Fiction writer. Expert procrastinator. This is my life.
Session one for the morning is over. I did not write as freely or constantly as wanted to. I hesitated a lot. I backspaced more than I’d hoped. I second-guessed myself many times.
I wrote 313 words (470 wph). That’s not even my average pace (600 wph), so I have to admit session one’s attempt was a failure.
On to session two, after I stretch my legs.
*And was derailed by a kid emergency. I’ll have to save this one for tomorrow. Ugh! Nothing serious though. Well, nothing serious for ME. Kiddo sure thinks differently. :)*
Tonight I’m working in 40 minute sessions. I have quite a bit of writing I wanted to do today and somehow I put it off until now. I’ve completed three of what I wanted to be nine sessions today. Nine was a stretch I could have hit but definitely won’t after starting this late.
I’ll be lucky to finish six now. Probably won’t, to be honest, because staying up late and messing up my sleep rhythms again would be dumb.
I’d rather not do dumb things. :)
But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about me trying to practice writing faster. First thing I need to do is write more and stop less.
Currently, I stop, backup, and start over A LOT. I need to stop that. Or at least cut back on it significantly.
So I’m going to try to write as constantly as I can during this next session (which is probably going to be my last of the night) and see where that gets me. It’ll be a challenge to be sure.
Here’s wishing myself success! You can wish me success too, if you’d like. I need all the encouragement I can get. ;)
(You’ll notice I’m specifically not saying “luck” up there. Time to stop cultivating that mindset, I think! There’s a post in that explanation but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.)
Start with a goal. Know that you really need to make this day’s writing count.
| Goals | 500 | 750 |
| Session | Words | WPH |
| 1 | 57 | 86 |
| 2 | 138 | 207 |
| 3 | -72 | -108 |
| 4 | 118 | 177 |
Add in rewriting, then delete a few paragraphs that really don’t sound like they belong, add in some perfectionism—okay a lot of perfectionism, and throw in a dash of what-the-fuck, and there you go!
My average words per hour over 2.667 hours: 90.
At least I have a few sessions to go so maybe today won’t be a total loss. :o
I finished up the last of my sessions. I had hoped to reached 3,000 words but I didn’t quite make it. I’m at 2,332 for the day. I might come back later and do some more writing, because I really want to end the day at 3,000 words!
But for now, I need a break. A massive break, because my brain is tired. :D
Totals for the day
2,332 words and 583 wph
Eight sessions instead of twelve seems to be the way to go! Of course, I made up the total time difference by making the eight sessions thirty minutes long instead of twenty. But it has left me fewer opportunities for distraction and here it is 11:56 a.m. and I have only three sessions to go. :)
Sessions are 30 minutes long. Goal is 375 words per session, 750 words per hour.
Not there yet, but getting closer!
Total so far = 1,462 words
I’m calling it a night at 1,531 and about 3 hours. I’ve done a little more than that but totally lost track because I started adding things to the story without the timer going. So who knows the actual time spent today, but I didn’t make enough progress on my word count to worry over it.
Bringing my total for today to 1,531 words.
Tomorrow I’ll try the 30 minute sessions x 8 of them and see how that does for me. See you then. :)
I’ve completed eight sessions now and although I’m pretty happy with the fact that I’m writing, I’m disappointed that my morning pace didn’t hold out when it came up against my story line uncertainty. I think that’s been a big deal on this particular story. I’m still very much not sure where it’s headed.
Sessions were 20 minutes, goal was 250 words per session.
This put me at 2.667 hours of timed writing for the day. I need 1.333 hours more to reach 4 hours, my minimum goal.
For the rest of the evening, I’m switching to 30 minute sessions. I just keep running into the fact that I feel like I’m just getting on a roll when that timer dings, but doing 2 sessions back-to-back just hasn’t worked well.
Now, back to writing for me! I have a lot to do and it’s already 7:51 pm and I don’t want to be up late tonight. Here’s hoping I can pick up the pace again so those 1,645 words come quick.
I’ll take whatever opportunity I can find for a fresh start. My word counts haven’t been where I want them the last few days, nor even before that but at least then I had enough time invested that I didn’t feel like a slacker, but today is the first of a new month and I plan to use that to push for my goal word count of 3,000 words.
