Day 315: Freewriting; waffling over this writing style

Wow I got a lot of business stuff done yesterday. I checked my email and Facebook, and then I put together drafts of my newsletters for both Camy Tang and Camille Elliot for May. I also set up several blog posts for my Camy’s Loft blog, which took a lot more time than I had expected.

However, I’m glad I got all that stuff done ahead of time. It was helpful that I had a To Do list with everything that needed to be done, so I just had to check things off.

I also feel better that now I don't have to check email or Facebook until Saturday. I can focus on just my writing. I even turned off the email notifications on my phone. I had been using the notifications in order to do a quick look at the senders and subject lines of the emails I received to see if I needed to go into my email program to answer anything that was urgent. But as my husband mentioned, if anything was really urgent, the person would text me or call me, so I think it'll be okay if I don't answer emails until Saturday.

Of course, the flip side of not checking email or Facebook is that I should be able to write more and get more done on my book, right? If I'm not spending time marketing then I should be able to write more books in exchange, shouldn't I? I would actually love it if I could write more books.

I hope I can get lots of words done today. I'll be continuing my experiment with writing more slowly and deliberately rather than vomiting my words out. I'm better prepared today with larger word count and longer time limit monsters on 4thewords.com so I won't be scrambling to try to get words down just to defeat the monster.

I'm wondering if I want to set my Pomodoro timer even though I'm not really doing sprints (in that I'm not writing as fast as I can for a set time limit). I remember that it was easier to think about my work day by thinking that I needed to do X number of Pomodoro sprints as opposed to writing X number of hours.

I'm not aware if this actually happened on Saturday, but I also wonder if I might possibly let my mind wander since I'm not writing as fast as I can. A Pomodoro might help me keep my mind focused.

So I think I'll try doing 25-minute Pomodoros today, too, but I won't be vomit-writing like usual. I'll see how things go.

***

On a side note, I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook of The Shadow of What Was Lost on my run today. Aside from the fact that the narrator is really good, the unfolding story was just so engaging and interesting. It was good for me to use it to analyze for compelling writing.

The character started out witnessing something that he intensely feared. Showing his normal life in the school was a little boring, but then the conflict with the boys who were about to beat him up was interesting, as was how he was rescued. And then the explanation of the war and the Augers was very interesting because hints about that had already been dropped earlier, so I wanted to know.

Most of the interesting parts were not action Scenes but Sequels, with the tension being the emotions evoked due to the information that was being presented.

It made me look at my opening scenes. I don't have a lot of conflict or tension since it takes a little while from the Call to Adventure to Crossing the Threshold, which is what starts the antagonist's actions. Until the Threshold, the antagonist is out of the picture.

But maybe I can add some tension and conflict in relation to the overarching conflict of the series. That has already been set in motion even before the book starts, and it's similar to the conflict with the war mentioned in the audiobook.

I will have to see how I can adjust my first scene to include the major character of the series, maybe, and her issues with the major antagonist of the series. I will perhaps do the editing after my writing for today, since I have to do the editing in Scrivener and not 4thewords.

I'm so glad I was listening to that audiobook today! I had been listening to the beginnings of several audiobooks (included free with my Audible Premium membership) but nothing had really been all that compelling. I had felt a little guilty in dropping some of those books before I finished them, but I also feel like I'd rather spend time listening to a really good book rather than one that just didn't fit me. And I've been noticing more and more that there are certain books that hook me within a couple chapters.

It's fascinating to me to analyze those books, when I find them, to try to figure out why they are so interesting to me. I'm glad now that I had moved on to the current audiobook, because it's been good for me to use to analyze my own writing.

***

I don't know how this more thoughtful, deliberate writing style affects my creativity, but I have noticed that I'm spending a great deal of time editing the words in my head or on the page. In fact, I'm spending much more time self-editing now than I would if I were doing a self-editing pass on a page of words I'd just vomited. So overall, my self-editing might be much more thoughtful and thorough than it might otherwise have been if I'd been writing fast.

