Camy's Writing Diary

I wanted to get writing done before I checked email, but I got notices (on my phone) that I had a couple urgent emails to answer, so I ended up taking care of those first. Getting phone notices about my email is my compromise, since I usually try not to do email or social media every day, because it distracts me from writing. If none of the emails are urgent, then I’ll skip checking email for the day. When I’m not doing a blog tour, I’ll only check social media on Saturdays. I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now, and so far, the system has worked well for me, and I’ve been able to focus on my writing much better than before. I also discovered some things in my KDP dashboard that needed to be done, which is strange because those items were checked off on my To Do list! I don’t understand! So I decided to do them since I had already gotten into marketing mode by checking my email. Unfortunately all those things took a long time, and so when I finally ate lunch, it had already ea...

I might have come up with a series premise yesterday, I’m not entirely sure. I’ll have to do more brainstorming today. I think I have all the characters, though, and I know how many books there will be in the series. I should visit the blogs on my blog tour today, but for the past several days, I’ve noticed that I don’t get back into work very easily when I do that. I think it’s best for me to focus on work first before I dive into social media, because otherwise I get distracted and a little stressed. I think the older I get, the more I find myself sticking my head in the sand when it comes to stress. If I don’t know about it, it doesn’t stress me out. So I avoid things that I know will cause me stress until I’ve finished my work and the stress won’t affect my writing productivity. Until the blog tour started, I was able to get away with avoiding social media completely except for weekends, but since I feel is should visit the blogs on my tour as it’s going on, I’ve had to incor...

I had originally intended to take a week to finish as much of the marketing stuff for book 3 as I could, but I finished all of it in a few days. I’ve been working on the marketing and self-publishing for other projects, mostly the marketing and promotion for the multi-author anthology I’m participating in. Since we don’t want to spend a lot of money, we’re doing more social media promotions, and my contribution has been blog posts and knitting projects to promote the book. The knitting projects have been fun, but time consuming. I’m knitting items that are featured in the novellas in the anthology, and I’ll be posting them on my blog along with author interviews and excerpts. I spent a lot of time today doing those knitting projects, but I didn’t start my Toggl timer because it didn’t really seem like writing-related work, to be working on knitting in anticipation of a blog post. Even though the blog posts will promote my writing and sales, it still seemed strange, so I didn’t re...

I actually got distracted after breakfast!!! Argh! Well, it wasn’t non-work related. I have a blog promotion I’ll be doing with the other authors in the multi-author anthology (which the next book I’m working on, The Wedding Kimono , will be in), and so I spent about 1.5 hours doing that. I also don’t feel so bad doing this because I had given myself a week after finishing book 3 to get other marketing stuff done (which this is), and I still have 3 more days. After lunch, I (deliberately this time) did more blogging and marketing for the anthology (mostly writing and scheduling blog posts in advance), which took another 2 hours. I also got the newsletter translation back from my translator, and so I did the final edits and scheduled for my two newsletters (Camy and Camille) to go out in March. And then my graphic designer got the interior of the Japanese Sushi for One back to me today, so I was able to upload it to Lightning Source. I also was surprised when my proofreader got ...

Now that book 3 is done, I decided to take a look at how long it took me to write the book and compare it to the other two books in the series. Totals: Lady Wynwood's Spies, volume 3 totals: Outlining: 8 hours, 41 minutes Blocking: 42 hours, 16 minutes Writing: 82 hours, 55 minutes Editing: 37 hours, 25 minutes Total word count: 83,844 (rough draft) Total hours: 171 hours, 17 minutes Lady Wynwood's Spies, volume 2 totals: Outlining: 26 hours, 13 minutes Blocking: 48 hours, 49 minutes Writing: 84 hours, 44 minutes Editing: 33 hours, 30 minutes Total word count: 86,449 Total hours: 193 hours, 16 minutes Lady Wynwood's Spies, volume 1 totals: Outlining: 153 hours, 48 minutes Blocking: 0 hours, 0 minutes Writing: 244 hours, 38 minutes Editing: 74 hours, 43 minutes Total word count: 108,572 Total hours: 473 hours, 9 minutes Book 1 took me extra long since I switched up the series premise in the middle of writing the book, and I ended up trashing most o...

