Day 81: Battling distraction
I was thinking today and trying to figure out why my writing productivity has been in the toilet. Yes, I had some health problems, but I’m also feeling excessively unmotivated. Some of that might be spiritual—and I really do need to remember to pray more during the day for God’s help—but I also need to try to see if there’s anything I can do to make it easier for me to Just Do It.
I read this article about distractions today, and while some things weren’t particularly new, there were a few things that seemed to hit me.
I am guilty of consuming content before working. I will listen to podcasts or audiobooks while walking, and sometimes I’ll read a book while eating breakfast or lunch. When I’m feeling particularly antsy, I’ll listen to an audiobook to help calm my mind and get me into a writerly mindset.
But maybe I should instead switch my walking to the afternoon so that my creative well-refilling happens after I do my work. In the past year or two, using an audiobook to help calm my mind was very helpful on my very bad writer’s block days, so I will still keep that option on the back burner if my writing day is looking to be particularly awful, but I think I will try harder to avoid reading and podcasts before work and see if that works any better for me.
It’s too late to try this today since I already went walking, but I’ll try tomorrow. My only concern is that I usually have a hard time getting myself to exercise unless I do it first thing, so I’m a little worried I’ll end up skipping my walk if I leave it for later in the day. I’ll try to “schedule” it for 5 pm (and set an alarm on my phone) and see if that works.
I also liked the JIT (just in time) as opposed to JIC (just in case) mindset. I stopped myself from browsing through a website of videos on doing Amazon ads because realistically it’s not like I can do ads right now. I also should stop listening to podcasts on marketing information I can’t currently implement, and instead listen to audiobooks to refill the well, or my JapanesePod101 lessons so I can continue to learn my Japanese.
What especially struck home for me in the article was about leaving the house. I’ve read this dozens of times before, but his list about listening to the same soundtrack and only using the same spot to work actually triggered a tangential idea about my writing rituals.
During June and July when I was outlining the novels in my series, I was very productive and very efficient (most of the time). I had set up a ritual of reading my Surrender statement before work each day, playing the same anime series soundtrack playlist (Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn soundtrack 1, soundtrack 2, soundtrack 3, and soundtrack 4, all composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who is my favorite composer, like EVER), and sometimes putting some light aromatherapy (lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus).
But (on the days I wasn’t laid low by health issues) since my writing involves dictation, and since the days have been torturously hot, I was 1) not listening to the soundtrack, and 2) not writing in my office at my standing desk.
So today I think I’ll try writing at my standing desk. The question is about my normal writing soundtrack. Do I continue dictation without music? Do I try to listen with my earbuds in while dictating into my digital recorder? Or do I ditch the dictation and just type?
I should probably try all three over the next several days to see if any of them work.
***
Today I tried dictation with earbuds in, and it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t actually feel myself fall into flow state or anything by listening to my usual playlist, but I seemed to be able to focus better than yesterday, so maybe the music really was helping me get into more of a zone. At the very least, I was able to dictate for longer today!
I also tried something a little different with my dictation today. I dictated a short scene and then realized I hadn’t blocked the next scenes, but I didn’t want to stop dictation in order to do that. So instead I decided to try an exercise from the book Fool Proof Dictation. The author dictates the same scene several times, in increasing time increments of 2, 5, 10, and 20 minutes (he explains why in his book), which I had thought was fascinating and clever. However whenever I tried it, I simply couldn’t do the short sprints (2 and 5 minutes) for some reason.
This time, I decided to try blocking my scene with dictation before doing the actual scene. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t remember parts of my blocking after dictating it, because I don’t stop to transcribe the blocking before going on the dictate the scene. But I figured I’d at least have the blocking recorded and transcribed, so if I forgot something, I could edit it into the scene later. I hadn’t had success with short sprints, so I decided to just dictate the blocking without a time limit.
I dictated in present tense like in the synopsis, and it took about 15 minutes. I followed the notes I had made in my Snowflake step 6 (expanded synopsis), which made it a bit easier, and I typed in some changes in the file on the fly as I was dictating. Then I started a new dictation file and dictated the scene.
I found I remembered more of the blocking than I thought I would, and it was quite a bit easier to dictate the scene since I’d just dictated the blocking. Typically, I type up the blocking the day before or several days before dictating the scene, so it’s not as fresh in my mind, but doing the blocking with dictating made the scene much easier to write.
Time spent writing: 3 hours, 8 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 19 minutes (I’m pretty sure I spent longer at the computer, but I had forgotten to start my Toggl timer)
My takeaway for today: Whether outlining or writing, try to stick to the writer’s rituals that helped me focus.
My second takeaway for today: Try dictating the blocking for a scene right before dictating the scene itself.
I read this article about distractions today, and while some things weren’t particularly new, there were a few things that seemed to hit me.
I am guilty of consuming content before working. I will listen to podcasts or audiobooks while walking, and sometimes I’ll read a book while eating breakfast or lunch. When I’m feeling particularly antsy, I’ll listen to an audiobook to help calm my mind and get me into a writerly mindset.
