Day 312: Warning: a lot of rambling below
I again woke up feeling pretty good. I think my IBS flare-up is now dying down, and it's helped me have better sleep and more energy during the day.
I still had the procrastination problem from yesterday, so I re-listened to the audiobook of Dear Writer, You Need to Quit. I had forgotten how much a good story or good motivation in an audiobook can strongly and positively affect my mood, because my walk time just flew by, and I even motivated myself to do some long-overdue gardening chores in order to keep listening to the audiobook.
I only listened to a few chapters, but I was reminded of her catchphrase, "Question the Premise." I also listened to the chapter on systems. I actually stopped the audiobook at some point in my walk in order to really think about those things.
It reminded me of how my thinking was upended by reading Elana Johnson's book, Writing and Marketing Systems and her injunction to think outside the box. She then talked about how her writing routine is completely different from anything I've read in articles and books, but it's a system that works for her personality.
The Dear Writer author, Becca Symes, says the same thing. We think something needs to be a certain way but we should be questioning the things we've always accepted, because they may not be what's right for our personality and systems.
I especially liked how Becca Symes talked about how some people don't need to vomit words out, but for their personality, they write best when they think about their writing before typing the words out. I had listened to this before, and I think I even blogged about it, but I had forgotten about it. I guess I have too many things going around in my head about writing productivity, and it fell by the wayside.
I know I've also realized that I have focused too much on my writing speed and writing pace, because I'd really like to write faster. I even changed how I log my writing time so that I look at hours worked in addition to words written and words per hour. But what if I'm the type of writer who also needs to think more before writing, rather than vomiting words? If that's the case, then my focus on writing speed is only causing me stress and pushing me in a direction I shouldn't go.
So now I'm wondering if perhaps I should try that today, and rather than trying to type continuously, to allow myself time to think more before I write. Will it help me write better because I'll be putting less pressure on myself?
I think I'll still try to do 25-minute sprints, because the Pomodoro timer does seem to help me to focus on the task at hand rather than let my thoughts wander.
I'm also prepared for my writing pace to go down, but (QTP) will it? Or will I be more productive if I can write in a way that fits better with my personality? (Not that I know if this writing method words for my personality, but I'm trying it just in case it might.)
The book also talked about looking at all the small pieces of your systems to try to solve problems. It occurred to me that my procrastination could be tied to, among other things, my mood and stress levels.
I've been stressed for much of this year (and a few months of last year) because I tried to increase my social media time. In some ways it's been a good thing because I learned about things like BookFunnel and other writing resources that have greatly impacted my self-publishing systems. But in other ways it's been bad because Facebook requires a commitment of time and personal interaction. I admit, I'm a hermit. I do interact with people, and I'll even enjoy it while I'm with someone or chatting online, but afterward I feel drained. I suppose it's a side effect of my introvert personality.
I've had social media commitments on and off for much of this year so far. The multi-author box set I'm involved in primarily communicates on Facebook. I've been asked to participate in some special Facebook groups, and I don't want to turn down promotional opportunities, especially if they're free. I've had more reader emails lately because I've been doing BookFunnel promotions to increase my newsletter list. I also had an author from my devotional want to re-do the cover, and she even set up the entire re-launch all by herself.
None of that is bad--in fact, they're all really good things. But after doing them, I feel drained. Yesterday, I had a bunch of stuff to do on social media before I started writing, and it took about 2.5 hours. That's actually a long time. I had a hard time getting into my writing after that, and while I thought it had to do with switching from a business mindset to a writing mindset, maybe that wasn't all it was. Maybe the mental and emotional drain of all that social interaction had an effect on my writing energy.
I don't have a good answer for this problem. I don't want to become a complete recluse and stop participating in social media and promotional opportunities when I get invited. Those types of free promotional opportunities are golden, especially since I don't have the money for ads at this point in time.
But the energy drain has impacted my writing significantly. I have to find a way to be able to balance promotion and writing.
Maybe if I rearrange my writing schedule, I might be able to do promotion--and only promotion--on some days, and then just do writing on other days? I wonder if that would work? Right now, I try to only do Facebook on weekends. If I have other promotional or social media commitments that I have to do during the week, perhaps I should rearrange my writing so that I'm not trying to write on days when I know I have to do a lot of writing-business things.