So far, I’m on track I’m happy to say. Especially since I can’t ever tell if I’m going to write fast or slow during any one session until I’m actually writing.
Sessions are 20 minutes, goal is 250 words per session or 750 wph.
Total for 1 hour = 877 words
Pace = 877 wph
Yay!
I’m going to try out a new format for blogging today. I’ll start with these smaller posts about my progress and then do a summary post at the end of the day. I just kind of like things in little packets. ;)
Yesterday, I took the day off. I hadn’t planned to, to be honest, but I had to be away from the house, and by the time I returned, I was done for the day. I was so tired (and a bit headachy) that the thought of opening my document and writing almost put me to sleep on the spot. So mostly I just moaned about how I needed to go to bed early, and then I did.
I went to sleep two hour earlier than the night before and about four hours earlier than the two nights before that. This morning I woke up early and didn’t feel half bad, if I do say so myself.
I don’t actually feel great right now but my words per hour rate this morning was ridiculously higher than it was any of those other days. My average after two sessions is 768 wph. Since my goal wph is 750, I consider that as good as gold. It’s definitely a mark in favor of getting to bed early. If my remaining sessions go as well as the earlier ones, I’ll reach my goals today with just a little concerted effort.
Unfortunately, it’s 2:12 pm right now, so I really do need to get back to work instead of wallowing in my caffeine-less misery. No coffee, no real teas and a definite dip in energy levels.
On that note, it’s interesting how last night and this morning kind of proved the point I was going for in the version of this post I started yesterday but never got around to finishing.
I’m trying to retrain myself to go to bed early enough to feel good getting up early (because I wake up early regardless, such as today at 6:40 am). My most consistent month ever came about when I was getting up relatively early, getting started by 7 and keeping WIFI off until noon or 2,000 words, whichever came first. It could come to that again. ;)
Another big challenge I’m facing with this is that I can’t seem to get my sessions compressed into a reasonable time period. I’m going to keep trying.
Getting to bed early did seem to help, which is exactly what I suspected. I’m an early waker and that makes it difficult for me to be productive when I stay up late and start my day either sleep deprived or later than my natural rhythms tell me to.
Tomorrow, I’m going to really push myself to write early.
As for right now, I’m going to restart my writing, focus on keeping my words per hour rate high, and see if I can make progress on compressing my sessions into a reasonable time period. :)
Plan: Take no longer than 1.5 hours for every three 20 minute sessions. :D See you back here in about (probably in a follow-up post).
Wish me luck!
Today was better than yesterday and that’s good enough for me!
DAILY ACCOUNTABILITY
Session 1 : 234 words
Session 2 : 92 words
Session 3 : 174 words
Session 4 : 244 words
Session 5 : 46 words
Session 6 : 177 words
Session 7 : 7 words
Session 8 : 80 words
Session 9 : 8 words
Session 10 : 149 words
Session 11 : -320 words
Session 12 : 172 words
For 1,063 total words.
As with yesterday, all sessions were 20 minutes.
I’m not surprised it’s taking a while to relearn how to focus on writing. Focus in quantity has always been difficult for me. I do seem to have episodes of hyperfocus, but to be honest, they almost always accompany things like reorganizing my file system or troubleshooting a problem I want fixed right now.
One thing I have noticed: It’s funny how often I don’t notice my bladder problems until I sit down to write and end up with my sessions constantly interrupted.
I followed up on last night’s plan to do at least half of the minimum number of writing sessions before I allowed myself any internet access. I did six!
DAILY ACCOUNTABILITY
Session 1 (20 min): 119 words
Session 2 (20 min): 37 words
Session 3 (20 min): 103 words
Session 4 (20 min): 2 words
Session 5 (20 min): 98 words
Session 6 (20 min): -240 words
Session 7 (20 min): 71 words
Session 8 (20 min): 26 words
Session 9 (20 min): 128 words
Session 10 (20 min): 69 words
Session 11 (20 min): 96 words
Session 12 (20 min): 185 words — Of course this was my highest word count of the day. And I’m too tired to keep it up because it’s 11:58 pm and I need sleep!
My aim for all these is 250 words each. So yeah, I’m a little off the mark.
Today’s blog post title is from a note to myself on the last session I did before I broke for lunch.
