Tag: Writing fiction

I write fiction—it’s how I earn my living—and I like to ramble. Just so you know. Nearly everything I do these days relates in some way to writing and publishing, so most of my posts are here.

Already in motion

Lynn

Finally, I seem to be on my way to nailing the schedule/routine today!

I made a note to myself this morning in Evernote:

Remember not to try to play catch up with the writing. Just work on getting my 4 hours during my routine and reaching 3233. If I want to write more or if I’m doing well, I can either quit at 3233 or keep going. My choice. But NOT catch up. Catch up will interfere with me setting my habits and getting into a routine.

I also set a goal to write in 1 hour blocks this morning.

The schedule was:
8:00–9:00
9:15–10:15
10:30–11:30

You can see that in the image below. :)

I wasted my first half hour figuring out some book titles for one of my series but then caught myself and got started, with the intent to catch up as quickly as I could. That was at 8:34.

Here are the morning numbers:

Minutes Words Session WPH
32 412 412 773
60 1,550 1,138 1,138
60 2,492 942 942
28 2,998 506 1,084

Now, it’s 1:07 pm and I’m having lunch and going to start an episode of Midsomer Murders I won’t get to finish. :D I’ll be back at 2 pm to finish my 4th hour.

One thing I’ve noticed that’s helped today is that I started adding “(+)” or “(-)” to my calendar after the event. It feels great to be able to see those pluses. :D
Calendar marks

Update:

I’ve just finished my 4th hour. I could go on, but I think I’m going to leave it here. I’d really like to get into this routine and if I push too hard, I could put myself off the routine entirely.

When I got back from lunch, but my battery was only at 39% charged. I ended up waiting until 2:30 to start writing to give it more time to charge.

I still finished a bit late, even for a 2:30 start, but I had several breaks. Too much tea this afternoon! Anyway, the pace slowed, but not too much, and I’m pretty happy with today’s progress.

Here are the final session logs.

Minutes Words Session WPH
32 412 412 773
60 1,550 1,138 1,138
60 2,492 942 942
28 2,998 506 1,084
60 3,723 725 725
240 Total minutes
3,723 Total words
931 Total WPH
4 Hours to write
0 Hours left
#DIV/0! WPH needed

I’ll be honest. The coffee and tea have helped tremendously. Mental fatigue isn’t setting in nearly as quickly as it has been. I don’t think I’m going to try to get off it again for a while. Maybe I’ll just give up on that entirely and stick to working on moderating my intake.

Now, to finish that episode of Midsomer Murders before I do some cover practice or start working on my federal taxes. I definitely need a break before tackling that last one. :D

Getting started when I have other things to do today

Lynn

Today, I have a lunch date to keep. I find that when I have things to do, I usually have a lot more trouble focusing. I’m also getting started late, because I spent two hours on a thing that I was sure would take me no more than half an hour to do.

Also, I’ve had a bit of a change in thinking. I think because of the why of the how I write, it might be smart to stop focusing on my words per hour completely. The reason is that I have to do a lot of organizing of my thoughts as I write, because of how disorganized they often are—it’s not often that stuff comes out in the order it needs to be in or that even makes sense, and pushing against that limit could be entirely futile because it’s how I think. It’s something I really haven’t thought too much about, but there’s probably an upper limit to my writing speed (WPH) because of that.

Trying to change how I think—not my thoughts, but actually how I think—might be a huge waste of time. And even if I could change that—and who knows how possible that is?—why try to shore up weaknesses when I can focus on my strengths? I have a decent amount of willpower when I can see the sense in using it. A more effective plan to reach my goals might be to put 100% of my focus and effort on time.

(NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. Can’t do this right now. I really have to stick with my current plan. If I try to change things up right now, I’ll never get to 22,630 words each week. I have to have something to strive for besides just forcing myself to reach a certain number of hours of writing each day.)

It’s funny how I end up in places I’ve already visited, but maybe knowing why I keep ending up there will help me make it stick this time. :)

The fact is, every day is a new day. I can change my mind if it turns out I’ve made a mistake. (YES. I can. And I just changed it.)

I’m still not convinced a schedule should be anything more than a suggestion, but I am thinking a daily time quota should be.

Anyway, it’s 10:20 now and I’m NOT going to let myself keep screwing up today’s start. I have a lot to do, and waiting until tonight to write my first words of the day is not the right plan—it never is, tbh.

