Day 150: Self-editing procrastination!
Maybe because I finished The Gentleman Thief yesterday, I’m moving a bit more slowly today. I had a bunch of home chores to do, then I took my time making breakfast.
I think part of it is that I’m fighting the same old resistance to doing self-editing that I’ve fought before. I really don’t know why I’m like this.
But like the procrastination issue, God doesn’t require me to have it all together. Meaning, I don’t have to be perfect and be able to completely fix this self-editing issue in my brain, I simply have to manage it.
Unlike when I did the cycling experiment, the self-editing for volume 1 isn’t just a quick scene or two, it’ll be a significant commitment of time, which might be why I’m reluctant to start. The idea is daunting.
I thought about doing it in just 30 minute increments, which are easier to handle. However, while I can start and stop editing fairly easily, I don’t want to take too many breaks because I’m still struggling to keep my breaks short. I could end up editing for 30 minutes and then taking a 30-60 minute break while I get distracted by other things, or because I’m reluctant to start up again.
I think I need to approach it like my procrastination management system and decide to sit down to do it for 90 minutes at a stretch.
I thought about self-editing on a different medium. I know lots of writers who edit on hard copy and then input the changes into their computer later. The problem is that it’s an extra step, and I’m so resistant to self-editing that I don’t want to add another choke point for procrastination.
I think I will still try the reward system of snacks every milestone or so. Maybe every 20 or 30 minutes.
I was also planning to do the editing in 4thewords.com with a long time duration monster. It’s more fun for me that way, because I’ll be able to use my editing words to defeat the monster, but also it forces me to keep going and not take too long on my breaks, because I don’t want the monster’s time limit to run out.
The only problem is that if I don’t write as many words to defeat the monster, I will have to stop editing and do some writing in order to defeat it before the time runs out.
But I wanted to spend 80% of my time editing today, and only 20% writing. So I would have to carefully choose a long time duration monster so that I could do editing for at least 4-5 hours first, and then still have time to write for an extra hour or two to finish the monster.
But when I went to look at the monsters I could battle, it also occurred to me that maybe I can use an Endurance monster. There’s Viyusa (isn’t she actually kind of pretty and cute?), who is a 25 minute Endurance monster. There’s no word requirement, you simply have to keep writing—or in my case, working on the piece and deleting/adding—for the time limit. If I load my battle list with three of them, and have it automatically start the next Viyusa when I finish one, that might keep me working for 75 minutes without stopping. I could also add a Viyu Endurance monster, who is 15 minutes, to the end of my battle list and have a full 90 minutes planned.
So I think I might try Endurance monsters to see how that works. If it doesn’t, there are several long word count monsters I can try.
I will also try the audiobook during my breaks to see if that helps keep them to a minimum, and my positive self-talk to try to get me to get back to work.
Okay, now I have a game plan. And yes, I did procrastinate by blogging, but at least it was productive procrastination since I came up with things to try to get myself to stop procrastinating this self-editing, right???
***
I realized why I was so distracted this morning, and it was kind of a “Duh!” moment for me. I’m baking bread today and so I have timers going off every 30 minutes, at least until my bulk rise.
Instead of trying to power through it, I think I’ll just make lunch.
***
I got back to editing after lunch, but unfortunately the Endurance monster didn’t work very well. I simply don’t type enough while editing to keep my “word health” in good shape and out of the red zone. Luckily, I had tried it first with a 3-minute Endurance monster, and I nearly lost because I wasn’t writing enough.
I decided to try a long time duration monster instead, a Shepherd. He’s 1000 words in 4 hours.
***
Talk about massive procrastination! I don’t understand why I’m like this! I actually really like this story so why can’t I just get to work???
For volume 3, I am TOTALLY doing the cycling thing so I don’t have to deal with this!!!
***
Today is turning out to be a totally awful work day. I’m baking bread, which is distracting since there are so many small steps. They only take a couple minutes each, but they’re between 30 and 60 minutes apart.
But even when I have at least 60 minutes before I have to take care of the bread again, I found myself procrastinating in the worst way. Checking social media (thank God that my writer friends aren’t very chatty today), shopping for items I don’t really need (a bread lame). Aargh!
It’s a good thing I already started my Shepherd monster in 4thewords, because the time pressure is driving me back to my manuscript when I’d otherwise be surfing the net.
***
I managed to get another hour of editing done. I realized another reason why I might be procrastinating. The self-edits are difficult for me already, but my workstation is not ideal for doing work with my mouse, and that just compounds my reluctance to get started.
I’m not saying I absolutely need my workstation to be perfect before I can work, but having it not be comfortable doesn’t help me any. I think I have to try a different setup to see if that will be more comfortable.
***
I did some more editing after dinner, but I’m mentally feeling drained and tired. Which is kind of ridiculous since I didn’t do nearly as much editing today as I should have.
While I realize the house chores were distracting, I can’t not do them. And I can’t afford to take the entire day off work just because I’m doing house chores that really only take a few minutes every hour or so.