The note refers to the fact that I found a 332 word chunk of text that I needed to delete, half of it a portion of a scene I copied instead of moved to an earlier place in the story. I must have forgotten to delete it after the fact, but I usually just move the text, so I’m not sure what I was thinking when I did it.
The exciting thing is that to end up at -24 words, I had to have written more than my 250 words in that last session so here’s hoping I can keep that up now that I’m back from my late (2 pm) lunch.
Well, that’s a bummer. I realized after the fact, once I’d finished session 7 that -24 was a misprint. I should have written -240!
It’s been proven a sad fact that four hours of writing takes me all day and I have no idea why or how that happens. Writing everything down doesn’t even seem to help. I can find the big things; it’s the little bits of time that just seem to disappear.
Today started off well enough. I finished organizing (cleaning out) my music directory. Doing that was a better use of my time than (re)organizing my email again, but that’s not possible any more because sometime last month I deleted all my email. I saved a few particular pieces of interest to a few relevant folders and I absolutely did delete thousands of emails. They’ll never be seen again. I kept only one backup, stored in an inaccessible location, with the intent to delete it at year’s end. I don’t doubt that I will too.
But that’s all beside the point. The point is that I need to write some real words today and I’m really getting tired of failing.
So I’m not going to fail anymore.
Missing a goal once in a while is no big deal and doesn’t feel anything like failure. Missing a goal every single time is not a good thing. There are repercussions to that kind of repetitive failure. I’m done with that. I just can’t be that person, that kind of writer, any longer.
So, despite the fact that it is now 4:59 pm, I’m going to sit my ass down and I’m going to write 2,800 words this evening.
To make it easy, I’m going to break it down into 21 minute sessions. I’ll do as many as it takes, but I’m planning for 10.
During at least one of those sessions, I want to reach the best word count per hour I’ve ever reached, and I’m going to reach it by having fun with this damn book. I love the characters. There’s no reason it should be so damn hard to have fun.
Now, I’m going to go trim my fingernails so I can get my first session started.
| Session # | Cumulative Words | WPH |
| 1 | 29 | 82.85714 |
| 2 | 54 | 77.14286 |
| 3 | 72 | 68.57143 |
| 4 | 82 | 58.57143 |
| 5 | 142 | 81.14286 |
| 6 | 251 | 119.5238 |
| 7 | 285 | 116.3265 |
| 8 | 0 | |
| 9 | 0 | |
| 10 | 0 |
Okay, so I’m calling it a night. It’s 12:29 am and I’m disappointed at my speeds tonight. I spent a lot of time redoing a chapter but I’m glad I did it, because I like what I’ve got now better than what I had.
I’m 3 sessions short of the 10 I wanted to do. I’m also short a ton of words. On the other hand, I totally don’t feel like a failure, because I literally did the best I could tonight. I took short breaks when I had to, and I focused hard when I wrote. I just can’t always predict what kind of writing day I’m going to have. This was one of those days.
So all in all, I’m satisfied. But one thing for sure: I’m going to do better tomorrow, because I’m going to start a lot earlier and I’m going to put in the extra sessions if I come up short on word counts like I did this evening.
But 12:33 pm is too late to keep going if I want to get some sleep tonight. The one thing I can count on is waking up at 7 in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep. I need to go to bed before it gets any later.
See you here again tomorrow.
I had a plan for today.
Aiming for 3, 7, 7, 3 x 21, 300 words every 21 m
Then I realized I was getting started much later than I needed to for my original plan to work the way I wanted. It’s 11:03 am.
I need a new plan.
I’m going to stick with the 4 blocks but swap up the number of sessions for each one.
| 5 | 1,500 |
| 5 | 1,500 |
| 5 | 1,500 |
| 5 | 1,500 |
| Aiming for: | 6,000 |
This is both a challenge and an experiment. 21 minute sessions seem to be a good length for me and doing a few of them in a row doesn’t feel like a push I can’t handle. Doing four blocks of them might be, but I’m not going to know if I don’t try. I really want to reach this 6,000 words in a day milestone.
In fact, it’s part of a bigger challenge I want to set to finish this book I’m working on in 9 days. Today is the test to see if I’m anywhere near ready to take on something like that.