So, let’s see how much writing I can get done before I have to stop this morning. Onward!

 

Schedule is a suggestion, not a rule

Lynn

This morning, I couldn’t seem to get started on my writing, and after thinking it over a bit, I decided that maybe I just had too much on my mind. I have an account at Dreamstime for stock photos and had signed up for a 5 images a month subscription in late December (usually I just buy credits) and it was set to renew later tonight. I didn’t want it to renew, but I couldn’t cancel it without downloading the images that had rolled over into this month or I’d have paid for January and February for nothing. :o

So I decided to get that taken care of. It took me a long, long time to pick out images!

In the end, I cancelled that subscription but decided that using credits isn’t going to be economically sound if I publish as much as I want to this year (if!), and I chose to buy their much more robust 150 images a month subscription instead.

Yes, it’s quite a bit more money. But 150(!) images a month, and I can download all in one day if I want (some stock sites won’t let you do that, instead imposing a daily download limit in addition to the monthly limit), and that means I don’t have to be so picky with images—the new subscription knocks the cost down to less than $1 each. With credits (or through the subscription I’ve been using for the last two months), those same images cost me about $8 each.

I’m going to spend a couple of months picking a wide selection of images and then see what I’ve got. But it’s a good deal and I need the stock if I’m going to keep trying to learn to design better covers for my books. :)

Now, with that many images at my disposal, I’m really looking forward to my cover design practice. Lots of great images to play around with without spending a fortune buying up credits—and I don’t have to spend time using comp images and then redo all my work when I hit on a clever design I want to use for real. :)

I didn’t end up getting any writing done today, and I’ve had to remind myself: the schedule is a suggestion, not a rule. My ultimate goal is 28 hours a week of timed writing and 22,630 words. I can have days where I just have to do other things.

See you back here tomorrow for some make up writing. :D

 

Write longer

Lynn

I didn’t write for 4 hours yesterday. Not even close. Today I will try again. It really shouldn’t be as hard as it always seems to be. It doesn’t make sense.

So, today—even though I don’t like doing it this way—I’m setting my morning timer for 3 hours and I’m not doing separate sessions of shorter time periods. I’ll just pause (this is why I don’t like doing it this way, I either forget to pause or I forget to unpause) and restart when I need a quick break. But no actual stopping point until I’ve done my 8–11 time this morning.

It will also make it really easy to see how much time I lose to breaks, because I’ll be stopping when the 3 hours are up. The further from 11 that is, the more time I’ve wasted! Also, no WIFI this morning. It’s just asking for trouble and I’m not going to do that.

As soon as I’ve finished that first 3 hours I’ll update with my session logs.

See you then. :)

Updates:
403 words at 8:52 and 2:25 left on timer*
392 words at 10:32 and 1:31 left on timer**
863 words at 11:10 and 58 minutes left on timer***
1,145 words at 9:03 pm and finished 3 hours
1,439 words at 9:57 and finished 3.5 hours

Basically, my word count sucked today, but I got much closer to my 4 hours of writing goal. :D Progress is great, so I’ll take it! Maybe tomorrow I’ll conquer both time and speed.

Session logs:

Minutes Words Session WPH
180 1,145 1,145 382
30 1,439 294 588
Tomorrow I’m going to do 1 hour timers back to back. I don’t like not being able to track my progress and my pace. My goal will still be to get my 3 hours before lunch AND to get AT LEAST 3/4 of my word count goal done.
Random notes:

*Spent way too long on a break – back at 9:33.
**I seem to be going backwards but I rearranged some chapter breaks and tidied up some stuff. I’ve realized that there’s really no separation between edits and writing in my process. It’s all just writing and it’s all necessary for me to tell a story the way I want to tell it.
***I wanted to finish my 3 hours before I stopped, but crap, I’m really hungry. :o Yep, I’m stopping for lunch.

Pick up the hammer and try again

Lynn

I didn’t nail it yesterday. I didn’t even come close. Today, I’m trying again. I’m not worrying about the schedule. I’m worrying about my 4 hours.

