Camy's Writing Diary

My back feels a little better right now than it did yesterday, so hopefully it’ll stay that way throughout the day. I checked my email earlier today before starting work, but I forgot to start my Toggl timer so I don’t know how long that took. I also managed to get my house chores out of the way, so I’ve cleared the decks , and can now focus on my work for the rest of the day. I’ve got two scenes that need to be self-edited since I didn’t do editing yesterday, so I’ll set a timer and do a couple editing sprints. If I don’t finish the scenes in an hour, I’ll stop anyway and get to writing. That way I’ll get both editing and writing done, without the editing piling up too much. *** I ran into an interesting problem while writing a scene. I had a fight to write, and originally I just left a note for myself to do research and watch a fight to write the scene. I then tried to move on to continue writing the scene, but when I checked my blocking notes, I realized that the point of vi...

I did only marketing stuff on Saturday. I checked in on the promotional Facebook reader group for the multi-author box set I'm in, and I wrote blog posts for the next week. I also wrote drafts for the emails I need to send out to my newsletter subscribers about my book releasing on February 10th, and then I wrote out drafts of emails I will need to send to my Street Team next week. On this coming Saturday, I'll publish the paperback version of my book and then set up the ebook for going live with pre-orders on the 3rd, I think. I didn't do any writing work on Sunday, but yesterday, I had a bad IBS flare-up and took a sick day. I'm still not feeling great today, but I want to get some work done. *** I wanted to get writing done even though I still have editing to do for the previous scene. So I skipped the editing for now and started work on the next scene. I did 25 minute sprints. For some reason my back is bothering me more today, so I stood up and walked aroun...

I am running in an old problem I've always had, which is to not get to bed on time. It doesn't help that my husband also has the same problem, and we were perpetually sleep-deprived when we were both working full-time outside the home. Now that I can start my day whenever I want, I am not sleep-deprived, but my day starts later, and it starts even later than usual when I stay up late, like I did last night. I really need more self-discipline to get to bed on time. I know that habits form with triggers, so maybe I can adjust the trigger. I usually stay up late reading a book or listening to an audiobook or watching Netflix. Maybe I can shower early and do those things in bed. Then I can maybe set an alarm to go to bed, and since I'm already in bed, that makes it the path of least resistance to go to sleep. I think I will try that tonight. I was actually very productive once I got up and cleared the decks before starting work. I finished editing the scene I completed yest...

I've been pretty disciplined today so far, which feels pretty good! I cleared the decks right away. I didn’t want to get sucked into Facebook but I had to do some things today--some marketing commitments for the multi-author anthology I'm in. So I spent more time on Facebook than I would have otherwise (at least, I hope more than I would have otherwise, assuming I wasn't procrastinating) but I kept it down to about an hour total for email and Facebook, and I got done the marketing things I had to do. Since I did all my editing yesterday, I don't have any editing to do today--just the scene I'm still working on. I tend to like to self-edit entire scenes rather than only partially editing the scene, then continuing to write it. There have been times I've cut huge chunks of a scene that I'd already spent time editing, so it's more efficient if I wait until the scene is done.  Many writing books and articles suggest not self-editing until you complet...

UGH I totally got distracted! I was doing so well when I got up this morning, too! Then just before starting work, I got distracted doing a blogging project and wasted almost 45 minutes! I will do some house chores, then I'll start editing the scenes I have backed up in the book. I think I have 3 scenes that are only rough drafts and I'll need to self-edit them. If I wait to long before I self-edit, I'll start to procrastinate doing the editing. *** WOW it took a long time to edit those three scenes. They weren't very messy, either, but I guess editing just takes more time than I expect it to. I also got distracted AGAIN with more blogging stuff, even after railing about it earlier. There was just something in my brain that wanted to finish the blog post. I suppose I just didn't want to leave it unfinished. Well, now it's done and I have the feeling of accomplishment from having finished something. Maybe that's why I couldn't stop working on it? ...

I woke up a little late again today but not as bad as yesterday, and I don't feel as tired today as I did yesterday, so I'm hopeful I can get more work done today. Unfortunately, I did check email and Facebook after walking. I had wanted to get to writing after walking but I had gotten a blogging idea while I was out, so I wrote my blog post, but then I logged into Facebook to post it on my page and ended up checking my messages there. I also had a reminder to send an email to my graphic designer, so when I went to do that I ended up checking email, too. The total amount of time was only about 40 minutes, but I do feel a bit guilty that I checked my email before I started working today. I want to make sure I write today after not writing much yesterday, so I'm going to start with writing and hopefully self-edit later in the day. *** I did some writing, and realized something that should have been obvious. I've been doing 20 minute sprints today, and taking 5 min...