I’d say I need to work up to it, but I binge write and take very long breaks between books, so it just isn’t realistic to expect me to work up to it by writing every day a little more than the day before. I’m ready to accept this about myself and try to make the most of my ability to dive into something wholeheartedly and become a little obsessed until I’m done. That’s my real strength and I’m ready to work with it instead of against it. :)
My next post will contain my updates on today’s challenge.
Yesterday was a total failure in terms of words written. The more elaborate the plans, the more likely I’ll spend all my time on the plans and not on the doing of the plans.
Today’s plan was simple. I set aside some time for writing only (using my calendar and schedule) and I wrote during that time. Finally, a day of (mostly) success!
The last several months constitute the worst string of months for my word counts that I’ve had since I started this gig in 2012. I felt a strong need to end today feeling like I’m finally getting back on track.
9:30 to 2:30
The goal was 200 words x 3 sessions of 15 minutes each hour x 5 hours = 3,000 words.
I wrote 1,766 words. I came up short 7 sessions. Not sure how I got so far off track, but I did have a lot of coffee and tea this morning and had to take very frequent breaks.
2:30 to 4:30
I wanted to get started proofing this book, so I planned to proof 4 chapters. I proofed half a chapter, short of my goal by 3.5 chapters. I was just not feeling it when I was reading this book this afternoon.
5:00 to 8:00
Became 5:30 to 8:30. Then 6:45 to 9:45. Then 7:30 to 10:30. Unfortunately, I had a really hard time getting started with this one. My bad night’s sleep last night caught up to me.
The goal was 200 words x 3 sessions of 15 minutes each hour x 3 hours = 1,800 words.
I didn’t do any writing at all during this time (except for this post) and finally just decided to spend the time with family instead.
Okay, this isn’t working. I’m just fighting myself all the way on it and I’m switching things up, going back to something that I know works for me, at least some of the time. I have almost 3 hours left on my timer and I should’ve been down to about 1.
… about an hour an a half later …
And I got completely derailed by one of my kids coming home. We talked about taxes, lol, because I have a very curious kid who enjoys history and government. ;)
Right before I sat down again to finish this post, though, I realized that although I am switching things up, I’m actually just going back to how I intended to do this to start with, with one tiny tweak.
When I originally decided to do this experiment, I was going to write in 45 minute sessions. Then I decided those sessions might create artificial breaks in my concentration that would defeat the purpose of the big block of writing time, where the intent was to be able to become completely absorbed in my stories.
Of course, that’s not what’s happened. In fact, I can’t seem to concentrate in mostly unbounded blocks of time, and my performance suffers.
What I came up with was writing in 50 minute blocks, so I could have 10 minutes as a break and then go right back to writing. I chose 50 because I didn’t want enough time to get distracted.
Basically, 50 minutes feels like a better length when I’m thinking in one hour blocks, versus when I was thinking in 1.5 hour blocks (where 45 minute sessions made sense because I was actually only using the 45 minute timer to remind me to get up and pep up my circulation). Remember, I started out with the intent to write for 4.5 hours, which was 3 x 1.5 hour blocks, which, when I started this experiment, I had squished together into a single 5 hour block.
My 1.5 hour blocks were actually working okay before I started this experiment. I had 6 really good days, writing 9,419 words using them, but I only succeeded with them for about a week before it stopped working and I had to figure out how to get back on track. Also, tbh, 9,419 was still short of the 14,000 I wanted to hit each week, so I came up with the new experiment.
Anyway, this post is just to say that I’ve switched things out.
Going forward, I’m going to try to write 5 x 50 minute sessions, average 600 words per session (720 wph, which is a real stretch but not impossible), and reach 3,000 words. But ultimately, if I write slower than that, these numbers should still get me to the 2,000 word a day average I want to reach. :) I figure this is my best shot.
I’m still going to try to lump these sessions together and complete them in about 5 hours between breakfast and lunch (or lunch and supper). It might not always work out, but that’s the goal.
Now, I’m ready for lunch and then it’s back to writing. I’ve calculated that I need to do 4 of the 50 minute sessions (I’m rounding up) to finish the 2:46:38.9 that was left on my timer. Plus, 4 sessions might make it more likely I’ll reach 3,000 words today, which I’d really like to do.