WOW I got a lot of marketing and self-publishing work done today, too! I was finally able to do some of the marketing work for the Japanese version of Sushi for One. I uploaded it to ebook distributors earlier this week, but there’s still work to do to submit it to Lightning Source for the print version. There was an unexpected error in the interior .pdf file and so I had to ask my graphic designer to redo the conversion. Since the ebook is now live, and since I did so much marketing yesterday ahead of time for the launch for book 3, I decided to also do some marketing ahead of time for Sushi for One. I wrote my March newsletter (for my Camy mailing list) and sent it to my translator so she can have the Japanese text for me to add alongside the English. I also did an announcement blog post. Then I decided to do some marketing I’ve been putting off for a while. I finally posted on my blog about my Contemporary romance reader magnet, and then I changed the keywords for Weddings and...

Wow I did a lot of marketing today! Since I know that it causes me stress to have a lot to do for the release of a book, I decided to take the week right after finishing a manuscript to do as much marketing ahead of time as I could. After I send the manuscript to my proofreader, there isn’t much for me to do and I’m usually tired mentally and want a small break in between books, so this is a good time to get done marketing and self-publishing stuff that I don’t really like and would otherwise drag my feet about doing. Here’s what I did today: Finished editing the last 2 scenes of book 3 Sent book 3 to my proofreader Made a promo graphic on Canva for a recipe from book 2 that I scheduled to post on my blog Wrote and scheduled a few blogs relating to book 2, which released on Wednesday Added book 2 to my author profile on Bookbub Amazon finally listed the ebook version of book 2 on their associate website, so I got an associate link for Amazon, and put that up on my website ...

I have a problem in that I don’t know how to end the scene I’m working on, which is turning out to be the second to the last scene in the book. The last scene will be a short epilogue, so this scene needs to end well. It doesn’t help that I had an IBS flareup yesterday, which is making me tired today, and I’m also tired because I spent several hours making shumai today before starting work (because the shumai needs time to freeze before I steam them for dinner). Instead of writing right away, I think I will do some blocking of this scene and the next so that I know what I’m writing. I learned from the issues I had with the last couple scenes that if I don’t have good blocking (or if I decide to veer away from my original blocking notes), I need to redo the blocking first or else the writing will be that much harder. *** The blocking took a really long time, but I'm glad I did it because it made the writing go much more smoothly. I finished the book! Woohoo! Actually I st...

Only one scene left in the book! Woohoo! Back when I was trying to pants this book (and ended up writing 90k words and not yet getting to the 25% mark of the story plot) I wrote this scene in a slightly different format. In fact, I wrote it twice, altering it slightly the second time. But it didn’t matter because I didn’t use it the way I had intended. Now I hope to cut and paste some of it for this new scene, so in a sense I’ll be editing the scene rather than writing it new. I wonder if I should record it as editing rather than writing? Well, it’s mostly new writing, so I guess I’ll record it as writing, but I’ll make a note that I’m editing in old writing. Before I start the new scene, I’ll self-edit the scene I wrote yesterday. *** I editing the scene I finished yesterday and then started on the scene for today. It did end up being a lot of cut and paste, but also a lot of writing, and deciding how to piece together paragraphs from the old writing into the new scene in a ...

My back is bothering me a little again today. I’m really frustrated! I don’t want to be the type of writer where everything has to be perfect before I can work. But lately it’s been really hard to concentrate unless I’m absolutely comfortable—the least discomfort is too distracting. Well, I’m in the midst of some IBS issues, so maybe once that passes, I’ll have more energy and be able to work. Once my back feels better, I’ll also be able to continue my exercise. I’m still unhappy with the current scene I’m working on. I added more conflict to the scene before, but this scene still has a very slow opening and I haven’t been able to figure out how to structure it. Not much happens in the scene but there is some information that needs to be said and there are some emotional revelations that happen in the latter half. Since it’s a scene near the end of the book, the exposition is necessary to wrap up the climax events. I finally decided on something to add a little tension, and to ma...

