenges are a way of pushing myself to do better. I find them especially useful for getting myself out of a rut.

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 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.

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.

New “finish the book” challenge: day 5

Lynn

I should be nearing the end of this book I’m trying to finish. Alas, I’m not any closer than I was when I started, except that, really, I kind of am. I’m about to start into new territory and I do expect the writing to go much faster now.

I’m trying for at least 8 hours today and hoping to see some really great words per hour after the first hour or so. Let’s how far I can take this thing. ;)

I’ve been desperate to get back to writing on my other stories and increase my daily word count, but I’m almost there. Just half a book to go! :o

Hours Words Session WPH
1 25 25 25
1 847 822 822

This does seem to prove that I’ll speed up once I can focus on all new material. I have one more bit to go and then all previously written material will be behind me. :)

On the other hand, I stayed up too late last night, got up late this morning, had to take aspirin for a pulled muscle next to my spine between my shoulder blades that’s been bothering me for several days, took a nap to make up for some of last night’s lost sleep, and am only at 2 hours total for the day even though it’s already 1:30. So…back to it quickly now. At least lunch is over with!

Hours Words Session WPH
1 25 25 25
1 847 822 822
1 1183 336 336

Total: 1,299 words

Hmm. I can explain. Unfortunately, the explanation doesn’t really do anything but make it clear that me and lack of sleep don’t work well together. I just never had the energy for my story I should’ve had yesterday, and I do blame lack of sleep.

New “finish the book” challenge: day 4

Lynn
Hours Words Session WPH
1 91 91 91
1 720 629 629
1 847 127 127
1 1187 340 340
1 1025 -162 -162
1 1195 170 170
1 1144 -51 -51

So, a lot closer to 8 hours today, but… nowhere near the progress I needed.

Total: 7 hours, 1,144 words (net SO MANY deletions and rewriting that I don’t even know how much I actually wrote and deleted to day—all I know is it was a lot because what’s left, even thought it’s the same place, same characters, nothing else is the same).

(Update—I did not stop after all, but the extra time didn’t gain me anything. I actually lost more words. I ended the day with 730.)

I do not hate this book, but I’m damned well ready to get past this scene I’m stuck in so I can get on with this story.

It’s all come together okay, now, though, and I’m on the last scene that I have to piece together because of story changes.

I still have no idea what happened with this book, but, as usual, I’m learning something, even if it’s to ignore problems like this in the future and just keep writing. Because I’ll be honest. I have no idea if any of these changes have actually made this a better story. All I know is that I’m about to pull out my hair.

New “finish the book” challenge: day 3

Lynn

I should just give up on this challenge. I’ve written for 2 hours this morning and accumulated 861 new words. I’ve written 26,979 words of this book and I’m stuck around the 14,000 word mark trying to make it all fit together. I really just don’t know what happened with this book. I’m making my way through it, though, and it’s going to be okay. And I’m not giving up, because I don’t want to, even if common sense is telling me there’s no way I’m going to make this deadline.

Here’s my progress so far today. (I should also say that I definitely have limited time today and won’t be able to write for at least 3 hours this afternoon. So, back to it before I waste any more time.

Hours Words Session WPH
1 674 674 674
1 861 187 187
1 1029 168 168
0.16667 1121 92 552
1 1307 186 186
0.53333 1511 204 382.5

Well. I might get my hours in today but it sure doesn’t look like I’m going to get my words in!

Totals: 4.7 hours, 1,511 words

Honestly, no idea how I ended up so short on time.

On another note, I had to face the fact that I need a new plan for getting this book I’m trying to finish finished. I think I came up with one that’ll work, but I’m going to see how tomorrow goes first before I commit.

I did not get all the way through the draft fixing things today. I’m at about 20,756 words into the total of 27,626. All those 1,511 words for today are additions I made (net of the deletions). I’ll be honest. I bet I wrote a LOT more than 1,511 words today. Those deletions killed my numbers.

Anyway, on to tomorrow, and I just bet, once I get past this fix it thing, this book will take off again. I remain hopeful. :)

New “finish the book” challenge: day 2

Lynn

So, today is off to a slow start. It’s 9:01 am and I’m just about to have breakfast. I’ll be back shortly to start writing, and the goal is 8 hours of writing, at least. Preferably 9 or 10 if I can do it. I don’t know that I can. 8 hours seems to be a challenge in and of itself. The goal is also to finish by 9 pm.

