Day 309: Writing in 4thewords again
I tried to write yesterday even though I normally don't write on Sundays, because I'm way behind on finishing this book before it's due to the copy editor (a different one than I usually use, since this is for a multi-author box set and we’re all using the same one). However, I didn’t get much done—I woke up with a particularly bad sinus headache, and even after pumping myself full of drugs, it didn’t go away until nearly bedtime.
I feel much better today. I was also reading How to Write Lots, and Get Sh*t Done: The Art of Not Being a Flake and was reminded of how motivational it is to use 4thewords.com. I had stopped writing on the website because I liked the dark theme on Scrivener better. It was easier on my eyes. So I've been writing in Scrivener and then I would copy and paste into 4thewords.
I was also writing in Scrivener and copying and pasting into 4thewords because for the past several weeks I've been doing outlining for the series and this book, and it's not like writing where my word per hour rate is somewhat consistent. A good example was when I was working on the Snowflake step 6 (expanded synopsis) for the book. I would work on the expanded synopsis, then jump to a character file to add or edit something, then jump to another character file to edit something there, then research something on the web, then go back and edit the Snowflake step 4 (1-page synopsis) and the Snowflake step 2 (one paragraph synopsis). So it wasn't possible to run a monster battle when I wasn't working in only one particular file, and I absolutely did not want to have my character files in 4thewords because there is certain formatting I rely on in those files that I can't do in the web editor.
But in reading the book, I remembered how motivating it was to be writing while a monster was running. It's always fun to see how my words made the monster word count go down, and how it would be fun to write "just a little bit more" to finish a monster off. It also encouraged me to keep writing anything even when I didn't know what to write, because of the time limit and the word count.
However, now 4thewords just released a dark theme on their writing editor! So I don't have to write in Scrivener for the sake of my eyes, and since I'm writing in the manuscript now rather than doing outlining, I don't need to do my work in Scrivener so that I can jump from file to file. So today I'm writing in 4thewords and running monster battles. I think it will help me enjoy my writing more and will also help me write faster.
Yesterday, the little I wrote was very pathetic because I just didn't know what to write. I think I figured out what was wrong with my scene, though--it was a bit too aimless. I don't usually start a book on a Sequel, but that's what I'd done, so now I think I know how to change the opening into a Scene instead (with a Goal, Obstacles, and Disaster, as per Swain). I think it will make it move faster and it might be why I was having such a problem trying to write it.
I know that I should just write the first scene and leave it to fix it later, but since I loathe self-editing to such an unreasonable degree, I find myself internally balking at doing that. I'd rather make the first scene exactly what I want so that it sets the tone for the rest of the book. It just makes it easier for me to keep moving forward when the first scene is right how I want it to be.
I cleared the decks and did my writing ritual for this morning, so I'm ready to go! I'm so thankful to God that I'm feeling so much better today! Yesterday was pretty miserable. To be honest, the past several weeks have been pretty awful. I hope today's writing goes well.
***
I had a 30 minute writing sprint that didn't go too badly. This probably isn't very good, but I started off editing what I'd written before to change it from a Sequel to a Scene. Then I started writing more on the scene.
I took a break for bunch (since I hadn't eaten breakfast, and it wasn't quite lunchtime yet), but when I went back to the writing, I wasn't very pleased with how the last part of the scene ended up. I was just writing quickly to try to finish off the monster, so I didn't put a lot of thought into the prose, which I think is why it turned out kind of disjointed.
I always read about people saying to just write even if you don't know what to write, but I'm starting to wonder if that really works for me, if I'm going to put out crappy stuff like this. If I'm more thoughtful about what I write, my writing speed will be slow, but I won't have to spend time editing confusing and disjointed dialogue like this. Fixing it seems to take longer than simply trying to come up with something clearer right off the bat.
So now I have to make a decision about if I should spend some time editing what I'd just written so that I can continue with the scene, or if I should just leave a note for myself [fix this somehow] and just keep writing the scene. Maybe I should just leave a note, even though the thought of doing that really bugs me.