I didn't do a lot on Saturday--I checked Social Media since that's the one day a week I've designated for it. I'm actually really glad I shunted social media to only one day a week. I will sometimes check social media once or maybe twice during the week, but most of the time I don't, and it's less stress for me. But I don't feel like I'm neglecting my readers since I make sure to check Facebook once a week. Also, since I don't check social media every day anymore, I feel like I have more time to blog, which is what I enjoy most out of all my social media commitments. I've been slowly posting more on my regular blog even during the week when I usually only blog on my writing blog. So after social media on Saturday, I was intending to do a lot of marketing work, but I started reading and it was hard for me to stop after that. So on Sunday, I did a lot of the marketing stuff I would have done on Saturday--I took care of my finances and accountin...

While walking, I figured out a much better way to write the scene I had finished a couple days ago, which included splitting it into two smaller scenes. So I will start off by editing that scene first today, while the idea is fresh in my head. *** I ended up needing to block the new second scene before I could start work on it, and it looks like it might need to be almost completely rewritten. *** Working on the scene ended up being a mix of writing and editing. It took a lot longer than I expected and I’m still not entirely certain the scene is good enough, but I just left it. My desire to just leave it might also be because my IBS flared up again (again!) so I’m stopping writing work a little early today. But I think I’ll try to do a little editing of the Japanese Spinster’s Christmas, since that’s simple but will take my attention away from my IBS. Blocking: time spent: 1 hour, 38 minutes Editing: Time spent: 1 hour, 47 minutes Writing: Time spent: 59 minutes Writi...

Oh man! I nearly forgot to schedule my newsletter announcement and blog posts for my Celebration Lit blog tour starting on the 15th. I spent some time before writing today in order to do that before I forgot. I’ve done blog tours before for other books and they never seemed to get me much traction, but I decided to pay for a blog tour run by somebody else for the first book of my new series because I really wanted to get more book reviews at least for book 1. What also appealed to me was that I wouldn’t have to be the one organizing it, and also Celebration Lit has a HUGE number of bloggers who can volunteer for the tour, much more than I could scrounge up myself. So I decided to try the blog tour and see how it works. If I get a lot of good promotion from it and see an increase in sales, I might save up money to do the blog tour for other books in the series, or maybe when I do a box set of the first 2 or 3 books in the series. Unfortunately my back started hurting, and I also ...

I made a mistake and drank some juice I shouldn’t have, which I think is causing my IBS to flare. I got some editing done, but I’m feeling a little sick. I’m really close to finishing the book, only 2 more scenes to go. I hope I can finish them today, despite how my stomach is feeling. *** I was editing some scenes and figured out a way to add more tension to the last scene I’d been working on yesterday, which I worried didn’t have enough conflict to keep my interest. I spent some extra time editing the scene before that, to set up the conflict, and then spent some time editing what little I’d written of the scene yesterday. I had to do a bit of blocking first since I’d changed the scene a bit. I wanted to edit it completely and then continue writing, but I’m feeling kind of tired and I’m thinking I might go to bed early tonight. Blocking: time spent: 22 minutes Editing: Time spent: 5 hours, 18 minutes Writing: Time spent: 0 Writing: Total number of words: 0 words Wri...

During breakfast, I did another schedule, this time detailing how long it takes me to do what each day. I had done something like this earlier, but my daily To Do list has changed since then. I estimated the time in half hour increments. I listed everything I had to do for house chores, health, and hygiene and was shocked to find that took up 7 hours a day! Assuming I sleep for 8 hours, and that I don’t waste time, that leaves me about 9 hours to do work. I allocated 2 hours a day for reading fiction, although I’m not sure if that’s enough since sometimes I’m feeling pretty burnt out. Right now, I’m aiming for 5 hours of writing and editing. It hadn’t seemed like a lot before, but now that I realize I only have 9 hours for all my non-home related things, it seems like I won’t be able to do much more than 5 or 6 hours a day. When looking through my general To Do lists, I realized that I need to allocate time each day for editing the Japanese version of The Spinster’s Christmas ,...

I didn’t sleep well and I’m experiencing some IBS issues (I really don’t know what I might have eaten!), so I’m not sure how much energy I’ll have today. I also experienced some back and butt issues, so I’ve changed around my seat cushion and chair arrangement. I’m going to see how they work today and if my back situation improves. I also realize some of my problems are simply because I’m working at my desk a lot and I use the mouse quite a bit sometimes, and I also don’t get up to stretch enough. I can’t be lazy and I have to make sure I get up to stretch, even if it makes me run the risk of taking too long a break from work. *** I’m having a hard time focusing. I’m also finding it difficult to get back to work during my breaks. It might be because I’m still in the process of adjusting my seat cushions into something comfortable. *** I had lunch and then made the mistake of checking email and got a really weird email from a reader. The tone was actually rather belligerent ...