6:31 pm update

Well, I’ve spent all day avoiding getting started with this. I finished reading a book—third book in less than a week, and when I was done with it, I started reading another. But I’m finally ready to stop avoiding this book, because I’ve finally accepted why I’ve been avoiding it. (This is why I should still be working on multiple stories, even now, because if I’d given myself permission to work on something else, I’d have gotten a lot written today, and on several other days this past week. I really believe that.)

It comes down to those words I saved and that I need to keep saved because I don’t have enough time to write more words to take their place if I delete them. Some of those saved words just aren’t going to work with the story, and since I’ve bridged that gap in the story and am back at them, it’s time to start fixing those bits so it all works together.

This is important to me, because I want to love this book. I’ve had too many books lately that felt like a chore to write and I DO NOT want writing this book to become a chore.

But, truly, I hate piecing a story together. I’m much more at ease when I start a book and just keep going, going back to fix little bits here and there, little bits, mind you, that are very, very little bits. Deep breath.

I’m going, now, to get started. It’s 7:01 (had small interruption that made this post seem to take longer than it really did to write). But now I’m settled. I’m going to spend 3–4 hours writing and then call it a night. It won’t be enough, but it’ll be much better than what I have now.

Goal: 5,567 words. Let’s see how close I can come to that original goal in those 3–4 hours.

Hours Words Session WPH
1 186 186 186
1 663 477 477
1 951 288 288

So far my pace is underwhelming.

More like: ouch.

After adding in the third hour, I have to say I’m calling it a night. Because of several interruptions, I’ve had to stay up until 11:20 pm just to get those three hours in.

I’m nowhere near where I should be on this book. Tomorrow is going to be a make or break day for this challenge.

New “finish the book” challenge: day 1

Lynn

Last week was terrible for my experiment.

  1. I didn’t really write on multiple stories at all
  2. I’m seriously behind on the one book I MUST get out this month
  3. End of the school year is here and it’s killing my routine—one more week to go before I can settle into a new one
  4. I had enormous resistance to writing, and so I spent a lot of time reading, which I shouldn’t have, but it’s a given that when I start to feel overwhelmed, I self-medicate with distractions—thank God I’m not a drinker

I’m still going to try to meet my deadline. Consider it a challenge. The latest I can finish the book in question and reasonably expect to publish it when I need to publish it is the 26th. I’ll have to have my best week of writing ever to do it. But I haven’t missed a hard deadline before and I don’t plan to miss this one.

Today I’ll be writing for 8 hours, word count irrelevant. 8 hours is the goal.

Of course, I’d like to keep my speed up and have a record-breaking day of writing, but that might not happen. It’s okay if it doesn’t. I estimate I’ll need a minimum of 43 hours of writing this week at a much slower pace to finish on time. That means 8 hours a day until it’s done. And yes, 8 hours of writing a day is actually a lot more time than it sounds like because those 8 hours don’t include even one pee break. :o

So, I’m off to start writing. This is going to be one crazy week.

Challenge: 8 hours a day of writing until the book in question is done, starting today.

Progress

Hour 1: 391 words

I’m in a terrible hole in this book that I just can’t seem to dig out of. I’m definitely hoping for some easier writing soon, but I’m afraid that’s going to be an unfulfilled wish today. I have a long way to go to merge the new stuff with the old stuff.

Hour 2: 610 words | 1,042 cumulative

The numbers don’t add up, I know, but somehow I got distracted by the story and wrote for 10 minutes during the break between hours. That’s where the extra 41 words come from.

It’s also already much later in the day than I need it to be, so I’m going to have to really focus on getting these sessions done before it’s too late to actually get them done and still get to bed at a reasonable time tonight. Sleep absolutely has to come first. Not getting enough of it is probably the number one reason I fail to meet goals.

Total: 1,201 words

I didn’t even come close to the 8 hours of writing I wanted. Will have to try again.

6,000 word challenge for today

Lynn

I’ve never written 6,000 words of fiction in one day. I want to do that this month. In fact, I want to do it today. It’s 11:22, but there’s still time.

