Day 131: Everyone has their own struggles
Again, I'm not certain how much I'll get done today. I did some blocking on my Reader Magnet novella earlier, but then I got a headache. I've taken medication to make it go away, and it's not too bad, so I'm hoping I'll get more done.
I am hoping I have recovered from the gaming insanity of yesterday and will be able to fully focus on my work today. I feel a little like an addict--once I get started, it's hard for me to get myself to stop. I've never been chemically dependent on anything, but mentally I really felt the pull of gaming, maybe especially since I'd been away from it for a while.
I don't know if it's possible to be able to game moderately for me. My brain might just not be wired that way. In which case, I need to take steps to avoid it altogether.
I feel pretty pathetic. I don't know any other writers who have the same types of problems that I do. Many of them are so much more self-disciplined. One woman on a Facebook group mentioned that for her breaks, she reads just one chapter of a book, and another person was like, "Just one chapter????" (which is what I was thinking!) The woman said yes, because it motivates her to get more work done so she can read another chapter. There's no way I could do that. If the book is open, I'll just keep reading. I couldn't get myself to stop.
I suppose I need external sources to motivate me to be disciplined, because relying on my internal discipline gets me nowhere. I guess that's why many writers need to turn off the internet when they write. (I guess I'm not completely pathetic because the internet and social media has not been a struggling point for me. I can work with the internet on and it doesn't tempt me to check social media.)
I guess that proves that every writer has some area they struggle with, which is not necessarily the same thing I struggle with. So I just need to identify my struggling points and then figure out a way to work around them.
***
Drugs are so nice!
The headache eventually went away and I was able to get down to work. Unfortunately, after the headache left me, I started getting intermittent IBS issues.
I was rather shocked to look at my time log for today. I didn't realize I had worked so long. My actual writing time was 4 hours, and I did blocking for about 2 hours, so it wasn't only writing the entire time, but I'm very pleased that I got up to 6 hours of writing work done today.
I'm especially impressed because for the last hour or so of writing, my IBS was flaring up a quite a lot so I was uncomfortable in short spurts and had to take breaks. Despite the IBS, my average writing pace for the day wasn't bad, either, even though for my first two writing sprints, I was kind of lollygagging around and not even trying to have a good writing pace.
I also checked social media, but I forgot to log that time so my writing-related business time looks very short.
I'm still switching work stations for every sprint (which lasts about an hour), and so far, my back and ankles have been better. I try to remember to take stretching breaks when I can, and I try not to let my breaks take too long, although I'm still struggling with that.
I'm also still using a trick to make myself get back to work--starting a large time duration monster on 4thewords.com just before going on break so that it forces me to get back to my computer to defeat the monster before time runs out. It worked really well today. My breaks are still a little on the long side, but I at least get back to work in good time, rather than letting other things distract me, like chores or reading (it amazes me how I'll so easily get distracted into doing house chores).
Even though I tend to write faster with shorter sprints, my sprints have been about an hour long for the past couple days. It forces me to take fewer breaks, because I've been having problems keeping my breaks short. So if I have fewer breaks, then I waste less time.
Also, I've been experimenting with what notes to leave for Future Camy when I'm sprinting, and hoping that it's not going to make me procrastinate when it's time to do the self-editing. The prose is still relatively clean, but I've been underlining words I want to change later but just don't want to look up right at that moment, and I think it's been helping me to write a little faster. Also, since I don't get into an editing or research mode, I've been able to stay in creative flow a bit better, I think (it's hard to tell).
So I suppose I'm managing the things I was struggling with earlier (like the self-editing, my back and ankle problems, etc.). But I still have tons of other things I'm struggling with that I'll have to try to troubleshoot.
For my gaming addiction, I found myself only doing a little when I was in the bathroom, so that tends to limit the amount of time I spend doing it. Hopefully that'll help solve my problem. If it gets really bad, I'm going to have to try to go cold turkey again.
I'm doing longer sprints to take fewer breaks, but I'm still struggling to make my breaks shorter. I just find too much to do when I'm taking a break--wash dishes, make tea, oh, and hey, the kitchen floor really needs mopping, and I should put in a load of laundry, and maybe I should water the yard today, etc. I stopped reading books during breaks because I can't get myself to stop after only 10 or 15 minutes. I have to think more on this. I might need to find some sort of trick to rest and reset my brain faster so that I can be ready to get back to work.