That seems rather inefficient, but maybe it's what I need to do in order to be able to write. If I have only writing to do on any particular day, I might have more energy and it might help me to be able to focus better.
If I posted on Facebook and my blog about how to contact me and made it clear that I only answer emails on weekends, then my readers will know not to expect me to respond to emails and posts right away. And I won't put any ridiculous internal pressure on myself to answer messages right away--I can just schedule to check email on Saturdays.
I guess it's all about energy management. Actually, Becca Symes talked about this in her Dear Writer book. She talked about why trying to change too many things at once usually doesn't work because your energy levels are finite. So I just need to figure out how to manage my energy so that I can do all the things I want do do, like keeping up with my readers but also working on my books. Maybe compartmentalizing my tasks, splitting them into writing and everything else, will help me to be able to get my work done but also still do all those promotional opportunities.
Man, I don't remember being this picky and high maintenance when I was working and writing at the same time! Then again, I was also 15 years younger at that point.
All that to say ... I did have some social media I had to do this morning, but it's done now. I don't know if it drained me so much that I'll have difficulty writing, but I'll still give it a shot.
***
I did a tiny amount of work, then took a break for lunch when I realized it was past 1 pm. Going back to work after lunch was a bit hard--I think part of it is because I was reading a book during lunch and I didn't really want to put it down.
That always gets me! I should stop reading fiction during lunch!
Anyway, I'm going to do a few sprints, but rather than trying to write fast or not stop typing, I'll let myself take time to think about the words before I write. However, the 25-minute timer will hopefully help me to focus during that time.
It occurred to me that when I wrote my first few books under contract, I was writing in this way, where I'd think a while before writing anything down. So today I'll essentially be doing that again.
I thought about not writing in 4thewords.com, since I may not keep up with the time limit for a monster battle, but I decided to just write in 4thewords anyway. I don't want to be not writing at all, and a little time pressure will ensure I don't just stare and do nothing.
I hope that I'll still be able to get a lot of words done. It sounds counterproductive since I'll be writing slower rather than trying to vomit the words out, but maybe it'll make the writing more fun for me, like it was when I first started out in my writing career.
I just need to do something--anything--to combat the mindset shift, or energy drain, or laziness that's been plaguing me.
***
I have to admit, it was actually a lot more enjoyable to write this way today. I would take time to think about what I wanted to type before I typed it. Sometimes I'd knit on a project as I thought, which seems to help my thought processes, to have something in my hands.
I was doing a lot of editing as I wrote, which is supposed to be a hindrance to getting into flow state. I understand the psychological theory behind flow state, and why it's beneficial to enter into flow state when writing, so I'm a bit torn about doing the whole editing-as-I-go thing today. While I was creating, I was also thinking critically at the same time--editing my words even as I thought them in my head, and certainly after I'd written them down. And as someone who knows I don't flip mindsets very easily, I can't help thinking this might be a bad thing.
But does it matter if I'm enjoying the writing? Does it matter if I still got some words down today? Granted, it wasn't very much words--594 words in a little under a couple hours.
I also noticed that I was more apt to go to Google and search for the right words if I came up blank. For example, I didn't know what to call those blow-up Christmas law decorations (Christmas inflatables). I didn't waste a lot of time when I did that, but it did detract from the writing time.
Still ... those 594 words are good words. I'm completely happy with them and they convey the right humor that I was aiming for. I also think about how it's a lot better than spending hours fretting over a scene that I'm not entirely happy with and not know how to fix it, or if I should just leave it and fix it later.
***
I actually got a bit more writing done before dinner. I was hoping to get even more done afterward, but I got caught up in reading and never got back to work! However, it did remind me that I haven't been reading enough the past few days, either, which might have contributed to my procrastination. It doesn't excuse my lack of progress today, though.
I had wanted to compartmentalize Saturdays for email and social media, but since I had to check my email and Facebook today (because of some obligations I had) I probably won't have much to do tomorrow online. Because of that, I'm hoping I'll be able to get some writing done.