6,000 ÷ 7.5 hours = 800 wph

I need to aim for 800 wph or more to get this done today, because that’ll use up about all the time I have left in this day, and I do have a few things other than writing I need to do too.

So, yeah, I’m probably being optimistic I can do this today, but I like being optimistic. :D

A challenge for today

Lynn

I posted about the last few days’ writing, and now I’m going to post about my challenge for today. I’m trying one more time to break through the big 6,000 words in a day barrier I haven’t yet broken through.

Here’s my plan.

Write for 1 hour on each of my stories in progress. I’ve started the next book in the series for the novel I finished last week, so I’m back up to 6 stories that I consider myself to be actively working on. That’s 6 hours of writing.

But…

I’m going to try to write an extra 2 sessions on the story I need to finish asap, so I’m hoping to reach 8 hours of writing today. But just in case I can’t, I put those extra sessions for this story within the first 6 hours of my planned writing today.

I definitely think I can do 6 hours of writing today without too much trouble if I’m into the stories. I feel good, better than I have in quite a few days. :) It’s possible I was sick on Saturday (that headache) and not just sleep deprived, but whatever the problem, I’m feeling better now.

It’s time to get going on the writing. Lunch will be here before I know it, and I’d like to complete 3 sessions before I stop.

Challenge progress

Hour 1: 837 words
Hour 2: 720 words | 1,557 cumulative 1
Final count: 2,330 words, and about 3.5 hours total writing time (I didn’t use the timer at the end)

1 Hour 2 started much, much later than it should have. Considering just how behind I am, I have no idea if there’s any reasonable way I can still meet this challenge. The good news? I have worked on 2 stories today, and 1 of those was the book that I need to finish sooner rather than later. :)

 

Let’s try this again

Lynn

Today is not a good day for breaking my record, but I think I’m going to try again anyway. Here’s the deal: I have things to do today that mean I’ll be away for at least 4 hours, probably more than 5.

But to break my record, if I can maintain my current speeds (average of about 835 words an hour, or 922 if I only count this last week’s work*), I can write 6,000 words in about 7 hours of writing. I think I can keep those speeds up with the way the writing’s been going.

So here’s the plan: write for 3 hours before lunch, take a short lunch, and write 3 more hours before I have to stop. Then, if I’m close, I think I can find the motivation to write for 1 more hour before I call it a night, and I’ll sleep in tomorrow morning.

Then, of course, do it all over again. :D (I wish. But why not dream big?)

So here goes. I have to get started, because it’s already 8:40 and I’m terribly bad at losing time to breaks. Lunch will be here before I’m ready, guaranteed!

Hour 1: 1,067 words
Hour 2: 1,392 words | 2,459 cumulative 1
Hour 3: 756 words | 3,215 cumulative 2

1 Whoa! Also, I’m less than one session away from finishing that troublesome novel I’ve mentioned in several previous posts. Yay!

2 I totally screwed up by not finishing 3 sessions before lunch, and then watching tv during lunch. It was not a short lunch. :o Hour 3 dragged on and on, but I finished one of my novels! I’m not sure about the last couple of lines, but I think it’s going to work. Either way, I’m saying it’s done. I’ve sent it to my Kindle for a read through later. :D

Final count: 3,228. I added a few words but I’m definitely not going to be able to write for another hour because it’s much later than I expected it would be. So that’s it for today.

*Why am I writing so much faster than my previous speeds? I credit the high level of interest I’m maintaining in my work by switching freely between projects. It’s been a magic pill, really it has. Also, I don’t know. Something might have changed in me.

Having another go at the record today

Lynn

Yes, I’m having another go at the record today, after an unfortunately bad night of sleep again, so no promises that I won’t make it half the day and conk out.

But, for the moment, I feel like I could do this today. 6,000 words is the number I’m taking aim at, although I only have to get past 5,758 to break my current one-day record. In the vein of “more words, less time,” I’m hoping to do it in 7 hours or less. See ya when I have some numbers to report.

Update: TOTAL BUST. Okay, not a total bust. But I’ve been so, so tired today. I’ve spent one hour writing, and I’m hoping to get another two before I stop for the night, but there’s no chance I’ll break any records today, except (maybe) my monthly best record.