I think it makes the prose more exact, and I also think the rhythm of the scene is a little better paced.

I guess a key question to ask is if my original prose is creative enough if I'm not in flow state. I would like to think so, since I don't think most writers write in flow state ALL the time. There certainly would be segments in their books that are not written in flow state.

Regardless of flow state, I'm actually rather pleased to find that my self-editing is more thorough this way. Since I hate self-editing so much, those previous self-editing passes tended to be kind of quick and lazy. I feel like this way, I'm polishing the prose more than I would have otherwise. I'm not sure if it really makes for a better story, though.

***
I had forgotten how doing a monster in 4thewords also encourages me to freewrite to brainstorm when I get stuck, because then I type words to help defeat the monster. And the freewriting is always really helpful whenever I do it. I feel like I can organize my thoughts better if I freewrite them in a stream-of-consciousness ramble. It helps me to try to come up with ideas for what I want to happen next or to see how exactly I want to phrase something.

The freewriting today was really helpful. I had a few places where I hadn't blocked in enough detail and I wasn't exactly sure where to take the scene. For example, while I had thought about the event to end the scene, I hadn't really thought about the words and sentiments to end the scene. I suppose I could have had it peter out, but I like having a nice solid ending that matches the rhythm of the scene. So I did some freewriting and came up with a good ending line.

The writing pace was slow again today, and again I felt a little uneasy at how low my words per hour rate was. I don't know if it's because I'm used to a higher words per hour pace or because I'm worried that I'm wasting too much time thinking while writing. But I have to admit that that thoughtful time resulted in words I'm actually pretty happy with. I feel like I'm looking at words I've polished more than normal, which I think will result in quicker self-editing later.

I didn't go online while writing--any research questions or word choices I had to look up, I instead left a note for myself. I followed my blocking notes, which helped move the writing along, and paid more attention to rhythm because of the comedic tone of the writing.

I worked a little bit longer than yesterday and my writing pace was a little bit higher than yesterday. Maybe eventually I really can improve my writing speed.

I'm still a bit disappointed at my number of hours worked, though. It's still a bit less than when I wrote my Regency novels. At first, it was because I was having a hard time with the writing and also spending a lot of time rewriting the first scene, then doing extra blocking to fix the second scene. But I'm still not up to 6 hours, which is where I'd like to be, at minimum. Since my writing pace is slower than when I wrote my Regencies, I probably need to work more hours than that to make up for it; although since my editing time will likely be shorter, will that make up the difference?

The fact I've been so impatient with myself makes me also wonder if this writing style fits my personality. The Dear Writer, You Need to Quit book mentioned that alignment is magic. Is this writing style aligned with my personality? I guess I've always been rather an impatient person, so maybe that's why I've been questioning myself so much since starting this experiment.

But I also have to remember that my old writing style of vomit writing absolutely did NOT work when I started writing this book. So obviously something was wrong. While I still question this new writing style a lot, at least it lets me continue working and moving forward on this book without being dissatisfied with the writing.

So, ultimately, I guess I need to continue trying this out.

I tried doing Pomodoros today, and while it worked for a little while, I found myself unsure what to do during the 5 minute breaks aside from going to the bathroom or getting another bottle of water. A few times I just skipped the rest of the break in order to keep working. Ridiculously, I think it's because I felt like I didn't do all that much work in 25 minutes and didn't feel like I deserved a break yet.

I guess I'll continue to try it tomorrow, but I think I'll try a longer Pomodoro period, like maybe 45 minutes or 60 minutes. Maybe then I'll feel like I need a break when they come around. I also still want to try to keep the breaks to a minimum since I worry about wasting too much time, but I think if I have a monster running in 4thewords, it tends to keep my breaks shorter and makes me focus back on writing.

Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 4 hours, 29 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 2143 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 478 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 44 minutes
My takeaway for today: I had forgotten how doing a monster in 4thewords also encourages me to freewrite to brainstorm when I get stuck.

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