Day 317: Distracted so went offline
I managed to get up a little bit earlier today, so after doing house chores and clearing the decks, I'm starting work a little bit earlier. I hope this enables me to work more hours today than I did yesterday. I think so--I don't have as much to blog about today since I analyzed my writing productivity and writing style yesterday, and I'll just be continuing this slower writing pace.
I'm rather pleased that my writing speed actually increased a little bit yesterday compared to the day before. I hope that even though I'm being more thoughtful and essentially self-editing as I write, that I'll still start improving my writing speed a little bit.
I also want to start doing a bit of reading before I start writing. I discovered that if I read a certain type of humorous book, it helps with my pacing and rhythm when I write. So I'm going to try to do about 15 minutes of reading before writing today. I'll have to set a timer or else I might not stop.
***
Ugh, I'm so easily distracted today! I made the mistake of starting my writing on my computer and I kept going online to check up on random things. I really need to get offline! Why do I always forget that the internet can be such a distraction? Just because I can sometimes work on my computer and not be distracted by the internet doesn't mean it's still not there like a lion lurking in the grass, waiting to pounce! I've noticed that I'm more easily distracted by the internet than I used to be, so I think I need to make sure I adjust my writing routine to account for that.
***
I finished the third scene! And I'm really happy with it!
It definitely helped to move away from my computer. I instead used my iPad with a bluetooth keyboard (I got a really nice one from Redragon that has brown switches so typing on it is super nice, although not quite as nice as blue switches). It's harder for me to be distracted by the internet on my iPad because it's just a bit more of a pain to go to websites. I also had to set my phone across the room so I wouldn't be tempted to check it for weird things.
I was also motivated by trying to finish a couple monsters on 4thewords.com. I want to finish some quests for a special event going on now.
Probably because I wasn't distracted as much, my writing speed was much faster (almost 800 words per hour), even though I still did self-editing as I was writing. However, when combined with the dismal writing speed before when I was distracted (354 words per hour), it evened out (450 words per hour).
I don't want to write fast just to write fast--if I did, I'd just vomit the words out and not worry about making them exactly how I want them--but I do want to improve my efficiency. If I can do 600 or 750 words an hour, I can get about 3000 words done a day in about 4 or 5 hours.
For my last few books, I was aiming for 3000-4000 words a day (but ideally hoping for 5000 words a day if I could), but that included the time for cycling (editing the scene I'd written the previous day before I started writing that day). Sometimes cycling took only 30 minutes, but often it took at least an hour, sometimes two. With my more self-edited writing style, my cycling might take less time, and I might still be able to do 3000 words a day even if my writing pace is slower.
I will do a little more writing before dinner, and then hopefully get a little more done after dinner.
***
We ended up having a late dinner, so I worked longer than I had expected. However, I didn't get as much done as I had wanted. It was a difficult opening to the scene, so I spent a lot of time thinking about how the character was feeling and how to express it.
I'm actually rather happy with this new writing style. Before, I'd have written what I originally thought of, which was kind of lame. I might have just left a note to fix it later, or I might have been writing so fast that I wouldn't have thought that it was lame and I'd have just kept going. And then later in self-editing, I might realized it was lame and fixed it, or I might have been tired of self-editing and not realized what a piece of crap that line was.
Today, after writing the terrible line, I took time to read it and critique it, and realized it was lame. Then I took time to really think about a much better line, until I had written something I was happy with. And I did this several times, for several bad lines. That's really satisfying.
When it was time for dinner, I realized I'd already put in 5 hours of work, and since I still want to get some reading done before bed, I think I'm going to stop here.
My writing pace was much slower for that last writing session, but since I ended up being pleased by my writing, I'm okay with it. I got more writing done today than yesterday, at least.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 5 hours, 1 minute
Writing: Total number of words: 2163 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 431 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 57 minutes
My takeaway for today: Remember that the internet can be a distraction, even if it's not always a distraction all the time!
I'm rather pleased that my writing speed actually increased a little bit yesterday compared to the day before. I hope that even though I'm being more thoughtful and essentially self-editing as I write, that I'll still start improving my writing speed a little bit.
I also want to start doing a bit of reading before I start writing. I discovered that if I read a certain type of humorous book, it helps with my pacing and rhythm when I write. So I'm going to try to do about 15 minutes of reading before writing today. I'll have to set a timer or else I might not stop.
***
Ugh, I'm so easily distracted today! I made the mistake of starting my writing on my computer and I kept going online to check up on random things. I really need to get offline! Why do I always forget that the internet can be such a distraction? Just because I can sometimes work on my computer and not be distracted by the internet doesn't mean it's still not there like a lion lurking in the grass, waiting to pounce! I've noticed that I'm more easily distracted by the internet than I used to be, so I think I need to make sure I adjust my writing routine to account for that.
***
I finished the third scene! And I'm really happy with it!
It definitely helped to move away from my computer. I instead used my iPad with a bluetooth keyboard (I got a really nice one from Redragon that has brown switches so typing on it is super nice, although not quite as nice as blue switches). It's harder for me to be distracted by the internet on my iPad because it's just a bit more of a pain to go to websites. I also had to set my phone across the room so I wouldn't be tempted to check it for weird things.
I was also motivated by trying to finish a couple monsters on 4thewords.com. I want to finish some quests for a special event going on now.
Probably because I wasn't distracted as much, my writing speed was much faster (almost 800 words per hour), even though I still did self-editing as I was writing. However, when combined with the dismal writing speed before when I was distracted (354 words per hour), it evened out (450 words per hour).
I don't want to write fast just to write fast--if I did, I'd just vomit the words out and not worry about making them exactly how I want them--but I do want to improve my efficiency. If I can do 600 or 750 words an hour, I can get about 3000 words done a day in about 4 or 5 hours.
For my last few books, I was aiming for 3000-4000 words a day (but ideally hoping for 5000 words a day if I could), but that included the time for cycling (editing the scene I'd written the previous day before I started writing that day). Sometimes cycling took only 30 minutes, but often it took at least an hour, sometimes two. With my more self-edited writing style, my cycling might take less time, and I might still be able to do 3000 words a day even if my writing pace is slower.
I will do a little more writing before dinner, and then hopefully get a little more done after dinner.
***
We ended up having a late dinner, so I worked longer than I had expected. However, I didn't get as much done as I had wanted. It was a difficult opening to the scene, so I spent a lot of time thinking about how the character was feeling and how to express it.
I'm actually rather happy with this new writing style. Before, I'd have written what I originally thought of, which was kind of lame. I might have just left a note to fix it later, or I might have been writing so fast that I wouldn't have thought that it was lame and I'd have just kept going. And then later in self-editing, I might realized it was lame and fixed it, or I might have been tired of self-editing and not realized what a piece of crap that line was.
Today, after writing the terrible line, I took time to read it and critique it, and realized it was lame. Then I took time to really think about a much better line, until I had written something I was happy with. And I did this several times, for several bad lines. That's really satisfying.
When it was time for dinner, I realized I'd already put in 5 hours of work, and since I still want to get some reading done before bed, I think I'm going to stop here.
My writing pace was much slower for that last writing session, but since I ended up being pleased by my writing, I'm okay with it. I got more writing done today than yesterday, at least.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 5 hours, 1 minute
Writing: Total number of words: 2163 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 431 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 57 minutes
My takeaway for today: Remember that the internet can be a distraction, even if it's not always a distraction all the time!
Comments
Post a Comment