Final numbers.

Hours Words Session WPH
1 858 858 858
1 1725 867 867
0.5 2260 535 1070

Trying again to break my record

Lynn

Yesterday I failed to break my one-day word count record. Since today is another day like yesterday, where there’s no real reason why I shouldn’t be able to devote most of my day to writing, I’m trying again.

Bonus? I’m only 6,253 words away from April becoming my highest word count month since I started in 2012.

Session logs:

Hours Words Session WPH
1 944 944 944
1 1966 1022 1022
1 3004 1038 1038
1 3736 732 732

I didn’t make it again today, mostly because I just felt bad. I had a headache off and on all day, and I’m frankly amazed that I wrote as many words as I did!

And now I’m only 2,516 words shy of my current record for my best month.

This “writing only what I’m interested in writing” thing is starting to look like the best method I’ve ever come up with.

I think I might try to break my one-day record again tomorrow. The only thing I can see stopping me is another headache, but I’ll wait to commit to the idea of the challenge until tomorrow. Good night!

Major push today for record

Lynn

I’m going to use my 1 hour sessions and cycle through my stories in progress today to try to beat my one-day word count record and break through the 6,000 word ceiling I seem to have.

I might fail, but today seems to be a good day for trying, so I’m going to. :)

I’m about to start hour #1 and I’ll be working on Story Gf. It’s the one I’ve been most interested in the last couple of days and I think it’ll get me warmed up for the rest.

Even if it’s going really well, I think I’m going to make myself switch to Story O for hour 2. That’s the one I’m supposed to finish as quickly as I can. I really haven’t been devoting the amount of time to it as I need if I want to finish it as soon as I’d like, but it is what it is. I like the book, but it’s just not as interesting to me at the moment as Story Gf.

I’d like to avoid getting sucked into working on just one book for the moment. And although Gf is really attractive to me right now, I’m afraid I’ll slip back into bad habits if I stay on one book for all my sessions for too many days in a row, even if I’m driven to it by interest the first few days. I’m hoping to spread out my interest today and make a little progress on all my stories. :)

Finally, I am hoping to perk up my interest in Story O, and if that does happen, I’m going to try to slip in an extra hour or two for it between my other sessions.

So we’ll see how today goes. I’d like to write for 7–8 hours today and that’s asking a lot from myself! So I’d better get to work. :)

Hour 1: 929 words
Hour 2: 972 words | 1,901 cumulative 1
Hour 3: 967 words | 2,868 cumulative
Hour 4: 1,096 words | 3,964 cumulative
Hour 5: 894 words | 4,858 cumulative 2

1 Things are going slow. By this time, I’d hoped to be starting my 5th session, instead I’m about to start my 3rd. 6 more hours of writing tonight doesn’t seem likely. I’m not giving up yet though. :) If I can keep up my high wph, I could break through 6,000 with as few as 6 sessions (meaning only 4 more hours). If I can increase it, I could be done in as few as 3 more sessions. That’s asking a lot from myself, but it’s definitely something to aim for!

2 Well, I didn’t make it as far as I’d hoped today. I’m happy with what I got, of course, but I just ran out of steam earlier in the day and took too long to get back to writing, so I ran out of time. It’s bedtime, so maybe I’ll try this again tomorrow. Also, I’m a little disappointed that I ended up writing all those words on one book! And not the book I needed to write them for. So, bummer. But yay, too. Because 4,858 is a lot of words and I just can’t believe how it’s starting to feel normal for me to reach these kinds of numbers.

Time to focus on the 12-month 1,180,000 words challenge

Lynn

So I’ve been giving some thought to what I can do to get moving on this challenge: 12 months, 1,180,000 words. I need to stay focused. I’ve had to step back from the cover design practice, because I had become well and truly obsessed.

57 of 98 days since January 1 have been zero word days. That’s… scary high. I don’t know that I’ve had that many in so few months at any time since I started writing to publish. Saying that made me wonder, so I pulled up my spreadsheet and set up a quick formula to count and discovered that I do have one period of 98 days that had 68 zero words days in it. That one ended in November 2013.