And it wasn’t only the house chores. I could have done some editing in between, but just didn’t for some reason. Why not? I don’t know. It should have been a perfect opportunity to do little bits of editing in between house chores.
I guess I’ll try to figure out something tomorrow.
Editing: Time spent: 2 hours, 58 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 0 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 0 words
Writing: Average speed: 0 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 33 minutes
My takeaway for today: I need to figure out how to make myself do the self-editing and not procrastinate.
I think part of it is that I’m fighting the same old resistance to doing self-editing that I’ve fought before. I really don’t know why I’m like this.
But like the procrastination issue, God doesn’t require me to have it all together. Meaning, I don’t have to be perfect and be able to completely fix this self-editing issue in my brain, I simply have to manage it.
Unlike when I did the cycling experiment, the self-editing for volume 1 isn’t just a quick scene or two, it’ll be a significant commitment of time, which might be why I’m reluctant to start. The idea is daunting.
I thought about doing it in just 30 minute increments, which are easier to handle. However, while I can start and stop editing fairly easily, I don’t want to take too many breaks because I’m still struggling to keep my breaks short. I could end up editing for 30 minutes and then taking a 30-60 minute break while I get distracted by other things, or because I’m reluctant to start up again.
I think I need to approach it like my procrastination management system and decide to sit down to do it for 90 minutes at a stretch.
I thought about self-editing on a different medium. I know lots of writers who edit on hard copy and then input the changes into their computer later. The problem is that it’s an extra step, and I’m so resistant to self-editing that I don’t want to add another choke point for procrastination.
I think I will still try the reward system of snacks every milestone or so. Maybe every 20 or 30 minutes.
I was also planning to do the editing in 4thewords.com with a long time duration monster. It’s more fun for me that way, because I’ll be able to use my editing words to defeat the monster, but also it forces me to keep going and not take too long on my breaks, because I don’t want the monster’s time limit to run out.
The only problem is that if I don’t write as many words to defeat the monster, I will have to stop editing and do some writing in order to defeat it before the time runs out.
But I wanted to spend 80% of my time editing today, and only 20% writing. So I would have to carefully choose a long time duration monster so that I could do editing for at least 4-5 hours first, and then still have time to write for an extra hour or two to finish the monster.
So I think I might try Endurance monsters to see how that works. If it doesn’t, there are several long word count monsters I can try.
I will also try the audiobook during my breaks to see if that helps keep them to a minimum, and my positive self-talk to try to get me to get back to work.
Okay, now I have a game plan. And yes, I did procrastinate by blogging, but at least it was productive procrastination since I came up with things to try to get myself to stop procrastinating this self-editing, right???
***
I realized why I was so distracted this morning, and it was kind of a “Duh!” moment for me. I’m baking bread today and so I have timers going off every 30 minutes, at least until my bulk rise.
Instead of trying to power through it, I think I’ll just make lunch.
***
I got back to editing after lunch, but unfortunately the Endurance monster didn’t work very well. I simply don’t type enough while editing to keep my “word health” in good shape and out of the red zone. Luckily, I had tried it first with a 3-minute Endurance monster, and I nearly lost because I wasn’t writing enough.
I decided to try a long time duration monster instead, a Shepherd. He’s 1000 words in 4 hours.
***
Talk about massive procrastination! I don’t understand why I’m like this! I actually really like this story so why can’t I just get to work???
For volume 3, I am TOTALLY doing the cycling thing so I don’t have to deal with this!!!
***
Today is turning out to be a totally awful work day. I’m baking bread, which is distracting since there are so many small steps. They only take a couple minutes each, but they’re between 30 and 60 minutes apart.
But even when I have at least 60 minutes before I have to take care of the bread again, I found myself procrastinating in the worst way. Checking social media (thank God that my writer friends aren’t very chatty today), shopping for items I don’t really need (a bread lame). Aargh!
It’s a good thing I already started my Shepherd monster in 4thewords, because the time pressure is driving me back to my manuscript when I’d otherwise be surfing the net.
***
I managed to get another hour of editing done. I realized another reason why I might be procrastinating. The self-edits are difficult for me already, but my workstation is not ideal for doing work with my mouse, and that just compounds my reluctance to get started.
I’m not saying I absolutely need my workstation to be perfect before I can work, but having it not be comfortable doesn’t help me any. I think I have to try a different setup to see if that will be more comfortable.
***
I did some more editing after dinner, but I’m mentally feeling drained and tired. Which is kind of ridiculous since I didn’t do nearly as much editing today as I should have.
While I realize the house chores were distracting, I can’t not do them. And I can’t afford to take the entire day off work just because I’m doing house chores that really only take a few minutes every hour or so.
And it wasn’t only the house chores. I could have done some editing in between, but just didn’t for some reason. Why not? I don’t know. It should have been a perfect opportunity to do little bits of editing in between house chores.
I guess I’ll try to figure out something tomorrow.
Editing: Time spent: 2 hours, 58 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 0 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 0 words
Writing: Average speed: 0 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 33 minutes
My takeaway for today: I need to figure out how to make myself do the self-editing and not procrastinate.
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