Day 304: Distraction and stress; too detail-oriented
I feel better than I did yesterday, so I’m hopeful I’ll get more done today. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be doing the Snowflake step 8 for my Hawaii novella. I decided to work on just this first before I work on blocking because it might help the blocking go quicker and more smoothly to have a scene list done first.
***
I did get some work done, but for some reason I was really easily distracted today. I got distracted by some knitting—which normally wouldn’t be a problem because I do tend to knit while I’m thinking—but since I was sick for much of this month, I’m on a time crunch to get this book done and so the distraction somehow seems worse. And then even though I was feeling tired I tried to push through and keep working, but I ended up being distracted by retail procrastination.
And now I feel really guilty for the distraction/procrastination because I have to finish this book!!! I wish I didn’t have a firm deadline for this book. Initially, I’d had a lot of time to write it, but now I’m in a time crunch.
While I’m happy to have been asked to do this multi-author project, I don’t think I want to do another one, unless it’s for a book I’ve already written. It’s just been too stressful for me, especially since my poor health has made me have to scramble for the deadline now.
I’m actually almost done with Snowflake step 8, and I ended up doing some blocking even though I was only going to do the spreadsheet. I keep trying to keep my outlining process compartmentalized, but I think I tend to go into more detail when I’m supposed to be doing an overview step, so I end up doing two steps at once. It’s like earlier when I thought I was doing Snowflake step 2 but I ended up doing step 4 (more detailed) instead. I was still able to do step 2 from what I’d written in step 4, so it wasn’t a loss of time, but at the time I’d been wanting to do more of a bird’s eye view of the story and that didn’t happen.
I don’t want to NOT compartmentalize my writing process. I think it’s important (for the way my brain works) to do the separate Snowflake steps and go from high-level view of the story down to the details. If I didn’t do Snowflake, I think my mind would get too bogged down with the details and I wouldn’t be able to outline the story efficiently. Worst case scenario, I’d go round and round with all the details and the pacing of the story would be too uneven.
It’s just been hard for me to focus only on the Snowflake step I’m supposed to be doing. When doing Snowflake step 8 and trying to fill out my scene spreadsheet, I found myself coming up with ideas and just writing them down so I don’t forget them, but I ended up doing a lot of blocking that way rather than just the bare bones of the scene on the spreadsheet.
It’s not a waste of time since I would have to do the blocking eventually, and my wanting to only do each Snowflake step one at a time is just my own decision to do things that way.
I’m actually not feeling too tired right now, but it’s getting late so I think I’ll stop here and continue Snowflake step 8 tomorrow. I might finish it tomorrow.
Outlining: time spent: 6 hours, 3 minutes (but some of that is distraction)
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Total number of words: 0
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 0
Writing: Overall writing speed: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 45 minutes
My takeaway for today: I keep trying to keep my outlining process compartmentalized, but I have a tendency to go into detail when I should be only doing an overview.
***
I did get some work done, but for some reason I was really easily distracted today. I got distracted by some knitting—which normally wouldn’t be a problem because I do tend to knit while I’m thinking—but since I was sick for much of this month, I’m on a time crunch to get this book done and so the distraction somehow seems worse. And then even though I was feeling tired I tried to push through and keep working, but I ended up being distracted by retail procrastination.
And now I feel really guilty for the distraction/procrastination because I have to finish this book!!! I wish I didn’t have a firm deadline for this book. Initially, I’d had a lot of time to write it, but now I’m in a time crunch.
While I’m happy to have been asked to do this multi-author project, I don’t think I want to do another one, unless it’s for a book I’ve already written. It’s just been too stressful for me, especially since my poor health has made me have to scramble for the deadline now.
I’m actually almost done with Snowflake step 8, and I ended up doing some blocking even though I was only going to do the spreadsheet. I keep trying to keep my outlining process compartmentalized, but I think I tend to go into more detail when I’m supposed to be doing an overview step, so I end up doing two steps at once. It’s like earlier when I thought I was doing Snowflake step 2 but I ended up doing step 4 (more detailed) instead. I was still able to do step 2 from what I’d written in step 4, so it wasn’t a loss of time, but at the time I’d been wanting to do more of a bird’s eye view of the story and that didn’t happen.
I don’t want to NOT compartmentalize my writing process. I think it’s important (for the way my brain works) to do the separate Snowflake steps and go from high-level view of the story down to the details. If I didn’t do Snowflake, I think my mind would get too bogged down with the details and I wouldn’t be able to outline the story efficiently. Worst case scenario, I’d go round and round with all the details and the pacing of the story would be too uneven.
It’s just been hard for me to focus only on the Snowflake step I’m supposed to be doing. When doing Snowflake step 8 and trying to fill out my scene spreadsheet, I found myself coming up with ideas and just writing them down so I don’t forget them, but I ended up doing a lot of blocking that way rather than just the bare bones of the scene on the spreadsheet.
It’s not a waste of time since I would have to do the blocking eventually, and my wanting to only do each Snowflake step one at a time is just my own decision to do things that way.
I’m actually not feeling too tired right now, but it’s getting late so I think I’ll stop here and continue Snowflake step 8 tomorrow. I might finish it tomorrow.
Outlining: time spent: 6 hours, 3 minutes (but some of that is distraction)
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Total number of words: 0
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 0
Writing: Overall writing speed: 0
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 45 minutes
My takeaway for today: I keep trying to keep my outlining process compartmentalized, but I have a tendency to go into detail when I should be only doing an overview.
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