Blocking: Time spent: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 4 hours, 18 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 3569
Writing: Average speed: 1164 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 22 minutes
My takeaway for today: Everyone has their own issues they struggle with. They key is for me to figure out how to overcome my particular struggles.
I am hoping I have recovered from the gaming insanity of yesterday and will be able to fully focus on my work today. I feel a little like an addict--once I get started, it's hard for me to get myself to stop. I've never been chemically dependent on anything, but mentally I really felt the pull of gaming, maybe especially since I'd been away from it for a while.
I don't know if it's possible to be able to game moderately for me. My brain might just not be wired that way. In which case, I need to take steps to avoid it altogether.
I feel pretty pathetic. I don't know any other writers who have the same types of problems that I do. Many of them are so much more self-disciplined. One woman on a Facebook group mentioned that for her breaks, she reads just one chapter of a book, and another person was like, "Just one chapter????" (which is what I was thinking!) The woman said yes, because it motivates her to get more work done so she can read another chapter. There's no way I could do that. If the book is open, I'll just keep reading. I couldn't get myself to stop.
I suppose I need external sources to motivate me to be disciplined, because relying on my internal discipline gets me nowhere. I guess that's why many writers need to turn off the internet when they write. (I guess I'm not completely pathetic because the internet and social media has not been a struggling point for me. I can work with the internet on and it doesn't tempt me to check social media.)
I guess that proves that every writer has some area they struggle with, which is not necessarily the same thing I struggle with. So I just need to identify my struggling points and then figure out a way to work around them.
***
Drugs are so nice!
The headache eventually went away and I was able to get down to work. Unfortunately, after the headache left me, I started getting intermittent IBS issues.
I was rather shocked to look at my time log for today. I didn't realize I had worked so long. My actual writing time was 4 hours, and I did blocking for about 2 hours, so it wasn't only writing the entire time, but I'm very pleased that I got up to 6 hours of writing work done today.
I'm especially impressed because for the last hour or so of writing, my IBS was flaring up a quite a lot so I was uncomfortable in short spurts and had to take breaks. Despite the IBS, my average writing pace for the day wasn't bad, either, even though for my first two writing sprints, I was kind of lollygagging around and not even trying to have a good writing pace.
I also checked social media, but I forgot to log that time so my writing-related business time looks very short.
I'm still switching work stations for every sprint (which lasts about an hour), and so far, my back and ankles have been better. I try to remember to take stretching breaks when I can, and I try not to let my breaks take too long, although I'm still struggling with that.
I'm also still using a trick to make myself get back to work--starting a large time duration monster on 4thewords.com just before going on break so that it forces me to get back to my computer to defeat the monster before time runs out. It worked really well today. My breaks are still a little on the long side, but I at least get back to work in good time, rather than letting other things distract me, like chores or reading (it amazes me how I'll so easily get distracted into doing house chores).
Even though I tend to write faster with shorter sprints, my sprints have been about an hour long for the past couple days. It forces me to take fewer breaks, because I've been having problems keeping my breaks short. So if I have fewer breaks, then I waste less time.
Also, I've been experimenting with what notes to leave for Future Camy when I'm sprinting, and hoping that it's not going to make me procrastinate when it's time to do the self-editing. The prose is still relatively clean, but I've been underlining words I want to change later but just don't want to look up right at that moment, and I think it's been helping me to write a little faster. Also, since I don't get into an editing or research mode, I've been able to stay in creative flow a bit better, I think (it's hard to tell).
So I suppose I'm managing the things I was struggling with earlier (like the self-editing, my back and ankle problems, etc.). But I still have tons of other things I'm struggling with that I'll have to try to troubleshoot.
For my gaming addiction, I found myself only doing a little when I was in the bathroom, so that tends to limit the amount of time I spend doing it. Hopefully that'll help solve my problem. If it gets really bad, I'm going to have to try to go cold turkey again.
I'm doing longer sprints to take fewer breaks, but I'm still struggling to make my breaks shorter. I just find too much to do when I'm taking a break--wash dishes, make tea, oh, and hey, the kitchen floor really needs mopping, and I should put in a load of laundry, and maybe I should water the yard today, etc. I stopped reading books during breaks because I can't get myself to stop after only 10 or 15 minutes. I have to think more on this. I might need to find some sort of trick to rest and reset my brain faster so that I can be ready to get back to work.
Blocking: Time spent: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 4 hours, 18 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 3569
Writing: Average speed: 1164 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 22 minutes
My takeaway for today: Everyone has their own issues they struggle with. They key is for me to figure out how to overcome my particular struggles.
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