I want to get them done by 2 pm if I can. After that, I’ll coast, maybe even do some playing around with covers. :)

I’ll try to take as few breaks as possible this morning so I can get my 4 hours in as quickly as possible. The goal is 3,233 words plus a few extra to start chipping away at my deficit. I restarted the 1,180,000 words in 12 months challenge on Sunday, February 14, and I’m 18,244 words behind at this point. An extra hundred for 3,333 sounds like a good round number. :D

Okay, now time to get started. I’ve dragged this out long enough. :)

Session log:

Minutes Words Session WPH
10 219 219 1,314
10 335 116 696
10 554 219 1,314
10 648 94 564
40 868 220 330
25 893 25 60
5 984 91 1,092
5 1,150 166 1,992
4 1,229 79 1,185

Random notes:

I’ve done 4 sessions of 10 minutes each at this point and things are going well. 10 minute sessions seem to be working for me right now. Gonna stick with them for a bit.

Yeah. I didn’t nail it today either. 4 hours shouldn’t have been that hard, but I just couldn’t stay on task today. At least I broke the 1,000 word barrier. I’ll take it.

Nail it

Lynn

It’s a beautiful day outside my window today. I’m sitting in my study / sitting room (no longer a library as I moved all the books out into my former office upstairs that’s about to become my library as soon as I can afford the bookcases I need for all those books!) and I have my music playing and I’m ready to get started on this pain in the ass scene that’s been stalling me for two months.

If I don’t get past it today, I’m deleting the whole thing and starting over with some other scene altogether. That’s a fact. That’s gonna happen and it’s a damn promise—to myself, to you, to the whole damn universe. :D

So here’s the writing plan for today. Write 3,233 words in 4 hours. It’s a challenge, but I’m certainly going to try to get it all done in 4 hours. If I can’t, then I’m going to work more hours today. Just one of those kinds of days. I feel a need to prove I can get the words when I want to.

8:30–11:30 am
2–3 pm

I’ll start with 15 minute sessions and keep an eye on my pace. I’ll update when I have something to report.

Session record:

Minutes Words Session WPH
15 99 99 396
30 358 259 518
15 516 158 632
5 602 86 1,032
5 607 5 60
10 845 238 1,428

Random notes:

Love triangle! I just created one for a secondary character (not the main characters). That’s something I hadn’t thought about before. I’ll see how it goes.

Okay, love the triangle. It’s going to work. Something else (!) came up that I’m very happy with too. :) The scene is moving again, and I’m speeding up. Considering how long I’ve been away, I can’t say I’m surprised I’m going so slow.

I’ve lost 45 minutes to breaks and a phone call. I’m going to try not to take a break between now and 11:30.

Okay, I’m really  behind, but I’ve finally got some momentum going and this pain in the ass scene has just ended! And it’s a strong, awesome ending too, I might add. ;) Now to keep up the momentum and try to catch up a bit. I need to hit and maintain a pace of 906 words to finish within the parameters of my goal (4 hours of writing, 3,233 words). I won’t finish within the parameters of my schedule, but I can live with that. Oh, and I’m on my second cup of coffee this morning. I can’t decide if I’m okay with that or not. Or, that’s not exactly true. I’m okay with it right now, but I can predict I won’t be okay with it later. So, yeah. :o

Okay, so I got excited about an idea I had and I called my sister. I shouldn’t have, because I was supposed to be writing, but I did and I can’t go back and undo it, so moving on… It’s 2:54 pm, I’ve had lunch, and I need to get back to my book. I also want another cup of coffee and I’m wondering just how badly I will regret that if I go for it. Might do green tea instead.

I did coffee.

Also, it’s kind of embarrassing that I’ve only recorded 1.33 hours of writing and it’s already 4:08 pm. :o

 

Skip reading the book and just write

Lynn

Yesterday, I had planned to read through my entire book (in about 3 hours) to get the story back into my head. I didn’t do it. I can’t explain why, because I don’t really know. I just didn’t do it.

Today I don’t want to do it. I want to write. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll reread what’s necessary to go forward with the story, and read the rest later tonight (maybe).

It’s 8 am. My phone alarm just went off, so I’ll give myself 5 minutes to finish this post and then I am switching immediately to my book’s Word doc and getting to work.*

9:15 am–12:15 pm
2:00–3:00 pm

*Oops. This took longer than expected so I adjusted my start times to match reality. :)

Now, time to get to work.