It’s been a while since I’ve done an evaluation, so I figured I was overdue. In no particular order: Good health = good work I had some really bad health issues lately that kept me from writing entirely. However, I found it strange that I’ve been feeling very creative and motivated yesterday and today, despite getting in a lot of work hours yesterday. I think it’s because I haven’t had any IBS issues for the first time in a couple weeks. Not even a little discomfort. This is kind of duh! in hindsight, but I think I underestimated how much my IBS was affecting my energy levels. I’ve been careful about what I ate, but I was also trying to figure out exactly what I could and couldn’t eat, so it resulted in some bad IBS bouts. So now I know I really need to be strict about what I’m putting in my mouth so that my health doesn’t adversely affect my energy for work! Sprints Another sort of duh! moment in hindsight, but sprints have been helping me with my productivity. At f...

I suppose I can take yesterday as an object lesson in how not to go about my writing routines. Even though I’m supposed to do only marketing today, I’m going to start off writing since I’m feeling motivated after the disastrous day yesterday, and then hopefully get some marketing done later in the day. I decided to try harder to not be distracted, and one routine I’m going to try is to not read fiction before I get my work done. Usually I read a novel while I’m eating breakfast and lunch, but instead I’m going to try to read writing books or nonfiction. I’m hoping it will keep me in a work mindset. Another thing I did was clean up my work area , which I know sounds like procrastination, but I realized that when I’m at a loss for what to write, I look around at all my knitting projects that were sitting around my desk. So I put the knitting away so I don’t see them. Hopefully it’ll keep my attention from wandering from my computer because of the pretty yarn lying around. I was...

I made the mistake of doing some marketing work before I started writing work today, and it put me in a marketing mindset that’s become hard to shake. I decided to do some editing to start the day. I’m behind on the self-editing work I need to do because I’ve been prioritizing getting words done for the past several work days, so that I keep moving forward on the book. But I don’t want the self-editing to pile up too much. Also, the editing will hopefully help me to lose the marketing mindset and get back into the writing mindset so that I can get more words done today. *** After editing, I took a break and got distracted. I spent WAY too long on doing research for some blog posts I was planning for marketing my Hawaii contemporary series. The research was necessary, but I think I should have put it off for later and not have gotten distracted by it in the middle of my writing work. *** UGH it is really hard for me to focus on my writing! I also think maybe I don’t have eno...

On Tuesday, I spent about 4.5 hours doing marketing and self-publishing work that needed to be done for the book I'm releasing this month--I had to create the .epub file as well as the interior .pdf file for the paperback, and then set up the books in KDP so I'll be ready for them to go live. I also wrote the text for newsletters for my mailing list to announce the release, as well as emails for my Street Team. Some emails I scheduled to send, but others I left as drafts since I'll need to update them with links once the books are either live or in preorder. However, on Wednesday I started reading and didn't want to stop, so I didn't get any work done yesterday. I still had some IBS issues, but I should have been able to get work done. However I think I was either lazy or stressed out from all the self-publishing I had done the day before and still have to do this weekend. I love self-publishing, but I've realized that it can be really stressful for me since...

I was out for the last few days because I got a cold (not Covid) in the midst of IBS pain, so it was a double whammy. I spent a lot of time sleeping. Just when I was feeling really good and getting work done, I got hit by health problems again. I feel like this is the story of my life. I don't have anything serious like some of my friends who write in the midst of MS and Fibromyalgia, but my health still keeps me from writing. I have a low tolerance for pain, too, which makes it difficult for me to try pushing through the IBS discomfort sometimes. I will try today to see how much I can get done even though I'm still feeling a bit of IBS discomfort. I think I just entered Act 3 of my story *** I did get some writing done today, but after only about 2.5 hours I decided to quit. I'm still not feeling well and it's getting hard to concentrate. I did two 25 minute sprints, but then after that I stopped sprinting and simply wrote straight through, because I kept fee...