Camy's Writing Diary

So, except for one day of work on the 21st, the last ten days were pretty much a complete wash because of health issues—migraines, IBS. I really don't know what I could have eaten to cause either of them, so I was rather shocked to be incapacitated when I'd been feeling well on Monday the 14th. It was also frustrating because I thought I'd been finally figuring out some tips and tricks to make my dictation work, and I'd been looking forward to trying them. Anyway, I spent most of the last 10 days in pain and listening to audiobooks. I suppose refilling the creative well isn't a bad way to spend my time—it wasn't a waste of time, anyway—and reading always helps me with my writing in some way. In the meantime, I got a new computer monitor, but the stand it came with is too high for my desk. I had to order an adjustable monitor mount. I suppose it was good I was too sick to work, because otherwise I’d have had to work with a very unergonomic monitor setup....

I ended up sleeping a long time on Sunday and then getting up ridiculously early Monday morning, so I'm just going to count it as Monday starting. Since I finished blocking volume 3, I'll start writing today. I have committed to trying to get better at dictation, so I will try dictating for 10 minutes or so, then editing the transcription in Dragon. In a dictation Facebook group I joined, there was a nice Dictation Outline that one member provided, which not only has you list the beats of the scene (I'm assuming it would be the same thing as my blocking , but some writers refer to beats as larger plot points rather than smaller plot points), but also things like the purpose of the scene, the emotions, the setting, imagery, character reveal, tension/conflict, and specifics (which might be for miscellaneous stuff that doesn't fit under the other things). Having those specific things listed at the top of the list of blocking for my scene might help keep me on point w...

I normally don’t write on Sundays, but I woke up early and maybe since I didn’t get much done yesterday—or all last week, really—I decided to do a little work. I got some editing/writing done on The Spinster Spy . It’s almost entirely rewriting since the original was very rough, and so I tried dictating the scene rather than typing. However, after about 15 minutes of dictation, I found I had forgotten a lot of stuff and had to redo it almost completely, so I just typed it instead. I know that dictation is mostly just to get stuff down, and from what I’ve read on a dictation Facebook group, many writers will go through it again later to add things like description, etc. However, this is supposed to be editing a scene I’d already laid down, so I think dictation isn’t going to work here, since I don’t want to have to do yet another round of intensive editing on a scene that’s supposed to be revised. I fully realize my resistance is partly because of my loathing for more self-editing...

Because I’d gone back to bed with a sinus headache yesterday, I woke up early today. I ended up doing some writing-related work that needed to be done, but which I’d been putting off—cleaning up my email inbox, and my computer desktop. However, now that’s done, my brain feels a little less cluttered. It’s time for lunch now, so I’ll continue my plan to read more and I’ll take a long-ish lunch break in order to read a book. Then I’ll get started on writing work, starting with some writing/editing of The Spinster Spy (just to get some writing prose done) and then continuing my blocking of volume 3. Using an audiobook during my break yesterday seemed to work well to help me not get distracted by social media or retail procrastination, so I’ll try that again today. *** I got some writing/editing and some blocking done, but not very much—around the time my allergy medicine was wearing off, I got another sinus headache, and so I went to bed early again. Blocking: time spent: 1 h...

Since I had so many non-working days, I decided to switch up how I'm tracking my writing. Instead of tracking how many days it takes me to work on a book, I'm going to track number of hours, since days can change depending on how many hours I work per day on my book. So I went to my trusty Toggl report to figure out how many hours I've been working on volume 3. The time doesn't include the time I spent working on the entire series premise, but I'll post that also at a later date.  Lady Wynwood's Spies, volume 3 totals (so far, 2020): Outlining: 8 hours, 40 minutes Blocking: 29 hours, 33 minutes Writing: 25 hours, 13 minutes Editing: 10 hours, 39 minutes For reference, I also looked up the total amount of time I spent on Lady Wynwood's Spies, volume 2, which is (mostly) completed. I started writing this book around the tail end of my bad bouts of writer’s block , so my writing speed wasn't all that fast. Also, while I did some work on the book l...