The fact is, I don’t want any zero word days anymore except for true emergency/sick days and publishing days.

I’ve got to figure out how to make that happen.

One way is to start having more fun with writing. I’m stagnating, I think, under self-imposed expectations, and that’s stealing a lot of the fun from writing. When it isn’t fun, I don’t want to do it.

I want to wake up excited to get started every day. I know I can get back there, but I’m going to have to break through this wall of expectation first.

I’ll be trying to do that today: putting all my fears and expectations aside and writing only what excites me. I have a rule: skip the boring parts. In fact, I have more than one rule: No more length limits / deadlines. Just write the story. Write the parts I like, skip the boring stuff. I also believe that art and great story do not come from purposeful thinking. That came from Dean Wesley Smith, although I can’t remember if he said it in a lecture or on his blog. A search of the blog didn’t turn up anything, so I’m going to assume it was a lecture. I’ve paid to watch several and I recommended them to anyone who asks about them.

As for the cover design practice, here’s what happened.

I’ve made some huge leaps forward with the cover design over the last few weeks, but I started to realize a few days ago that I’m suffering under the lack of a deadline for finishing the covers. In the past, I always waited to do covers until the book was finished and I was doing copy edits. That meant I had a hard deadline of ASAP, because I usually need to get those books published. Without that deadline, I’ve discovered I spend too much time trying variations, avoiding commitment, and being indecisive about whether the cover or the series look is good enough. And although I tried the outsourcing approach, it felt like more work than just doing it myself. And no, I wasn’t satisfied, in any way, with that experience. I won’t be doing it again any time soon. The designer was good, the covers were pretty, but they just weren’t what I wanted, and the whole process took away my control and made publishing a lot less fun.

Outsourcing cover design is not for me. I have 100% decided to stick to doing my own covers for the foreseeable future.

But night before last, I finally decided I have to go back to working on covers only when I’m closer to finishing a book. That’ll impose at least something of a deadline and I won’t be able to get hung up on all the little details that have led me to create 9 different versions of the same cover. Not tweaks. Entirely different versions. Nine. Yes the series needs a cohesive new look, but gah, that’s ridiculous. I have to be able to decide on these things. And I can’t decide when I have what feels like unlimited time—I need time pressure to force me to make decisions.

The fact is, I am very much still in the throes of this obsession. I’m waking up at night with ideas to try and today it’s going to be a challenge to set all that out of my thoughts.

I resisted yesterday, although I didn’t write as I’d planned to. Yesterday, I had to take some time to do my estimated 2016 taxes and make that first payment—something I started, I admit, as a way to avoid getting to work on writing, but it was something that had to be done and once I’d started it, I realized that. I spent about 4.5 hours on it, doing the worksheets, estimating an income that just can’t really be estimated because it’s so variable, and I was wrung out by the time I had made the quarterly payment.

Kind of amazing that I would do taxes to avoid doing something I like as much as I like writing. In the end, I decided to take the easy way out: I paid 100% of last year’s tax liability and decided to just save the rest until I file. I’ll probably owe a shit-ton of tax at that point, but I won’t owe penalties. My hope is to double my income this year, but if it doesn’t happen, I’m safe and won’t have paid in too much.

Finally, though, it’s time to focus.

Today I will work on multiple stories.

Tomorrow I’ll do the same.

I’m going to resist the trap of forcing myself to work only on the story I need to finish next. That method is how I become stuck and lose my forward momentum. Total word count is the goal. If my word count is going up, that means I’m getting my books written.

I won’t worry about finishing that book I’ve been struggling with (not like I’m expecting massive sales from it anyway, so what’s it matter when it gets done?).

I will write for one hour on each story that I have in progress in each of my series. That’s 6 stories, so 6 hours of writing.

I’ll write a few extra sessions on one particular story: I have 20 days to finish that one, with about 45,000 words left on it, meaning I need about 2,250 words every day for those 20 days. If it takes three sessions (~750 wph), then I’ll need to write for 8 hours; if it only takes two sessions (~1,125 wph), then I’ll only need to write for 7 hours. That last is what I’d prefer, but we’ll see.

I’ve only written for 7 hours in a day a few times; it’s not something I find success at often. But I’m hoping the switch between stories will keep me fresh and keep my interest going. We’ll see.

