Day 179: Happy Thanksgiving!

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I got up really, really late today and also wasted a lot of time goofing around, because it's Thanksgiving. :) I also spent a lot of time cooking, because it's Thanksgiving. :)

I had forgotten to post my blog post yesterday so I did it just now.

I want to do a little writing each day, but writing when I'm also blocking the same book has become problematic for me since I'm writing an earlier scene but I've blocked several scenes ahead and I forget what has and hasn't happened yet. So I decided it might be better to do a little writing on my side novel, which I have decided to title The Spinster Spy.

(It used to be called my serial novel because it's going to be posted on my blog, serial novel style, for marketing, but I've been calling my main series an epic serial novel, since each volume ends on a cliffhanger, so I'll be calling this my side novel. It's also why I decided on the title so early, since I dislike simply referring to it as the side novel.)

The reason I can use The Spinster Spy for a little writing everyday is because the Snowflake step 6 (expanded synopsis) I did for the book is a little more detailed than my normal synopses. For one thing, the synopsis is already broken up into scenes, and while the scenes aren't blocked, some of them are detailed enough that I may not need blocking to start writing them.

I took out The Spinster Spy since I haven't written in it in a while. Earlier I had been doing dictation exercises and using the Spinster Spy outline to write some scenes. I think I'll start by editing what I wrote with dictation (which is very messy, especially since I was mainly doing exercises). Then everyday that I'm doing the blocking for volume 3, I can do about 30 minutes of writing on the Spinster Spy, just so that my writing doesn't get rusty.

***

I guess I should have expected this, but because of cooking, I didn't get to work before dinner. After dinner (which was delicious), I had some IBS issues, so I couldn't get to work right away, but when I did, I got my 30 minutes of writing done. I was editing The Spinster Spy, but the first scene is such a mess (because it was written with a dictation exercise) that I ended up pretty much rewriting stuff entirely. I only got a few paragraphs done before my 30 minute timer went off.

It's now past midnight and I'm feeling a bit tired, especially because of the IBS problems I had, so I think I'll just go to bed early and start fresh tomorrow.

Blocking: time spent: 0

Editing: Time spent: 32 minutes

Writing: Time spent: 0

Writing: Total number of words: 0

Writing: Average speed: 0

Days I have been working on this book: 18 days (since November 9th)

Time spent doing other writing-related business: (I forgot to start my Toggl timer when I started checking email and social media)

My takeaway for today: From the little I did today, it might work out well to do a little writing on The Spinster Spy while I do the blocking on volume 3.

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