Day 135: Being motivated to write even when I feel blah

-
I was blocking the next scene in my Reader Magnet when I realized that the scene I wrote yesterday had timeline issues. It would affect the next scene so I decided to go back to edit it. But now I'm mired in logic problems and it's frustrating! I hate it when I've plotted something and then realized it's illogical!

My IBS also flared up unexpectedly. It's made it difficult to work today, but I started a long-word-count monster on 4thewords.com that I want to finish. There's nothing like a game to make me get to work!

***

I've been lallygagging around a lot today, maybe because the IBS has got me feeling uncomfortable and blah. I feel guilty for being unproductive, but maybe I just need to call it a day and go to sleep.

***

I was intending to go to sleep early, but then I finished the monster I had going, and then I only needed 3 small monsters to finish a quest, so I did that, and then I was on a roll with the writing. I ended up finishing another monster, this time writing on the Alphasmart and then sending it into the 4thewords website. It’s amazing what the right external stimulus can do for my productivity, even when I’m feeling blah!

However, I stopped writing to research something for the book, which is why my words per hour rate is so low. Next time I have to stop myself before I do that. Otherwise I think my writing pace would have been pretty good.

Blocking: Time spent: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Editing: Time spent: 2 hours, 43 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 59 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1748
Writing: Average speed: 895 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: I forgot to set my Toggl timer so I don’t have this data today

My takeaway for today: I have to learn to stop myself from researching something. I have to remind myself that it won’t hurt (much) to write it one way and change it later.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 783: Evaluation 7

-
It’s been almost seven months since I wrote my last Evaluation 6 , but I finally got around to Evaluation #7! Here’s the gist of what I’ve learned over the past few months about my writing and productivity. New schedule My IBS was slowly been starting to feel better recently. I am still extremely strict with my diet, but I am also starting to experiment with what foods I can and can’t eat. I have also started a new eating and sleeping schedule, which I have dubbed my “chrono-diet” because I’m trying to take advantage of my circadian rhythm, according to the book Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life (I had borrowed a copy from the library but I enjoyed it so much I went ahead and bought it). I have started waking up at 6 am and exercising first thing, then having breakfast after exercise. I do house chores and/or work until noon, which is when I eat lunch. I’m supposed to not eat until dinner around 5:30 or 6, but I haven’t been able to break the habit of snacking in the aftern...
Read more

Day 252: Evaluation 5

-
It’s been a while since I’ve done an evaluation, so I figured I was overdue. In no particular order: Good health = good work I had some really bad health issues lately that kept me from writing entirely. However, I found it strange that I’ve been feeling very creative and motivated yesterday and today, despite getting in a lot of work hours yesterday. I think it’s because I haven’t had any IBS issues for the first time in a couple weeks. Not even a little discomfort. This is kind of duh! in hindsight, but I think I underestimated how much my IBS was affecting my energy levels. I’ve been careful about what I ate, but I was also trying to figure out exactly what I could and couldn’t eat, so it resulted in some bad IBS bouts. So now I know I really need to be strict about what I’m putting in my mouth so that my health doesn’t adversely affect my energy for work! Sprints Another sort of duh! moment in hindsight, but sprints have been helping me with my productivity. At f...
Read more

Day 21: Bullet journal, Surrender statement

-
Today was my writing Sabbath so I didn’t do any writing today, but I spent a lot of time doing writing-related things. I did some blogging, and I also reviewed my writing To Do list. I cleaned it up by checking off what’s been done, deleting what I no longer need to do, and making note of what I need to do this coming week. Before I started bullet journaling (in an electronic journal app, Day One Journal ), I had my To Do lists in a couple different places and I’d usually forget things I needed to do. Now I have them in my bullet journal, which combines journaling with task organizer, and I’m less likely to forget. I still set reminders for myself in my phone, but since I’m using my journal throughout the day every day, I’m more likely to see things I need to do. I found some of my old To Do lists today and incorporated some things in my bullet journal. One of them was my writing Surrender Statement, which is a prayer I pray before starting each day’s work. What’s a Surrender Sta...
Read more