11:30 am: Crap! I got busy figuring out the titles for my upcoming books in a couple of my series and adding them to my word count spreadsheet and I totally screwed up my morning writing time schedule. So… resetting myself here and I’m going to break for lunch, then come back to it. I’m still planning to write for 4 hours despite screwing up this morning. Today is actually not a bad day to screw up the schedule because I have extra time this evening to myself that I can use to make sure I get in my 4 hours.

1–4 pm
5–6 pm

I’ll be back to update when I start writing (after I get something to report, I should say.) :)

2:23 pm: I’m 45 minutes in (the rest of the time I’ve wasted on breaks) and at 267 words. I’d be sad, but the fact is, the story has been stalled for a good long time (more than 2 months) so I’m just glad it’s moving. I will say I need to write myself out of this scene I’m in ASAP. It’s really not working for me!

9:45 pm: Alright. I really didn’t work as hard as I should have today. I gave up early and never even bothered with the last hour at all. Just didn’t do it. The earlier writing was a huge struggle—I managed 308 words in 47 long minutes. Still, for having been away for so long, I think I made progress. I’m going to take it and try again to do better tomorrow. See you then.

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

If you don’t look, it’s not real, right?

Lynn

You know how you avoid looking at your schedule and the clock because you know if you do, you’ll find out it’s way past time for you to start writing on the new schedule you made for yourself last night and how you get this feeling that as long as you don’t look, you haven’t screwed up yet?

That’s me, this morning.

I just looked at the clock and my calendar and I am now having to admit that I’m two and a half hours late getting started.

:'(

FYI, it’s a nice schedule too.

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.

But anyway, today was to be day one of getting back to it, and I’ve already screwed up. Cue the silent screaming while I remind myself that I don’t have to give up on today just because the schedule is a bust.

Revisiting time as a measure of productivity

Lynn

I’ve had some thoughts about time spent writing versus word count quotas that I’m thinking might help me break out of this no-writing funk I’m stuck in.

A while back—more than two years ago, actually—I tried to improve my daily word count by setting myself a daily writing time quota. Although it didn’t work out in the long-run, it did work for a little while. I’m thinking it might be time to revisit “time” as a measuring stick for my dedication to my craft.

I think it might work out better now, and the reason is that I’ve been developing a different attitude about the value of work.

The biggest problem I’ve identified with having a word count quota still exists.

When I rely on word count goals, I put off starting until it’s too late because I’m terrible at estimating how much time it takes me to do things.

But…

When I rely on fixed time goals (schedule based) I lose the motivation to work efficiently because there’s no reward for getting done early.

This particular problem no longer resonates with me, and I believe that’s because of the attitude change which has given me a different perspective.

Progress, in a roundabout way

Lynn

The two minute rule is holding up. I’ve also started watching more television and reading more fiction to stave off the desire to read fluff. Maybe not the best use of my time, but if it breaks the forum and blog habit that’s developing, I’ll take it (temporarily).

And as a note, I had no idea “round about” was a single word until I checked. Well.

Also, I’ve been watching Wallander and found myself surprised when I realized one of the cops was played by Tom Hiddleston (Loki in the Thor and Avenger movies). It’s really weird to see him looking so ordinary.

Two minute rule

Lynn

I meant to mention this earlier, but I started a two minute rule on Tuesday (2/2). The rule is that I write for two minutes absolutely every day, no exceptions. There are no exceptions because—seriously—it’s only two minutes. Except in truly tragic circumstances, it’s just unlikely I’ll ever have any legit excuse to skip a two minute writing session. It’s only two minutes!

Since then, I’ve successfully kept to the rule.

My word counts have been small (very, very small). I had the urge on the very first night to just give up and go to bed without writing, but it took only a second at the computer as I went to shut it down to realize how ridiculous it would be to not write for those two minutes.

Here are the results:

Tues: 22
Wed: 30
Thur: 53

I deliberately chose not to do 5 minutes because it just felt like too big a number. There’s a lot of baggage associated with 5 minutes. I’ve often used that number for sprint writing and it has developed “associations.” :D

Update:

22
30
53
23
1
36
22
47
0

I held on for 8 days, until yesterday. I just didn’t want to do it. I had a memorial service to go to and I had plenty of opportunity to get this done before and after that service, but I still didn’t want to do it, and yesterday was one of those days where it just didn’t feel worth doing.

I don’t know what to do about this. All I know is that I feel like I’m beating my head against a wall made of reinforced concrete.