I had a sort of mental meltdown for the past 2 weeks. I think I was really overwhelmed by all the things I had piled up for me to do—almost all of them marketing things and stuff to do for my book launch—and my brain shut down. This actually happens to me once every few months. I really beat myself up the last time this happened, but I think I need to instead figure out why it happened and try to fix it. I know that my creative well was pretty dry because I spent a lot of time reading and watching Netflix. So maybe I’m not spending enough time reading? Maybe? I also know that I had put a lot of things on my To Do list, and the past few days made me realize I just can’t fill up the list like that. I might feel okay now, but all last week, I was mentally pretty drained. So I went through my To Do list and just deleted a bunch of stuff. Luckily, the hardest parts for my book launch were already done, so I didn’t have to worry about that. But some of the other stuff—mostly marketi...

I got up really, really late today and also wasted a lot of time goofing around, because it's Thanksgiving. :) I also spent a lot of time cooking, because it's Thanksgiving. :) I had forgotten to post my blog post yesterday so I did it just now. I want to do a little writing each day, but writing when I'm also blocking the same book has become problematic for me since I'm writing an earlier scene but I've blocked several scenes ahead and I forget what has and hasn't happened yet. So I decided it might be better to do a little writing on my side novel, which I have decided to title The Spinster Spy . (It used to be called my serial novel because it's going to be posted on my blog, serial novel style, for marketing, but I've been calling my main series an epic serial novel, since each volume ends on a cliffhanger, so I'll be calling this my side novel. It's also why I decided on the title so early, since I dislike simply referring to it as th...

Strangely, even though I didn’t sleep quite as long, I slept really well last night and woke up early feeling pretty good. I checked email first just to get that out of the way, but then after breakfast I dove straight into editing, and I’m now caught up on editing all the prose I’ve written so far in volume 3. I ended up needing to do a fair bit of writing when editing the last scene, so I don’t think I’ll do any extra writing today. I’d rather work on the blocking , plus when I was doing the extra writing for the scene, I was confused by what had happened so far versus what I’ve blocked in future scenes. I think it’ll be a bit easier if I write only after I’ve blocked everything, and I can write linearly. I think I’ll make fewer continuity mistakes that way. *** I ended up doing more of a lot of self-publishing and marketing stuff today. I got the corrected covers from my graphic designer so I uploaded the paperback versions of The Spinster’s Christmas , and then I worked on ...

I woke up today with my jaw clenched and my head aching, and I think the stress of NaNoWriMo is getting to me. I got a late start on NaNo since I was editing volumes 1 and 2 of my series at the beginning of the month before starting volume 3, and I also hadn’t done any blocking for volume 3 before I started writing. I know from doing The Gentleman Thief that I seem to prefer to have all the scenes blocked before I write. I’m also getting antsy seeing all the scenes I haven’t edited yet because I’m trying to get words done for NaNo, especially since my self-editing mental block can make my productivity go way down. So today I decided to just give up on NaNo . I’m disappointed, but I think it’ll be better for me, mental health-wise. I also decided to check email before starting work today, and I’m glad I did since I had some issues that came up. I didn’t realize that you need a new ISBN to change the trim size for a book, and I’d asked my graphic designer to change the trim siz...

I'm rather disappointed I didn't get more work done yesterday, but I really just wasn't feeling very well. I also got a slow start yesterday, maybe because I'm used to not doing writing on Sundays. So I can't really blame it all on my IBS. Today I feel better, so I'll be trying to write more today. I actually need to do some blocking first, and I want to also get some editing done because if I leave the editing for later, I think it will be difficult for me to do them. However, I'll do the blocking and writing first, since that's more important if I want to try to win NaNoWriMo. Yesterday I wrote on the Alphasmart and got about 1500 words an hour. I've done better and I've done worse on the Alphasmart. But in looking at my writing time log, I've also been able to do 1500 words per hour on 4thewords.com . I've also done better and worse on 4thewords. So I don't know that writing on the Alphasmart is all that much better, and m...

