Day 5: Breaking problems into smaller pieces
My ankles were hurting yesterday so I decided to rest them today and not go walking. I dived right into reading and clearing my new emails. It seems email takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes everyday. I wish there were a way to cut that down, although right now I’m dealing with a lot of emails about my Japanese translation of Sushi for One. The translation is finished, so at the moment we’re dealing with formatting options/questions and feedback from the proofreader. Once it’s published, my translator will only be working on translating the next book in the series, Only Uni, and I won’t have as many things I’ll need to be doing.
I’m also working with my graphic designer to do the covers for the Japanese versions of the Sushi series. The other books won’t be translated for a while, but since she had to do the cover for book 1, I asked her to do all the ebook covers at once so that they have the same style and feel. I think she did a great job, but there have been small changes that needed to be made to the Japanese text, so it’s been a bit tedious for her. I feel bad about that. But once the covers are done, that’ll also reduce my email time.
Yesterday I realized I forgot two minor plot threads in volume 5 of my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series, so I’ll be finishing doing Snowflake step 4 (one-page synopsis) on that volume today. Earlier, when I did Snowflake step 2 (1-paragraph summary) on volume 5, I just left those plot threads vague, figuring I’d come up with something later. I’ll have to do some brainstorming.
***
UGH I spent a ton of time blogging. I wrote a Story Sensei blog post, but then realized I had to update my Books on Writing post page so I had somewhere to link to. I have to stop mucking around and just do my work! I don’t know why blogging can distract me so easily, especially since I really do LOVE writing my stories!
Now I’m starting work on my series. Really!
***
I spent a lot of time today on volume 5, but I finally figured out two plot problems that I had only left vague when doing Snowflake step 2.
I realized that in trying to figure out this plot problem, I could break it down into smaller pieces and solve each piece until the whole thing is solved. For example, I needed the heroine to get from point A to point B, but instead I broke it up into smaller steps so that she had to get from point A to point D. Then I could just figure out how she gets from point to point. In this case, I realized that I knew how she got from point C to D, but I didn’t know how she got from point A to B to C, so that took a lot of time.
What happened was that I went into more detail than the high-level outlining I’m supposed to be doing. So while I was supposed to be doing Snowflake step 4 (one-page synopsis), I ended up also doing some Snowflake step 6 (writing an expanded synopsis). It eventually needs to be done, so it’s not that big a deal. At least I fixed the plot problems I had left unsolved!
Time spent writing: 7 hours, 14 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 3 hours, 31 minutes
My takeaway for today: When trying to solve a plot problem, it might work better for me to break it into smaller pieces and solve each piece individually.
I’m also working with my graphic designer to do the covers for the Japanese versions of the Sushi series. The other books won’t be translated for a while, but since she had to do the cover for book 1, I asked her to do all the ebook covers at once so that they have the same style and feel. I think she did a great job, but there have been small changes that needed to be made to the Japanese text, so it’s been a bit tedious for her. I feel bad about that. But once the covers are done, that’ll also reduce my email time.
Yesterday I realized I forgot two minor plot threads in volume 5 of my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series, so I’ll be finishing doing Snowflake step 4 (one-page synopsis) on that volume today. Earlier, when I did Snowflake step 2 (1-paragraph summary) on volume 5, I just left those plot threads vague, figuring I’d come up with something later. I’ll have to do some brainstorming.
***
UGH I spent a ton of time blogging. I wrote a Story Sensei blog post, but then realized I had to update my Books on Writing post page so I had somewhere to link to. I have to stop mucking around and just do my work! I don’t know why blogging can distract me so easily, especially since I really do LOVE writing my stories!
Now I’m starting work on my series. Really!
***
I spent a lot of time today on volume 5, but I finally figured out two plot problems that I had only left vague when doing Snowflake step 2.
I realized that in trying to figure out this plot problem, I could break it down into smaller pieces and solve each piece until the whole thing is solved. For example, I needed the heroine to get from point A to point B, but instead I broke it up into smaller steps so that she had to get from point A to point D. Then I could just figure out how she gets from point to point. In this case, I realized that I knew how she got from point C to D, but I didn’t know how she got from point A to B to C, so that took a lot of time.
What happened was that I went into more detail than the high-level outlining I’m supposed to be doing. So while I was supposed to be doing Snowflake step 4 (one-page synopsis), I ended up also doing some Snowflake step 6 (writing an expanded synopsis). It eventually needs to be done, so it’s not that big a deal. At least I fixed the plot problems I had left unsolved!
Time spent writing: 7 hours, 14 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 3 hours, 31 minutes
My takeaway for today: When trying to solve a plot problem, it might work better for me to break it into smaller pieces and solve each piece individually.
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