As for my writing experiment today, the slower pace was actually really nice, but I also wonder if I was too easily distracted because of it. I don't usually do research or look up words because I don't want to get into the mindset of editing while writing (although to be honest, I do still correct typos and sometimes reword sentences if they bother me, so I'm not really getting away from self-editing).
But should I Question the Premise about not self-editing as I write? Just because lots of experts much smarter than me have said that self-editing while writing hinders flow state and might hinder creativity? Yeah, it sounds dumb for me to QTP when I put it that way.
But even though I didn't get much done, I really did enjoy writing today.
I think I will try it again tomorrow and see if maybe I can better see if the slower writing pace is something I really want to do. How do I decide if it's right for me? Because it's certainly not improving my productivity in terms of words written. But on the flip side, I've been trying to learn how to focus and get into flow state, but I feel like I haven't been able to accomplish that.
Maybe I just need to experiment more and try different things out. It could be that I will get faster writing even though I'll be editing in my head rather than vomiting words out. That would be ideal. I'm not crazy about the words-vomiting because while it does result in faster words per hour, it also involves more self-editing.
I did this experiment before and looked at the numbers. Editing-as-I-go is a lot slower than words-vomiting, and so I also compared the time taken by the self-editing and words-vomiting still is ahead in terms of efficiency.
I guess I should also ask, does the words-vomiting really result in better writing, as the articles about flow state claim? I don't feel like I've ever really gotten into flow state when I was striving to write fast for the last couple books. In contrast, the slow writing I did today resulted in writing I'm happier with.
I don't know the answer. I've done a lot of rambling today. I doubt any of it makes sense, but I guess the gist of it is, tomorrow I'll continue trying this other method of writing slower and feeling free to edit sentences in my head before I type them, rather than words-vomiting like before. If I can focus better and put in more hours, I might find my productivity isn't as bad as I fear.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 840 words
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 565 words/hour
Writing: Overall writing speed: 306 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 37 minutes
My takeaway for today: I'll continue trying this other method of writing slower and feeling free to edit sentences in my head before I type them, rather than words-vomiting like before.
I still had the procrastination problem from yesterday, so I re-listened to the audiobook of Dear Writer, You Need to Quit. I had forgotten how much a good story or good motivation in an audiobook can strongly and positively affect my mood, because my walk time just flew by, and I even motivated myself to do some long-overdue gardening chores in order to keep listening to the audiobook.
I only listened to a few chapters, but I was reminded of her catchphrase, "Question the Premise." I also listened to the chapter on systems. I actually stopped the audiobook at some point in my walk in order to really think about those things.
It reminded me of how my thinking was upended by reading Elana Johnson's book, Writing and Marketing Systems and her injunction to think outside the box. She then talked about how her writing routine is completely different from anything I've read in articles and books, but it's a system that works for her personality.
The Dear Writer author, Becca Symes, says the same thing. We think something needs to be a certain way but we should be questioning the things we've always accepted, because they may not be what's right for our personality and systems.
I especially liked how Becca Symes talked about how some people don't need to vomit words out, but for their personality, they write best when they think about their writing before typing the words out. I had listened to this before, and I think I even blogged about it, but I had forgotten about it. I guess I have too many things going around in my head about writing productivity, and it fell by the wayside.
I know I've also realized that I have focused too much on my writing speed and writing pace, because I'd really like to write faster. I even changed how I log my writing time so that I look at hours worked in addition to words written and words per hour. But what if I'm the type of writer who also needs to think more before writing, rather than vomiting words? If that's the case, then my focus on writing speed is only causing me stress and pushing me in a direction I shouldn't go.
So now I'm wondering if perhaps I should try that today, and rather than trying to type continuously, to allow myself time to think more before I write. Will it help me write better because I'll be putting less pressure on myself?
I think I'll still try to do 25-minute sprints, because the Pomodoro timer does seem to help me to focus on the task at hand rather than let my thoughts wander.
I'm also prepared for my writing pace to go down, but (QTP) will it? Or will I be more productive if I can write in a way that fits better with my personality? (Not that I know if this writing method words for my personality, but I'm trying it just in case it might.)