I don't usually write on Sundays, but I really want to win NaNoWriMo and so I did some writing today. Except that I wasn't really all that productive with my writing, because I also had some things to do for the launch of volume 1 in my series. The ebook preorder went up today and after I got the link for it, I had to update my launch emails, my website, my Street Team email, and also submit the book for an ENT promo. I also got an email about a blog tour I'm doing in February, and I had to create landing pages to give the tour members copies of my book and also the two prequels, as well as order and send out paperback copies of the book to some of the tour members. However, I got about an hour of writing done, and surprisingly my writing pace was pretty fast on the Alphasmart--about 1500 words per hour. I just don't know why I don't get that kind of speed on the Freewrite Traveler . It's hard to understand why the lag between typing and the words showing up...

I got a late start today because I was distracted by my game while I was in the bathroom! UGH! I also had to check email because there were some urgent things I needed to take care of. However, I'm ready to start writing now. Yesterday I had thought it might be better to do all the blocking first, but I admit I want to win NaNoWriMo which means I need another 30k words in the next week. So I'll start off with writing instead. I'll aim for 3500 words, and then I'll work on blocking and editing. I thought about doing the editing before my writing, since I seem to segue into the writing a little easier when I edit first, but I also was getting tired later in the day, and the writing is more important than the editing at this point, even though I loathe the self-editing when I have a lot of it to do. If I'm lucky today, I'll get my 3500 words in, and then block another chapter (which tends to be 3000-4000 words each). After that, I'll work on the editing ...

I got up a little late today, and I made the mistake of checking email first! UGH! I'm so easily distracted today! I should have just started writing to get some done early. I'm ready to start writing now. I'll be working only on the Freewrite Traveler today for writing, to try it out more fully and also to try to write without editing so that I can try to get into flow state. The problem is that I also need to do some blocking before I start writing because I don't have any scenes blocked. So I was wondering if I should do the blocking on my Traveler or on my computer like normal. Do I need to get into flow state for blocking or should I use the computer so I can edit? I thought perhaps I could block on Traveler and then afterward, spend time editing it on the computer so it’ll be easier to read. I don't think I've ever tried that, so I guess I can try it for a few scenes. If it causes too many logic issues that pop up while writing, then I’ll know it’...

I woke up extra early today and dove right into writing. I got about 2 hours done before I had to use the bathroom, but I ended up getting distracted and not getting back to writing. :( I just don't understand why I'm always so easily distracted! I checked email and ended up taking about 90 minutes because of some computer issues I had. So technology was partly to blame today, but it's mostly my inability to remain focused once I leave my desk. Unfortunately, while I was writing in 4thewords.com , I had started a long time duration monster so there wasn't any urgency time pressure to get back to work. I've changed that so that the next monster I fight will have a shorter time duration, but I still wasted some time this morning when I could have been working. As for writing first thing in the morning , my writing speed was a little higher, but not jet-pack faster. I did end up doing a little editing because my writing wasn't very clear, but I should proba...

I don't know why but I ended up checking email before breakfast! And of course that took an hour or so. I don't know why I sabotage myself this way. I should have just eaten and then gotten straight to work. I'm getting to work a little earlier than usual, and I'll be diving right into writing today since I did the editing last night after my writing session. I'm going to see if I can write a little faster if I write first thing rather than doing the editing first thing, since the editing has been taking a long time, especially if I write a lot the day before. I'm going to aim for a 3 hour session. I've been writing for about 90 minutes for the past week or so, so I don't want to try to aim for 4 or 5 hours right off the bat, and 3 hours will take me right to lunch. I actually have to start off by blocking since I haven't blocked the next scene yet. I'll do that and then start writing it. I decided to continue writing in 4thewords.com s...

