Day 149: The Reader Magnet is done!
Woke up late today, and then got a late start on work since I had a bunch of house chores to do. However I think I can finish The Gentleman Thief today, since I only have 2 scenes to write.
I have 8 scenes to edit, not including the two scenes I have to write today, and I don’t think the editing will take too long. I’ll have to see.
Once I finish The Gentleman Thief, I’ll be able to start editing volume 1 in my series. I had done some editing on it earlier this year, but now that I’ve plotted the entire series (which changed some things) and almost completed the prequel Reader Magnet (which changed even more things), I’ll have to do another complete self-editing pass to make sure things are consistent.
I’m continuing both my cycling experiment and my procrastination management techniques, so I’ll start by editing what I wrote yesterday (which is going to take a really long time since I wrote a lot yesterday), and then when I start writing the last two scenes, I’ll continue to try out the techniques to limit my procrastination.
Regarding the procrastination techniques: One of my techniques is listening to an audiobook during my break to refill the creative well, but I was reading that sometimes reading and media consumption tires you out mentally, and so you shouldn’t do it before writing.
I can kind of see the point, but I also think everyone is different. That might be true for other people, but I don’t know if that’s true for me or not.
So I’ll be doing that for this procrastination experiment to see how I feel after listening to audiobooks in between my writing sessions. It could be that the article is right and I’ll be more mentally drained after consuming more stories, but it could also be that for me, reading/listening to audiobooks helps refresh me mentally. I don’t know. I’ll hopefully find out.
That’s the whole point of this writing blog, though, isn’t it? To try different experiments to see what works for me, which may or may not be what works for other people.
Thank God my IBS has been under control the past few days! However, now that the weather is turning colder, I have to make sure I drink enough water during the day. It’s really easy to forget when I’m working.
***
I spent about 2 hours editing but didn’t finish. However, I want to get to those scenes today so I decided to leave the last bit of editing and work in the writing for a little while. (Or maybe I just want to eat SNACKS and that’s making me go write? Who knows? But if it makes me work, why not?)
***
The Gentleman Thief is done! Yay! It didn’t take very long at all to do the writing of the last two scenes because they were very short.
Yesterday, while it felt nice to type on my gaming keyboard attached to my iPad mini, I found myself editing more because I could navigate the screen more easily than on an Alphasmart. So today I decided to write using my Alphasmart, even though the typing is sometimes frustrating when I start to type really fast.
However, when I inputted my words and the start and end times, I was shocked at how quickly I wrote today. Granted, it was a short sprint—37 minutes—but I wrote 1079 words, for a speed of 1750 words per hour.
So I guess I'll continue writing on my Alphasmart, or else I have to find a way to write on my iPad mini where it will either be too difficult to navigate, or I have to do something to help me remember not to edit as I write.
It’s about time for my walk, so I’ll listen to an audiobook and unwind. Then I can get back to editing the rest of the chapters in this book.
I could start work on editing volume 1 in the series after that, but I think I’ll take a break and celebrate finishing the book. It ended up being a little longer than I had planned, 36k instead of 30k words.
Usually, Reader Magnets are supposed to be shorter works so that people can read them quickly, but I didn’t want to truncate the plot just to make it shorter. Also, I think people might feel they got good value for their email address to get a longer novella in exchange. Well, I know I would, anyway.
I’ll get started on editing volume 1 in my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series tomorrow. I also don’t want to stop my momentum in writing, so I might also start writing volume 3 in the series, and split my day between the two books.
Since I didn’t write for very long, I didn’t implement many of my procrastination management techniques today. I’ll have to continue to work on those in future.
***
Ugh I was very bad and didn't eat something before my walk, so I came back with low blood sugar and my limbs feel like lead. I think I'll eat an early dinner (it's leftover night anyway) and hopefully I'll feel better afterward so that I can finish editing The Gentleman Thief.
***
I finished doing all my self-editing on The Gentleman Thief! Yay! The book is done!
Even though most writing books and articles say to leave a rough draft alone for a while before doing the self-editing on it, I found through this cycling experiment that doing it the next day (or a few days later) works best for me. I don’t have that irrational resistance to doing the self-editing when I do it so recently after I wrote it. For other people who don’t have my crazy attitude about self-editing, they probably don’t need to do the cycling and can set the piece aside for a few weeks before doing the editing.
I am hoping I can do the self-editing on volume 1 without too much trouble, but I am determined to get the book ready soon, so that determination might punch through my self-editing issue.
Editing: Time spent: 2 hours, 47 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 37 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1079 words
Writing: Average speed: 1750 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 6 minutes
My takeaway for today: The cycling seems to work best for helping me do the self-editing without procrastination.