The book also talked about looking at all the small pieces of your systems to try to solve problems. It occurred to me that my procrastination could be tied to, among other things, my mood and stress levels.
I've been stressed for much of this year (and a few months of last year) because I tried to increase my social media time. In some ways it's been a good thing because I learned about things like BookFunnel and other writing resources that have greatly impacted my self-publishing systems. But in other ways it's been bad because Facebook requires a commitment of time and personal interaction. I admit, I'm a hermit. I do interact with people, and I'll even enjoy it while I'm with someone or chatting online, but afterward I feel drained. I suppose it's a side effect of my introvert personality.
I've had social media commitments on and off for much of this year so far. The multi-author box set I'm involved in primarily communicates on Facebook. I've been asked to participate in some special Facebook groups, and I don't want to turn down promotional opportunities, especially if they're free. I've had more reader emails lately because I've been doing BookFunnel promotions to increase my newsletter list. I also had an author from my devotional want to re-do the cover, and she even set up the entire re-launch all by herself.
None of that is bad--in fact, they're all really good things. But after doing them, I feel drained. Yesterday, I had a bunch of stuff to do on social media before I started writing, and it took about 2.5 hours. That's actually a long time. I had a hard time getting into my writing after that, and while I thought it had to do with switching from a business mindset to a writing mindset, maybe that wasn't all it was. Maybe the mental and emotional drain of all that social interaction had an effect on my writing energy.
I don't have a good answer for this problem. I don't want to become a complete recluse and stop participating in social media and promotional opportunities when I get invited. Those types of free promotional opportunities are golden, especially since I don't have the money for ads at this point in time.
But the energy drain has impacted my writing significantly. I have to find a way to be able to balance promotion and writing.
Maybe if I rearrange my writing schedule, I might be able to do promotion--and only promotion--on some days, and then just do writing on other days? I wonder if that would work? Right now, I try to only do Facebook on weekends. If I have other promotional or social media commitments that I have to do during the week, perhaps I should rearrange my writing so that I'm not trying to write on days when I know I have to do a lot of writing-business things.
That seems rather inefficient, but maybe it's what I need to do in order to be able to write. If I have only writing to do on any particular day, I might have more energy and it might help me to be able to focus better.
If I posted on Facebook and my blog about how to contact me and made it clear that I only answer emails on weekends, then my readers will know not to expect me to respond to emails and posts right away. And I won't put any ridiculous internal pressure on myself to answer messages right away--I can just schedule to check email on Saturdays.
I guess it's all about energy management. Actually, Becca Symes talked about this in her Dear Writer book. She talked about why trying to change too many things at once usually doesn't work because your energy levels are finite. So I just need to figure out how to manage my energy so that I can do all the things I want do do, like keeping up with my readers but also working on my books. Maybe compartmentalizing my tasks, splitting them into writing and everything else, will help me to be able to get my work done but also still do all those promotional opportunities.
Man, I don't remember being this picky and high maintenance when I was working and writing at the same time! Then again, I was also 15 years younger at that point.
All that to say ... I did have some social media I had to do this morning, but it's done now. I don't know if it drained me so much that I'll have difficulty writing, but I'll still give it a shot.
***
I did a tiny amount of work, then took a break for lunch when I realized it was past 1 pm. Going back to work after lunch was a bit hard--I think part of it is because I was reading a book during lunch and I didn't really want to put it down.
That always gets me! I should stop reading fiction during lunch!
Anyway, I'm going to do a few sprints, but rather than trying to write fast or not stop typing, I'll let myself take time to think about the words before I write. However, the 25-minute timer will hopefully help me to focus during that time.
It occurred to me that when I wrote my first few books under contract, I was writing in this way, where I'd think a while before writing anything down. So today I'll essentially be doing that again.
I thought about not writing in 4thewords.com, since I may not keep up with the time limit for a monster battle, but I decided to just write in 4thewords anyway. I don't want to be not writing at all, and a little time pressure will ensure I don't just stare and do nothing.