I woke up late today, so even though it's only been a couple hours since I woke up, it feels like it's late in the workday, and I haven't gotten any work done yet. I was re-listening to the audiobook for 5,000 Words Per Hour , and I also just bought the ebook and audiobook for Lifelong Writing Habit: The Secret to Writing Every Day and I started listening to that. He talks about waking up early, and while I know that's not true for everyone, I wonder if maybe I should shift my waking schedule earlier so that I don't have this "late in the day and I haven't gotten work done yet" feeling. I know I can work after dinner, but according to my writing time log, when I work closer to my waking time, my writing speed tends to be a little bit faster. Also, in Lifelong Writing Habit, the author talked about how your willpower is like the HP bar in a video game, and suddenly I could totally understand that. While I've read Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways t...

Wow I had a busy day. I got some emails last night with some things I had to do for marketing for a multi-author anthology I'm participating in, so I ended up getting back on Facebook today after weeks away in order to sift through my notifications and get some stuff done. I really don't like Facebook. I think because it's so BUSY. There are tons of stuff on the newsfeed on the front page, and the notifications are terrible--I was getting a notification for something a week old before I got a notification for something from a few minutes ago. I went to the private group for the multi-author anthology to scroll through posts and try to figure out what I missed and what I needed to do. The reason I dislike Facebook is because I have to scroll and click like crazy to make sure I see all the posts AND all the replies to the post, and sometimes someone replies but there's no visual notification. Email is so much easier because I get a new email whenever someone replies. ...

I decided to relisten to the audiobook of Chris Fox's book, 5,000 Words Per Hour , which I've found inspiring and motivational. Today was no exception. The book reminded me of the power of using sprints to force you to pound out words and eliminate the internal editor, especially in light of the story he tells about how he would write in micro-sprints of 1-2 minutes in between customer service calls when he was working as a customer service rep. With only a minute or two to write, he learned to mute the editor because of the short time period he had to get his words in before the next call. That mindset of getting words done in a short time period reminded me of how I used to do sprints a lot before, but I'd stopped doing it because every break would set me back. I'll be honest, breaks still set me back, they are my Achilles heel. It is difficult for me to dive back into writing after a break. It's easier when I start work at the beginning of my writing day than t...

After another week of low productivity, I’m back! On January 8th and 9th, I got about 40 minutes of writing done each day, but then Monday I came down with something else (or maybe it was a continuation of whatever I had on the 7th), so I took it easy on Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m feeling better today and I’m going to try to get more work done. I was looking over some old writing blog entries and remembered how I felt a lot of guilt and shame at how my health was sidelining my writing. I had forgotten about that because my health had been pretty good for a couple months after that bout of sick days. I have to remember that there’s no shame in low productivity when I’m feeling sick. This entire writing diary is an experiment in learning how to be productive within the constraints of my regular life. Writers who have both kids and health problems (and I know several of them) have figured out how to still crank out books despite the constraints of their lives, so I should be able to...

Right as my allergies improved and my sinus headaches started to go away, I started feeling like I was coming down with a cold. I feel like I just can't win. So today I'm bundled up and drinking lemon ginger tea, and I'll see if I can get some work done despite feeling like a truck ran over me. At least my headaches went away (knock on wood). Since I haven't been on Facebook, I haven't kept up with the multi-author box set I committed to and I have to finish my story blurb, so I'll work on that first. Then I'll get to work on writing volume 3 of my series. As I mentioned yesterday, the thought of needing to do dictation for my writing made me reluctant to get to work, so instead I'll be doing my work on one of the platforms I enjoy using, typing in 4thewords.com . Right now, I just want to get work done no matter how it gets done, and since dictation takes more energy than I've got lately, I'll just default to typing in my writing game. *...

I'm back, after two weeks of health problems (over a month of physical and mental health problems if you ignore the FIVE days I did work in December). I took a break around Christmas, but then my allergies started acting up and I had bad sinus headaches for almost two weeks. I'm feeling better now, but my body is still dragging so I'm easing back into work. Since my health has taken a nosedive lately, I decided to back off on marketing , since that takes the most energy out of me. I haven't planned for a January newsletter, and I haven't been on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Goodreads in several weeks. It's just too difficult to climb online to post and to respond to readers when I'm feeling poorly. I'm not sure how that will impact my writing career, but I'm beginning to realize that my default mode , especially when I'm not feeling 100%, is no social media. I fought against it for a while, especially when I was reading so many marketin...