My long-term plan for 5 hours of writing a day hasn’t changed. I won’t be writing on every story, every day, but for now—until I catch up a bit and get excited about my books again, I do plan to do just that.

If I do as much writing as I want to do today, I could break my current one-day word count record and crack the 6,000 words in a day barrier. I’ve never written 6,000 words of fiction in one day before, not since I started keeping records. It’s also highly unlikely I ever did it before I kept records.

So, time to get to it. :D I’ll update later in a separate post. This one is already too long.

Accountability check-in: 12-month 1,180,000 words challenge

Lynn

Time for some accountability for my 12-month 1,180,000 words challenge.

So far, I’ve made a ridiculously small amount of progress towards that big challenge.

My 2016 word count to date is 34,615.

That’s, uh, not good. If 2016 was the beginning of that challenge (and originally it was) I should be sitting at 290,958 words.

So, uh, yeah.

But that’s okay, because I can fail but that doesn’t mean I have to give up, and I’m not giving up. I’m restarting this challenge as of today, and I’m not going to let myself down this time. I’m feeling optimistic today, after a day when I was definitely not feeling optimistic yesterday.

I can do this.

And I don’t need a schedule to do it. I just need to focus on writing what I want (that’s where I find joy and motivation in writing) and I need to remember I do have something to prove, but only to myself.

I can do this.

Late start today

Lynn

Update: UGH! Failed!*

Today I intend to write. Yes, WRITE. It’ll be 3 o’clock or so when I finally start on it, but when I do, I think I’ll aim for the following.

6 40 minute sessions with a 5 minute break between sessions 1-3, a longer break, then the same for sessions 4-6.

On the caffeine withdrawal, I think I can blame it for how quickly fatigue is setting in with my forearm muscles. Nothing else has changed lately, just me going from no coffee to lots of coffee and back to no coffee at all. Head still hurts a bit, feels like an ache more than a throb, but I just can’t explain this forearm pain any other way. The fact is, the only time I usually have it is when I type too fast for too long. That’s definitely not my problem this time!

*Failed to get started again today in favor of television I didn’t even want to watch. Still not sure why I hate the idea of writing the rest of this book! And still not sure why I can’t just set it aside and move on to something else for a while—although maybe it’s because I’m afraid I won’t get back to the other book in a reasonable amount of time! So, I’m just going to have to say no to TV tomorrow.

In fact, here’s a challenge for me—no TV until I finish this book. If I actually put in the time on it, it’d only take me a few days, a week at the absolute most, to finish the book! So. No TV til it’s done.

Looking forward: plans for 2016

Lynn

I posted about my new plans for the year in another post and then decided I should highlight them in a post of their own.

Last night I sat down and reevaluated. I decided I absolutely didn’t want to give up on my big plans for the year, despite the month and a half I’ve fallen behind.

I want to challenge myself to do something amazing this year. So here’s what I ended up with.

I set aside the following time for writing, daily, including weekends: 8–11 am & 2–3 pm. It adds up to 28 hours a week.

I figured it based on some ridiculously grand plans I have for the year. But those plans aren’t so ridiculous at all, if I actually put in the damn writing time. The only reason they’re “ridiculously grand” is because I still haven’t shown that I can write more than 268,191 in a year. In fact, my average for 3.5 years is 252,190 because I appear to be quite regular on an annual basis with my irregular output!

But I want 2016 to be the year that changes. Therefore, the plans…

Novels: 6 x 60,000
Novels: 12 x 50,000
Short stories: 12 x 10,000
Novellas: 4 x 25,000

1,180,000 words / 12 months = 98,333 words / 4 hours a day = 3,233 @ 808 wph

Yes, that’s a higher WPH than my average. But there’s a benefit to squeezing the amount of work you need to do into a shorter amount of time. It’s been proven time and again that if most people have time to waste, they’ll waste it. I want to stop wasting so much time so I can write more.

Because there are two variables to the writing more equation: time and speed.

Spend more time and do it faster. Combine the two and you have two multipliers instead of one.

Yes, these are big plans. But I can do it if I get out of my own way.

This is a challenge and I’m going to give it a name—as soon as I think of one! :D

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.