I hope that I'll still be able to get a lot of words done. It sounds counterproductive since I'll be writing slower rather than trying to vomit the words out, but maybe it'll make the writing more fun for me, like it was when I first started out in my writing career.
I just need to do something--anything--to combat the mindset shift, or energy drain, or laziness that's been plaguing me.
***
I have to admit, it was actually a lot more enjoyable to write this way today. I would take time to think about what I wanted to type before I typed it. Sometimes I'd knit on a project as I thought, which seems to help my thought processes, to have something in my hands.
I was doing a lot of editing as I wrote, which is supposed to be a hindrance to getting into flow state. I understand the psychological theory behind flow state, and why it's beneficial to enter into flow state when writing, so I'm a bit torn about doing the whole editing-as-I-go thing today. While I was creating, I was also thinking critically at the same time--editing my words even as I thought them in my head, and certainly after I'd written them down. And as someone who knows I don't flip mindsets very easily, I can't help thinking this might be a bad thing.
But does it matter if I'm enjoying the writing? Does it matter if I still got some words down today? Granted, it wasn't very much words--594 words in a little under a couple hours.
I also noticed that I was more apt to go to Google and search for the right words if I came up blank. For example, I didn't know what to call those blow-up Christmas law decorations (Christmas inflatables). I didn't waste a lot of time when I did that, but it did detract from the writing time.
Still ... those 594 words are good words. I'm completely happy with them and they convey the right humor that I was aiming for. I also think about how it's a lot better than spending hours fretting over a scene that I'm not entirely happy with and not know how to fix it, or if I should just leave it and fix it later.
***
I actually got a bit more writing done before dinner. I was hoping to get even more done afterward, but I got caught up in reading and never got back to work! However, it did remind me that I haven't been reading enough the past few days, either, which might have contributed to my procrastination. It doesn't excuse my lack of progress today, though.
I had wanted to compartmentalize Saturdays for email and social media, but since I had to check my email and Facebook today (because of some obligations I had) I probably won't have much to do tomorrow online. Because of that, I'm hoping I'll be able to get some writing done.
As for my writing experiment today, the slower pace was actually really nice, but I also wonder if I was too easily distracted because of it. I don't usually do research or look up words because I don't want to get into the mindset of editing while writing (although to be honest, I do still correct typos and sometimes reword sentences if they bother me, so I'm not really getting away from self-editing).
But should I Question the Premise about not self-editing as I write? Just because lots of experts much smarter than me have said that self-editing while writing hinders flow state and might hinder creativity? Yeah, it sounds dumb for me to QTP when I put it that way.
But even though I didn't get much done, I really did enjoy writing today.
I think I will try it again tomorrow and see if maybe I can better see if the slower writing pace is something I really want to do. How do I decide if it's right for me? Because it's certainly not improving my productivity in terms of words written. But on the flip side, I've been trying to learn how to focus and get into flow state, but I feel like I haven't been able to accomplish that.
Maybe I just need to experiment more and try different things out. It could be that I will get faster writing even though I'll be editing in my head rather than vomiting words out. That would be ideal. I'm not crazy about the words-vomiting because while it does result in faster words per hour, it also involves more self-editing.
I did this experiment before and looked at the numbers. Editing-as-I-go is a lot slower than words-vomiting, and so I also compared the time taken by the self-editing and words-vomiting still is ahead in terms of efficiency.
I guess I should also ask, does the words-vomiting really result in better writing, as the articles about flow state claim? I don't feel like I've ever really gotten into flow state when I was striving to write fast for the last couple books. In contrast, the slow writing I did today resulted in writing I'm happier with.
I don't know the answer. I've done a lot of rambling today. I doubt any of it makes sense, but I guess the gist of it is, tomorrow I'll continue trying this other method of writing slower and feeling free to edit sentences in my head before I type them, rather than words-vomiting like before. If I can focus better and put in more hours, I might find my productivity isn't as bad as I fear.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 840 words
Writing: Average speed (sprints): 565 words/hour
Writing: Overall writing speed: 306 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 37 minutes
My takeaway for today: I'll continue trying this other method of writing slower and feeling free to edit sentences in my head before I type them, rather than words-vomiting like before.
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