A few days of thinking and here’s where I am

Lynn

I’m not getting enough quality sleep and I’m reading too much fluff. Fluff is forums, blogs, NPR, articles about procrastination (it’s a running joke around here that I often procrastinate by reading articles on how to stop procrastinating).

I’m going to find some good books and stuff fiction reading into every spare moment I have in my day (unless I find myself writing, then I’ll dump everything but writing, because hey, I’ll be writing again!).

Still no decisions about accountability. I think it’s because I don’t trust myself. I mean, how often do I say I’m about to get started—or I’m going to write some awesome number of words—and then I just don’t get started at all?

Yeah.

{frustrated!}

The usual tricks aren’t working

Lynn

I’m going to try creating a few new tiny habits* for myself since I’m having so much trouble getting started this year.

I’m definitely in an uncomfortable place with my mental motivation to work toward my goals this year. I don’t seem to care if I reach them or not. (Because if I cared, I know I’d be working toward them.) I don’t know if the holiday break was to blame for knocking me off my routine or I’m struggling because of the short, cold days. I’ve been fighting off some kind of sinus illness, although I’m not sure what exactly, just that I’ve been stuffy and haven’t been sleeping well. I’m tired a lot, and it’s hard to get excited when I’d rather fall asleep sitting up than try to come up with the next sentence in my book.

I really don’t like the cold and I hate trying to write when I can’t get comfortable. Doesn’t seem to matter how high I turn my heat, I still feel cold after I sit still for more than a few minutes, and this just creates negative feelings about my writing time and those feelings are reinforced every time I sit down with my computer.

All in all, I’m not having a great start to the year. I mean, it’s already 1/12th over and I’m at a negative word count for the year. That adds up to 0% of my overarching goal of 1,144,000 words written.

So here’s what I’m doing to try to overcome this lethargic start to 2016:

  • Create a list of rules and habits I want to cultivate for a better life (I should call it something positive, right?)
  • Write down my reasoning for the rules, the why of it, so when I get moody or impulsive I can remember why it’s important that I follow the rule or stick to the habit-in-progress (until I’m sticking to it without thought, it’s not a real habit**)

I’m going to post the rules in a new post***, and then when I restart my accountability posts, I’ll have something specific to be accountable for. Wish me luck. 2016 is the year of just doing the best I can every day. :D

*The difference between tiny habits and mini-habits is difficult for me to explain, but with tiny habits it seems the most important aspect is to do the tiny habit and not even attempt to do more until the habit is well and truly set. With mini-habits, I get the feeling that it’s much more about getting yourself started so you’ll keep going and do more, and not in any real sense true habit formation.

**It does bug me when people call things that take effort to remember to do or make yourself do a habit. They’re not habits. Habits are supposed to be automatic behaviors, right?

***Maybe not.

Today’s goal: constructive procrastination

Lynn

I had intended to write today. And a lot of it, too. Here it is 9:16 and I’m not feeling like it at all. I want to want to write, but it’s not happening, not yet anyway. So… I’m going to try something different so I don’t end up spending the day reading silly articles (some aren’t so silly but I don’t need any more advice!). I’m going to let myself procrastinate, but I’m going do it constructively.

First up, I’ve been watching my “Publishing” folder on my computer grow too large, full of redundant files and backups—the most problematic being the excessive number of GIMP files I have. I’m going to clean it out so I can start backing up to my free Dropbox space again (I do also back up the folder to OneDrive which gives me 1 TB of space, but I like Dropbox and want to back up there too but my folder size had ballooned to the point that I can’t do that any longer.)

Second up, I have an office (upstairs) full of books and other junk that needs cleared out. I’m going to arrange the books on the shelves of the bookcases I moved up there last week, maybe sort them and choose which ones I’m going to take to McKay’s the next time I head that way. (Trade is the way to go—I get enough for books and DVDs that I can then take back and trade again if I discover they’re not keepers.)

I have a lot of books. Some of them I keep for sentimental reasons, most because I still haven’t read them yet. The plan is to turn that office space into a library (and office), and convert my current library (what’s supposed to be the small formal living room in my home) into a study and reading room. I’ve been using it for that anyway ever since I moved a desk into the room, and the office upstairs is more suited to a lot of bookcases and doesn’t have the problems with bright morning sunlight that the room I’m sitting in right now has. The sunlight has already bleached the spines of many of my books, and I really should have moved them out of here a long time ago.

