Day 134: Some productivity ideas
Yesterday I did my evaluation, and I also did some brainstorming for my next writing project, which will be a Romantic Suspense series set in Hawaii. The brainstorming is always fun, but even moreso in 4thewords.com, since I get to defeat monsters!
Today I'll continue working on my Reader Magnet novella. Ugh, I still haven't come up with a name for it.
During my walk I listened to a 6-Figure Authors podcast about productivity! How appropriate!
Apparently Jo also likes to use external sources--an app that also has a corresponding website--for his productivity. He uses Habitica to create daily goals for himself and he checks them off each day to create streaks. If he's had a streak of writing everyday for 15 days, he's more likely to push himself to write even if he doesn't feel like it because he doesn't want to break his streak. Before I started using 4thewords, I was using a website called Writing Streak which also records your writing streaks. (But 4thewords was more appealing to me, because, well, MONSTERS!)
Lindsay also talked about accountability partners, such as posting in a critique group or a critique website and getting to know the people who critique you, who help keep you accountable and writing.
That comment made me consider how the social aspect of writing can help improve productivity. I remembered a website I had tried called Word Sprints by MyWriteClub, in which you can write and sprint along with other people online. I don't know if they had this before, but now you can participate in a chat with the people you're sprinting with, which seems kind of fun, especially if you get to know certain people you sprint with.
I've also found CoffeeQuills on Twitch who does writing sprints, and there will be more writing sprints on Twitch with NaNoWriMo this year. I think those could be fun to have people to sprint with so that the writing can be more social.
Since I write full-time, I want to be able to motivate myself even if there isn't anyone online to sprint with. The Writer’s Block Discord group has a Sprint room where you can use their timer and sprint even if it's just yourself, but often there are people who end up joining you to sprint. Even without people joining me, it's fun to use the Discord timer to time myself, and if someone joins me, it gets a little more fun.
Anyway, I took longer than I expected doing email, so I'll get to work now.
***
I decided to try dictation again on my writing today, so I started a monster in 4thewords, then dictated into Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I copied and pasted the words into the website after I finished the scene.
My writing speed was decent, 1500 words an hour, even though my dictation was terribly slow and rough going. I think I have difficulty dictating without seeing the words on the screen, but if I look at the screen, it's distracting since it takes a few seconds for Dragon to transcribe, and then I see the errors it made.
Still, I'd really like to make dictation work. I'm too self-conscious when I go out walking to dictate, but I wonder if I could do it while walking around the backyard?
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 51 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1888
Writing: Average speed: 1510 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 3 hours, 9 minutes
My takeaway for today: I'll need to work on the dictation and hopefully it'll get easier.
Today I'll continue working on my Reader Magnet novella. Ugh, I still haven't come up with a name for it.
During my walk I listened to a 6-Figure Authors podcast about productivity! How appropriate!
Apparently Jo also likes to use external sources--an app that also has a corresponding website--for his productivity. He uses Habitica to create daily goals for himself and he checks them off each day to create streaks. If he's had a streak of writing everyday for 15 days, he's more likely to push himself to write even if he doesn't feel like it because he doesn't want to break his streak. Before I started using 4thewords, I was using a website called Writing Streak which also records your writing streaks. (But 4thewords was more appealing to me, because, well, MONSTERS!)
Lindsay also talked about accountability partners, such as posting in a critique group or a critique website and getting to know the people who critique you, who help keep you accountable and writing.
That comment made me consider how the social aspect of writing can help improve productivity. I remembered a website I had tried called Word Sprints by MyWriteClub, in which you can write and sprint along with other people online. I don't know if they had this before, but now you can participate in a chat with the people you're sprinting with, which seems kind of fun, especially if you get to know certain people you sprint with.
I've also found CoffeeQuills on Twitch who does writing sprints, and there will be more writing sprints on Twitch with NaNoWriMo this year. I think those could be fun to have people to sprint with so that the writing can be more social.
Since I write full-time, I want to be able to motivate myself even if there isn't anyone online to sprint with. The Writer’s Block Discord group has a Sprint room where you can use their timer and sprint even if it's just yourself, but often there are people who end up joining you to sprint. Even without people joining me, it's fun to use the Discord timer to time myself, and if someone joins me, it gets a little more fun.
Anyway, I took longer than I expected doing email, so I'll get to work now.
***
I decided to try dictation again on my writing today, so I started a monster in 4thewords, then dictated into Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I copied and pasted the words into the website after I finished the scene.
My writing speed was decent, 1500 words an hour, even though my dictation was terribly slow and rough going. I think I have difficulty dictating without seeing the words on the screen, but if I look at the screen, it's distracting since it takes a few seconds for Dragon to transcribe, and then I see the errors it made.
Still, I'd really like to make dictation work. I'm too self-conscious when I go out walking to dictate, but I wonder if I could do it while walking around the backyard?
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 51 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1888
Writing: Average speed: 1510 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 3 hours, 9 minutes
My takeaway for today: I'll need to work on the dictation and hopefully it'll get easier.
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