Day 171: Very distracted

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I don't know why but I ended up checking email before breakfast! And of course that took an hour or so. I don't know why I sabotage myself this way. I should have just eaten and then gotten straight to work.

I'm getting to work a little earlier than usual, and I'll be diving right into writing today since I did the editing last night after my writing session. I'm going to see if I can write a little faster if I write first thing rather than doing the editing first thing, since the editing has been taking a long time, especially if I write a lot the day before.

I'm going to aim for a 3 hour session. I've been writing for about 90 minutes for the past week or so, so I don't want to try to aim for 4 or 5 hours right off the bat, and 3 hours will take me right to lunch.

I actually have to start off by blocking since I haven't blocked the next scene yet. I'll do that and then start writing it.

I decided to continue writing in 4thewords.com since it's more enjoyable that way. I'm also trying to consciously not edit as I go so that the writing will be faster.

***

I worked for only about 2 hours, and I ended up only getting the blocking done for the scene before lunch.

While my blocking is technically pre-writing, it's also a lot more like plotting since I have to make decisions about what happens and make sure there are good reasons for why. I also do some research if needed so that my plot isn't based off of erroneous information. So the blocking took longer than I had expected, but when I think about how it's more like plotting, then it makes more sense. I just hope it helps the writing go faster.

***

UGH I'm so easily distracted today! Well, except that I was distracted by stuff I have to do for my series. I contacted my proofreader about doing volume 2, and then I compiled the .docx file for her. I also registered the ISBNs for the ebook and print book so that I could include that in the file, and in order to do the ISBNs, I had to write the back cover copy, so I did that, too. So all that is done for volume 2.

I'm really glad I made that checklist of things to do when I was doing all this stuff for volume 1. I just checked all those things off the list for volume 2, and the list tells me exactly what I still need to do later.

Now I really have to get writing! I think I will use my Freewrite Traveler and see how it goes.

***

I actually tried hooking up my gaming keyboard to my Freewrite Traveler to see how that went. While the typing experience was better, it was still difficult with the lag between my typing and seeing the words on the screen. In fact, it might have been a little worse because I tend to type a little faster on my gaming keyboard than on the Traveler keyboard.

So I switched back to using my gaming keyboard with my iPad. I got some writing done, but my back was bothering me, and it’s really difficult to write when I’m feeling uncomfortable. Also I’m very tired for some reason.

So after yawning wide enough to crack my jaw, I decided to throw in the towel and go to bed early. I’ll try to work more tomorrow.

Blocking: time spent: 2 hours, 26 minutes
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 1 minute
Writing: Total number of words: 404 words
Writing: Average speed: 497 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 56 minutes

My takeaway for today: Hooking up my gaming keyboard to my Freewrite Traveler doesn’t help since I type even faster on my gaming keyboard than the Traveler keyboard

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