Day 79: Clearing the mind is easier said than done

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I tried doing the idea I had yesterday of clearing my mind before writing, and it worked to an extent—I was able to get about an hour’s worth of dictation done. However, my writing momentum all went to compost when I took a break after writing and had a hard time refocusing. I couldn’t quite clear or calm my mind enough again to do a second session of dictation.

I’m pretty disappointed in myself, because I want to be able to write for longer hours each day. I will have to think about this to try to diagnose why I couldn’t refocus and figure out a solution.

A part of me thinks I’m just being lazy, but while I can berate myself with that, it doesn’t solve anything. Also I had no problems working for longer hours when I was outlining the novels, but now I’m suddenly having difficulties focusing for the writing. There has to be a reason, and I just have to find it.

I also had technical difficulties, or maybe I should admit they were more human difficulties. I think my microphone settings reset and I didn’t check to make sure they were correct before I started recording. I also didn’t do a test recording like I did last time.

So even though I was talking into my nifty podcast microphone, my computer was recording with its tiny built-in microphone, and so the audio is terribly soft and Dragon couldn’t transcribe anything. I’ll have to listen to it tomorrow and transcribe it manually, which is frustrating.

Time spent writing: 1 hour, 2 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 18 minutes

My takeaway for today: REMEMBER TO DO A RECORDING CHECK, DUMMY!

Comments

  1. theunexpectedrichnessofanordinarylife.home.blog12:51 PM

    Do you have ADD or ADHD. Maybe look them up to see how people who have it learn to focus. Maybe that will help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Camy Tang2:02 PM

      Hi Lisa, thanks for the suggestion! But actually I know I don't have ADD or ADHD because when I was a teen, my brother was diagnosed with ADHD, and his psychiatrist wanted to evaluate me, too.

      I think my frustration is that I didn't have a problem focusing for long hours at a time when I was doing the outlining, but right now that I'm in the writing phase, my focus is in the toilet.

      However, I read an article today that might help me. I'll blog about it later.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

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