***
So, I left a note and kept writing, but what I wrote was kind of aimless.
I took a walk and listened to a writing podcast, getting some distance from the writing, and I finally decided that I can’t just leave the scene as is and keep going. I am going to have to nearly completely rewrite part of it later, or I can fix it now and make it really what I want, and have it help shape how the book is going to go.
Almost every writing article says not to do this. Instead, I should just keep going so that I can get into flow state.
But I just can’t get into flow state when the state of the first scene is bugging the crap out of me.
I thought about going into self-editing mode to try to fix it, although I can’t do that in 4thewords since I would be deleting stuff left and right and spending a lot of time thinking about how to fix what I wrote.
However then I realized I could just rewrite it fresh. That might be a better way to go about doing things rather than trying to darn a holey sock, metaphorically speaking.
UGH my writing speed is going to be a snail's pace today, but I honestly think this is the best way for me, personally, to handle this story. It'll take time, but I think I'll be less stressed to figure out how to write this scene.
***
So I spent some time doing more detailed blocking of the scene so that I could figure out how the conversational flows would go, and I think I figured it out. The structure of the scene is definitely much better than before.
Unfortunately, after figuring all that out, my brain feels a little fried, and it's only been a couple hours of writing! My writing stamina sucks today! But I just spent about half an hour just staring at my computer screen, so I'm reasonably sure I'm not going to output anything more very useful today, or at least until I give my brain a break.
I hope this isn't just me being lazy and procrastinating. Honestly, sometimes it's hard to tell. I know I have a lot of work to do on this book, but I also know that when I'm not feeling very well--or when I'm recovering from a few days of feeling bad--my productivity tanks. I feel okay today, but I just had a terrible day health-wise yesterday, so my brain my still be in recovery. I think I'll take a break and then see if I can get more work done later tonight. All I know is that right now, I really can't come up with anything.
***
Posting this late because I forgot to post this last night, but I never got around to doing more work yesterday, and I went to bed early instead.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 1 hour, 13 minutes
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 4 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 973 words
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 881 words/hour
Writing: Overall writing speed: 905 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 46 minutes
My takeaway for today: Unlike typical writing advice, for me I think it's better to fix a problem scene rather than leaving it for later.
I feel much better today. I was also reading How to Write Lots, and Get Sh*t Done: The Art of Not Being a Flake and was reminded of how motivational it is to use 4thewords.com. I had stopped writing on the website because I liked the dark theme on Scrivener better. It was easier on my eyes. So I've been writing in Scrivener and then I would copy and paste into 4thewords.
I was also writing in Scrivener and copying and pasting into 4thewords because for the past several weeks I've been doing outlining for the series and this book, and it's not like writing where my word per hour rate is somewhat consistent. A good example was when I was working on the Snowflake step 6 (expanded synopsis) for the book. I would work on the expanded synopsis, then jump to a character file to add or edit something, then jump to another character file to edit something there, then research something on the web, then go back and edit the Snowflake step 4 (1-page synopsis) and the Snowflake step 2 (one paragraph synopsis). So it wasn't possible to run a monster battle when I wasn't working in only one particular file, and I absolutely did not want to have my character files in 4thewords because there is certain formatting I rely on in those files that I can't do in the web editor.
But in reading the book, I remembered how motivating it was to be writing while a monster was running. It's always fun to see how my words made the monster word count go down, and how it would be fun to write "just a little bit more" to finish a monster off. It also encouraged me to keep writing anything even when I didn't know what to write, because of the time limit and the word count.
However, now 4thewords just released a dark theme on their writing editor! So I don't have to write in Scrivener for the sake of my eyes, and since I'm writing in the manuscript now rather than doing outlining, I don't need to do my work in Scrivener so that I can jump from file to file. So today I'm writing in 4thewords and running monster battles. I think it will help me enjoy my writing more and will also help me write faster.
Yesterday, the little I wrote was very pathetic because I just didn't know what to write. I think I figured out what was wrong with my scene, though--it was a bit too aimless. I don't usually start a book on a Sequel, but that's what I'd done, so now I think I know how to change the opening into a Scene instead (with a Goal, Obstacles, and Disaster, as per Swain). I think it will make it move faster and it might be why I was having such a problem trying to write it.