I have 8 scenes to edit, not including the two scenes I have to write today, and I don’t think the editing will take too long. I’ll have to see.
Once I finish The Gentleman Thief, I’ll be able to start editing volume 1 in my series. I had done some editing on it earlier this year, but now that I’ve plotted the entire series (which changed some things) and almost completed the prequel Reader Magnet (which changed even more things), I’ll have to do another complete self-editing pass to make sure things are consistent.
I’m continuing both my cycling experiment and my procrastination management techniques, so I’ll start by editing what I wrote yesterday (which is going to take a really long time since I wrote a lot yesterday), and then when I start writing the last two scenes, I’ll continue to try out the techniques to limit my procrastination.
Regarding the procrastination techniques: One of my techniques is listening to an audiobook during my break to refill the creative well, but I was reading that sometimes reading and media consumption tires you out mentally, and so you shouldn’t do it before writing.
I can kind of see the point, but I also think everyone is different. That might be true for other people, but I don’t know if that’s true for me or not.
So I’ll be doing that for this procrastination experiment to see how I feel after listening to audiobooks in between my writing sessions. It could be that the article is right and I’ll be more mentally drained after consuming more stories, but it could also be that for me, reading/listening to audiobooks helps refresh me mentally. I don’t know. I’ll hopefully find out.
That’s the whole point of this writing blog, though, isn’t it? To try different experiments to see what works for me, which may or may not be what works for other people.
Thank God my IBS has been under control the past few days! However, now that the weather is turning colder, I have to make sure I drink enough water during the day. It’s really easy to forget when I’m working.
***
I spent about 2 hours editing but didn’t finish. However, I want to get to those scenes today so I decided to leave the last bit of editing and work in the writing for a little while. (Or maybe I just want to eat SNACKS and that’s making me go write? Who knows? But if it makes me work, why not?)
***
The Gentleman Thief is done! Yay! It didn’t take very long at all to do the writing of the last two scenes because they were very short.
Yesterday, while it felt nice to type on my gaming keyboard attached to my iPad mini, I found myself editing more because I could navigate the screen more easily than on an Alphasmart. So today I decided to write using my Alphasmart, even though the typing is sometimes frustrating when I start to type really fast.
However, when I inputted my words and the start and end times, I was shocked at how quickly I wrote today. Granted, it was a short sprint—37 minutes—but I wrote 1079 words, for a speed of 1750 words per hour.
So I guess I'll continue writing on my Alphasmart, or else I have to find a way to write on my iPad mini where it will either be too difficult to navigate, or I have to do something to help me remember not to edit as I write.
It’s about time for my walk, so I’ll listen to an audiobook and unwind. Then I can get back to editing the rest of the chapters in this book.
I could start work on editing volume 1 in the series after that, but I think I’ll take a break and celebrate finishing the book. It ended up being a little longer than I had planned, 36k instead of 30k words.
Usually, Reader Magnets are supposed to be shorter works so that people can read them quickly, but I didn’t want to truncate the plot just to make it shorter. Also, I think people might feel they got good value for their email address to get a longer novella in exchange. Well, I know I would, anyway.
I’ll get started on editing volume 1 in my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series tomorrow. I also don’t want to stop my momentum in writing, so I might also start writing volume 3 in the series, and split my day between the two books.
Since I didn’t write for very long, I didn’t implement many of my procrastination management techniques today. I’ll have to continue to work on those in future.
***
Ugh I was very bad and didn't eat something before my walk, so I came back with low blood sugar and my limbs feel like lead. I think I'll eat an early dinner (it's leftover night anyway) and hopefully I'll feel better afterward so that I can finish editing The Gentleman Thief.
***
I finished doing all my self-editing on The Gentleman Thief! Yay! The book is done!
Even though most writing books and articles say to leave a rough draft alone for a while before doing the self-editing on it, I found through this cycling experiment that doing it the next day (or a few days later) works best for me. I don’t have that irrational resistance to doing the self-editing when I do it so recently after I wrote it. For other people who don’t have my crazy attitude about self-editing, they probably don’t need to do the cycling and can set the piece aside for a few weeks before doing the editing.
I am hoping I can do the self-editing on volume 1 without too much trouble, but I am determined to get the book ready soon, so that determination might punch through my self-editing issue.
Editing: Time spent: 2 hours, 47 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 37 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1079 words
Writing: Average speed: 1750 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 6 minutes
My takeaway for today: The cycling seems to work best for helping me do the self-editing without procrastination.
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