But maybe I should instead switch my walking to the afternoon so that my creative well-refilling happens after I do my work. In the past year or two, using an audiobook to help calm my mind was very helpful on my very bad writer’s block days, so I will still keep that option on the back burner if my writing day is looking to be particularly awful, but I think I will try harder to avoid reading and podcasts before work and see if that works any better for me.
It’s too late to try this today since I already went walking, but I’ll try tomorrow. My only concern is that I usually have a hard time getting myself to exercise unless I do it first thing, so I’m a little worried I’ll end up skipping my walk if I leave it for later in the day. I’ll try to “schedule” it for 5 pm (and set an alarm on my phone) and see if that works.
I also liked the JIT (just in time) as opposed to JIC (just in case) mindset. I stopped myself from browsing through a website of videos on doing Amazon ads because realistically it’s not like I can do ads right now. I also should stop listening to podcasts on marketing information I can’t currently implement, and instead listen to audiobooks to refill the well, or my JapanesePod101 lessons so I can continue to learn my Japanese.
What especially struck home for me in the article was about leaving the house. I’ve read this dozens of times before, but his list about listening to the same soundtrack and only using the same spot to work actually triggered a tangential idea about my writing rituals.
During June and July when I was outlining the novels in my series, I was very productive and very efficient (most of the time). I had set up a ritual of reading my Surrender statement before work each day, playing the same anime series soundtrack playlist (Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn soundtrack 1, soundtrack 2, soundtrack 3, and soundtrack 4, all composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who is my favorite composer, like EVER), and sometimes putting some light aromatherapy (lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus).
But (on the days I wasn’t laid low by health issues) since my writing involves dictation, and since the days have been torturously hot, I was 1) not listening to the soundtrack, and 2) not writing in my office at my standing desk.
So today I think I’ll try writing at my standing desk. The question is about my normal writing soundtrack. Do I continue dictation without music? Do I try to listen with my earbuds in while dictating into my digital recorder? Or do I ditch the dictation and just type?
I should probably try all three over the next several days to see if any of them work.
***
Today I tried dictation with earbuds in, and it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t actually feel myself fall into flow state or anything by listening to my usual playlist, but I seemed to be able to focus better than yesterday, so maybe the music really was helping me get into more of a zone. At the very least, I was able to dictate for longer today!
I also tried something a little different with my dictation today. I dictated a short scene and then realized I hadn’t blocked the next scenes, but I didn’t want to stop dictation in order to do that. So instead I decided to try an exercise from the book Fool Proof Dictation. The author dictates the same scene several times, in increasing time increments of 2, 5, 10, and 20 minutes (he explains why in his book), which I had thought was fascinating and clever. However whenever I tried it, I simply couldn’t do the short sprints (2 and 5 minutes) for some reason.
This time, I decided to try blocking my scene with dictation before doing the actual scene. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t remember parts of my blocking after dictating it, because I don’t stop to transcribe the blocking before going on the dictate the scene. But I figured I’d at least have the blocking recorded and transcribed, so if I forgot something, I could edit it into the scene later. I hadn’t had success with short sprints, so I decided to just dictate the blocking without a time limit.
I dictated in present tense like in the synopsis, and it took about 15 minutes. I followed the notes I had made in my Snowflake step 6 (expanded synopsis), which made it a bit easier, and I typed in some changes in the file on the fly as I was dictating. Then I started a new dictation file and dictated the scene.
I found I remembered more of the blocking than I thought I would, and it was quite a bit easier to dictate the scene since I’d just dictated the blocking. Typically, I type up the blocking the day before or several days before dictating the scene, so it’s not as fresh in my mind, but doing the blocking with dictating made the scene much easier to write.
Time spent writing: 3 hours, 8 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 19 minutes (I’m pretty sure I spent longer at the computer, but I had forgotten to start my Toggl timer)
My takeaway for today: Whether outlining or writing, try to stick to the writer’s rituals that helped me focus.
My second takeaway for today: Try dictating the blocking for a scene right before dictating the scene itself.
I've been struggling with motivation, too, especially because I'm at the long, tedious final step in polishing this book. I just keep forcing myself back into it. I'm switching to a more aggressive fall/winter schedule when September starts and not beating myself up too much about dilly-dallying!
ReplyDeleteI love your dictation method. I might try that for sketching out the next day's scenes the next time I draft a book. Thanks for the tips! I'm enjoying reading about your ups and downs. Enjoy this weekend!
Thanks so much, Jill! I can relate to the slog while polishing a book. I absolutely HATE editing and so my worst motivation has always been during that phase of my book process. I'm actually a bit worried when it comes time to start editing.
DeleteMy dictation methods are constantly changing since I'm still trying t figure things out! Let me know if you find something that works really well for you, because I'd love to know!
I walk in the morning. Then if you feel like writing do writing first after eating. Do other things later like facebook, email and reading etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa! Do you walk before eating? I'm going to experiment with walking in the afternoon, because I tend to listen to podcasts and audiobooks while walking, but I want to save that for after I've done my work.
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