I know that I should just write the first scene and leave it to fix it later, but since I loathe self-editing to such an unreasonable degree, I find myself internally balking at doing that. I'd rather make the first scene exactly what I want so that it sets the tone for the rest of the book. It just makes it easier for me to keep moving forward when the first scene is right how I want it to be.
I cleared the decks and did my writing ritual for this morning, so I'm ready to go! I'm so thankful to God that I'm feeling so much better today! Yesterday was pretty miserable. To be honest, the past several weeks have been pretty awful. I hope today's writing goes well.
***
I had a 30 minute writing sprint that didn't go too badly. This probably isn't very good, but I started off editing what I'd written before to change it from a Sequel to a Scene. Then I started writing more on the scene.
I took a break for bunch (since I hadn't eaten breakfast, and it wasn't quite lunchtime yet), but when I went back to the writing, I wasn't very pleased with how the last part of the scene ended up. I was just writing quickly to try to finish off the monster, so I didn't put a lot of thought into the prose, which I think is why it turned out kind of disjointed.
I always read about people saying to just write even if you don't know what to write, but I'm starting to wonder if that really works for me, if I'm going to put out crappy stuff like this. If I'm more thoughtful about what I write, my writing speed will be slow, but I won't have to spend time editing confusing and disjointed dialogue like this. Fixing it seems to take longer than simply trying to come up with something clearer right off the bat.
So now I have to make a decision about if I should spend some time editing what I'd just written so that I can continue with the scene, or if I should just leave a note for myself [fix this somehow] and just keep writing the scene. Maybe I should just leave a note, even though the thought of doing that really bugs me.
***
So, I left a note and kept writing, but what I wrote was kind of aimless.
I took a walk and listened to a writing podcast, getting some distance from the writing, and I finally decided that I can’t just leave the scene as is and keep going. I am going to have to nearly completely rewrite part of it later, or I can fix it now and make it really what I want, and have it help shape how the book is going to go.
Almost every writing article says not to do this. Instead, I should just keep going so that I can get into flow state.
But I just can’t get into flow state when the state of the first scene is bugging the crap out of me.
I thought about going into self-editing mode to try to fix it, although I can’t do that in 4thewords since I would be deleting stuff left and right and spending a lot of time thinking about how to fix what I wrote.
However then I realized I could just rewrite it fresh. That might be a better way to go about doing things rather than trying to darn a holey sock, metaphorically speaking.
UGH my writing speed is going to be a snail's pace today, but I honestly think this is the best way for me, personally, to handle this story. It'll take time, but I think I'll be less stressed to figure out how to write this scene.
***
So I spent some time doing more detailed blocking of the scene so that I could figure out how the conversational flows would go, and I think I figured it out. The structure of the scene is definitely much better than before.
Unfortunately, after figuring all that out, my brain feels a little fried, and it's only been a couple hours of writing! My writing stamina sucks today! But I just spent about half an hour just staring at my computer screen, so I'm reasonably sure I'm not going to output anything more very useful today, or at least until I give my brain a break.
I hope this isn't just me being lazy and procrastinating. Honestly, sometimes it's hard to tell. I know I have a lot of work to do on this book, but I also know that when I'm not feeling very well--or when I'm recovering from a few days of feeling bad--my productivity tanks. I feel okay today, but I just had a terrible day health-wise yesterday, so my brain my still be in recovery. I think I'll take a break and then see if I can get more work done later tonight. All I know is that right now, I really can't come up with anything.
***
Posting this late because I forgot to post this last night, but I never got around to doing more work yesterday, and I went to bed early instead.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 1 hour, 13 minutes
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 4 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 973 words
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 881 words/hour
Writing: Overall writing speed: 905 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 46 minutes
My takeaway for today: Unlike typical writing advice, for me I think it's better to fix a problem scene rather than leaving it for later.
Comments
Post a Comment