Third, I have access to my 1099s now and most of my other tax documents. Although I’m waiting on a few more 1099s, I can definitely start my tax filing for 2015. I keep excellent records and there’s no reason not to start if I feel like starting. I might reserve today for creating my 2015 file folder and copying all relevant files into it.

And you know what? I think I’m also going to go ahead and run my master backup. It takes a while since it basically copies my entire hard drive and uploads it to OneDrive, but I figure the computer will be plugged up most of the day, so why not? I’ll start that right now, in fact. :D

So, that’s how I’m going to procrastinate today.

I’m actually looking forward to it. I love digging into projects of this kind. I enjoy organizing things. :D

And if something happens and I decide I’d rather do it later, maybe I’ll procrastinate by choosing to write instead of work on one of these projects. ;)

Time spent on post: 9:16 to 9:54

Accountability Check-in: 1/21 Thursday

Lynn

Yes, I’ve skipped several days from my last accountability check-in, for a couple of reasons: there hasn’t been anything to post and I’m still not liking this set up and I’m thinking of axing it (already, I know!). But it’s actually been kind of hard to remember to post when I’m not getting things done, and that’s really the only time I need the accountability. When things aren’t working, it doesn’t make sense to continue them, and this was started on an impulse, so there’s that too.

The one thing I’d definitely like to mention is that I have stuck to my coffee ban and I’m still quit. :) My mood has stabilized and I’m feeling great about the decision to quit coffee again. I hope I stay quit for a very long time.

  • words I’ve written in 2016: 668

Accountability Check-in: 1/17 Sunday

Lynn

Accountability, a day late. :)

  • Wrote 25 words (scraped them out into Evernote at bedtime to continue the new “write every day” challenge I started Saturday)
  • Read at least 2 pages of fiction today
  • Daily learning: 1 Spanish lesson
  • Did not drink coffee or any other caffeinated beverage!
  • Watched a lot of TV (too much really): Galavant (which I adore, bought at Amazon), The Mysteries of Laura (on Netflix, first episode, not bad, will definitely watch more), Parks and Recreation (on Netflix, much funnier than I imagined and I like it a lot more than I thought I would), State Fair (an old 1945 movie musical). I like TV, but I want to watch LESS in 2016!

My caffeine headache returned with a vengeance yesterday afternoon, although the morning was okay.

My ankle is very sore in several places still and still swollen, but it is definitely healing. The stairs are still a problem, but only when I’m going down. I’m going to try driving today, so we’ll see how I do with that.

I wish I was doing more, but I think I’ll get back there soon. I’m starting to feel like this is me recharging for another run at a period of high productivity. :)

Accountability Check-in: 1/16 Saturday

Lynn
  • Wrote 164 words (began a new “write every day” challenge)
  • Read at least 2 pages of fiction today
  • Watched 2 design tutorials (see below)
  • Did 2 push-ups and 2 sit-ups for the Tiny Gains Challenge (week 2 day 2)*
  • Practiced another language lesson (Spanish, duolingo). I finished basics 1 today. I now know what “Yo como” means. I apparently still do not know how to say “I eat bread.” “Yo como el pan,” maybe? What I’d really like to be able to say is, “I’m going to bed early, tonight. Goodnight!”
  • Quit coffee and stayed quit today. :)

I’ll figure out something different for these accountability posts tomorrow. Tonight is done and done. See ya!

*My challenge is to do the sit-ups and push-ups 3 times a week, increasing the number of push-ups and sit-ups by 1 every week.

Both of these design tutorials showed me how simple it is to add a background. There are definitely tricks to making the images blend, but it’s not scary at all to do. The next biggest thing I’ve learned so far is to not be afraid to play around with the images, lighting, colors, etc, to make the composition come together. It’s art.

Accountability Check-in: 1/15 Friday

Lynn

You could say that my fiction reading habit took over my life on Friday. I read most of the day and enjoyed the rest of the book I mentioned reading on Thursday (Frost Station Alpha).

I also read many articles about procrastination, because I feel like procrastination has a stranglehold on me at the moment. I just cannot seem to get restarted with my writing—or anything related to it.

Friday evening is when I realized that caffeine is doing me no favors and that I was starting to develop a coffee habit again.

  • words: 0
  • fiction reading: >2 pages
  • falling behind on my tiny gains challenge!