I got up early and now I’m ready to start! I’m going to start with cycling and edit what I wrote earlier. Today I’m going to try writing on my gaming keyboard in 4thewords.com but I am going to try not to edit as I go . I just prefer the feel of the gaming keyboard, and if I’m going to be writing a lot, I want a nicer keyboard. I’m also going to try the mindset shift I thought about yesterday. I realized that the few writers who I have read about who write 8-10k words a day tend to write in longer bursts, 3 or 4 hours minimum. I recently read a Facebook post by an indie author who is not only a part time lawyer, but she writes 10k a day. She takes a few days to plot the book, but then can write one in a week, and her average writing speed is 2000-2500 words an hour. She tends to write in a 5-6 hour block in the evenings. Also, Rachel Aaron (in her book 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love ) described her writing day as writing 4 or 5 ...

Yesterday was my writing day off, so I mostly did busywork like cleaning out my email Inbox and organizing some of my research notes. I also listened to an audiobook and read a light novel, so I refilled the creative well , also. Today I got up and tried to get writing right away. I can't remember why now, but I did some blocking on a future scene first, and then I started writing at the dining room table so that I could get away from my computer, to see if that helped with productivity and eliminating distractions. It wasn't a great experiment, because I had forgotten how cold our dining room is, and the chill was really distracting. I only did half an hour. I'm taking too long on my breaks . I was reading on a Facebook group that one really prolific author doesn't take breaks. I wonder if I should try to do that, just work straight through as long as I can? I don’t know if my body could handle that, though. Maybe it’s my mindset that needs to change. Instead ...

Yesterday I had to write on my computer because my blocking notes were a mess and what I’d written earlier was a mess and everything was such a mess that I couldn’t keep writing because my thoughts were a mess, too. So I opted to write in 4thewords.com since there’s the special event going on for NaNoWriMo. I decided to continue writing in 4thewords today because I realized that I really enjoy the writing a lot more when I can defeat monsters! I was writing on the Alphasmart (and more recently, the Freewrite Traveler ) because the numbers don't lie--I tend to write faster when I'm on a non-computer machine like my Alphasmart, or even my mechanical keyboard hooked up to my old iPad Mini. But yesterday the procrastination was terrible, and so far today, it's been bad still. I wasted so much time on retail procrastination when there’s nothing I really need! (I was tempted by a sale on a gaming keyboard that I don’t need at all.) I was feeling antsy so I took a long lunc...

I got some writing done! Actually I did some editing of what I wrote yesterday, then started writing. But either my blocking notes were out of order, or I wasn’t following them properly, but I found I wrote some parts of the scene that should have been later, and there were things I needed to add earlier. I was writing on my Freewrite Traveler , so going back to insert the pieces earlier in the scene was not going to happen since it’s not made for that kind of stuff. Technically I shouldn’t edit as I write, but the scene was such a mess and I didn’t know how to continue when it was like that, so I decided to move the writing back to my computer and edit as I go for most of the rest of the scene. I had to add some pieces in at earlier points in order to make it make sense, but now I think it’s fixed. Also, because I was writing in 4thewords.com , I had a couple hundred words to finish off a monster, so I ended up doing a few minutes of blocking a scene, too. *** I was trying ...

I think I can start writing today! Yay! I’m super excited to be trying out my Freewrite Traveler for the first time! *** I got some writing done today, but I have to admit I’m a bit disappointed in the amount of lag time between typing and having the words appear on the screen. Since it’s eInk, I was expecting a lag, but the lag seems awfully long to me. Is that the price to pay for a type of screen that gives a longer battery life? Although I suppose that if I’m truly doing no-edit writing, the lag time shouldn’t matter. The lag is annoying to me mostly because it takes a second before I see any typos I’ve done and then I have to backspace to correct them. Theoretically, I shouldn’t correct them and just keep going. Also sometimes, I write a sentence but then I want to reword it because it’s not quite clear. The typos and fixing sentences would bother me more if I hadn’t already been experimenting with dictation for the past few months. With dictation, you get used to seeing ...

After I posted my blog post yesterday, I got a bit of a headache (my neck was rather stiff) so I didn’t work as much as I wanted. But I still got a fair amount of blocking done before I went to bed. However, I took medication for my headache, which made me sleep extra long, so I lost a lot of time today. I also had some house chores to do, so that took a little time. I had some work to do for the launch of my new book. My graphic designer gave me the updated ebook covers for volume 1 and for The Gentleman Thief , and also the paperback covers. I had to send back minor corrections to the paperback covers, but the cover especially for the Gentleman Thief is AMAZING. I then compiled the Gentleman Thief .epub files and again had to fiddle with the .docx compile settings in Scrivener so I could create a .pdf file for the paperback interior. I then created a .pdf copy for BookFunnel, and uploaded both files to BookFunnel for my newsletter drip sequence. Updated the drip sequence in ...

I feel pretty good today, health wise, and I spent a couple hours doing stuff for my Street Team and the launch of my new book. I had forgotten that my Street Team might want to read the two prequel books in the series, so I created a BookFunnel landing page for The Gentleman Thief (I already had a landing page for The Spinster’s Christmas ). However I had to make ARC .epub and .pdf copies of The Gentleman Thief to add to the landing page, which involved some compiling in Scrivener. I had forgotten to update my compile settings for The Gentleman Thief after I figured them out for the volume 1 ARCs, so I had to fiddle with those again. Then I wrote up an email to my Street Team members with BookFunnel links to both The Spinster’s Christmas and The Gentleman Thief so they could download them and read them if they wanted. And I added all this stuff to my master checklist so I’ll remember to do them for the launch of the second book. That list is getting really long! I also ...

Got a very late start today because of IBS issues, and then I had a lot of house chores (mostly cooking) to do today (I have to feed the hubby at least once a week, after all …). I got some negative feedback on my book today which has made me a bit sad. I really hate that I’m so sensitive to this stuff. It’s easy to tell myself to get a thicker skin, but I can’t suddenly make myself feel better if I’m feeling sad. I had a bit of depression in high school, too, so I also think I’m a bit prone to this type of stuff. Then after that, I discovered an error in the cover for volume 1! I’m just not detail oriented enough! Luckily I caught it before the book is released! So that got me paranoid about other things I might have missed. I’m trying to remember Elana Johnson’s words (I think it was in her book Writing and Releasing Rapidly ) where she mentioned that she’s made tons of mistakes and they’re not bad, because they propel you to improve. And she’s right. I suppose I can still do...

Wow I’m so tired! I did a lot or marketing stuff today! Since I’m getting ready to launch my new book, Lady Wynwood’s Spies 1, I had a lot of little things to take care of. I had to make the ARC .epub and .pdf files for my Street Team and then have BookFunnel email them the link. I also planned and wrote the emails I will send to my Street Team to remind them about reviewing the book, and those are ready except for the links to Amazon. But a couple of my Street Team members asked about things like the pages on Goodreads and also the book cover so they can blog about it. It made me realize I probably should have those things done earlier than I had planned so that my Street Team can use it. So I went to Goodreads but someone had very kindly already put up a page for my ebook! Woot! All I had to do was update the ISBN number and also create a paperback page. But when inputting the ISBN number in Goodreads, it said that the ISBN was already in use, and pointed to my book, The...

Woke up with bad IBS symptoms. I’m feeling better now, and I really hope I can get all my edits on volume 2 done today regardless of the discomfort! I’m at or almost at the 75% mark of my book! Plus all the rest of the scenes were written in 4thewords.com rather than dictation, so they’re all relatively clean. *** I was doing my edits at my sitting kotatsu desk, but my back started bothering me so I moved to my standing desk. However I wonder if maybe I just need a different back pillow? I switched out my small back pillow for a larger soba pillow (that’s supposed to be for the bed). Next time I use the sitting desk, I’ll see how it feels. *** I’m done with the self-edits for volume 2!!!! I’m actually writing this on Sunday morning but I will post it on my blog for 11:59 pm on Saturday. I had only five more scenes to finish, so I stayed up late to edit them all because I didn’t want to leave them to finish on Monday. Such a hugh sigh of relief that the edits are done! I n...