Day 334: Stuff to do during breaks
Praise God I feel better today. Yesterday, I had slight discomfort all through my writing session--not enough to make me to stop, but enough to distract me every once in a while. However, it was bearable, so I worked through it, plus I wanted to finish the scene I was writing. I also feel pressure to finish the book as soon as possible since it's already late to my editor. For my Regency series, I don't have a deadline for my editor, since my release dates are flexible and I can just start plans to release the book as soon as my editor gets it back to me, whenever that is. But this book is for the multi-author box set, and the editor is one of the authors, so I signed up for a date and then missed it completely (hear it whooshing as it goes by). So I wanted to work longer on it even though my IBS was being a butthead.
I only have three more scenes to the book, and hopefully they won't take much time since none of them are very long in length.
***
I did something a little different with my house chores today. Instead of doing them all before I started working, I wrote down what I needed to do, and decided to do a little bit each time I took a break in between a Pomodoro. Each task only took 5-10 minutes so it was a nice, short thing I could do during a break.
I found that when I have specific things lined up to do during my breaks, I'm less likely to be distracted by other things. That's kind of a "duh" moment right now, but it hadn't occurred to me before this. Or maybe I blogged about it a while ago but forgot about it.
I also started thinking again about the length of my Pomodoros. Is 25 minutes a good time for me, or should I lengthen it to an hour so that I get a chunk of writing time done at once? I actually considered changing my intervals, but then decided to keep it at 25 minutes, at least for today. I'm thinking that the 5 minute breaks in between might be a really good way for me to do small tasks that I might otherwise skip doing, such as my Japanese language flashcards, or Regency nonfiction reading, or more detailed revising of my published Regency novels.
There are some important but non-urgent tasks I've been trying to do every day for self-improvement or for self-publishing. One is to do my Japanese language studies, which usually involves flashcards. Another is to do some Regency non-fiction reading every day as research to help with my Regency writing.
Now that I've been doing this more detailed and slower writing style, I also want to try to do some revisions to Lady Wynwood's Spies, volume 1: Archer, if only to see if another revision pass would really make that many changes. At the very least, I want to do one more editing pass so that I know that the product is the best I can do at this point in my writing career, especially after knowing my other self-editing passes have a tendency to be sloppy. If I don't make that many changes, then I won't bother doing another revision of books 2 and 3, but I at least want to see how many changes I make in book 1.
If I leave those three things (Japanese flashcards, Regency non-fiction reading, Lady Wynwood 1 revisions) for after I finish working that day, I will often skip them if I feel tired or unmotivated or just plain lazy. But I can do them in small 5 minute intervals without much resistance. It's easy to think about doing something for only 5 minutes, especially if it's things I would otherwise be too lazy to do. And I would be able to do each of those things several times during my 5-minute breaks during my writing day, so I might end up with 10 or 15 minutes of work on each of them.
And if I have them listed down to do during my breaks, I might be less distracted and get back to work faster. Maybe. I'll try it today and see.
***
Well, it kind of worked. I did get some Regency non-fiction reading done, three 5-minute sessions. But then I forgot to set the Pomodoro for my last writing session and ended up writing for 90 minutes straight without a break, which I suppose isn't a bad thing, either. I got a lot done.
Having set things to do during my breaks turned out to work well for me, at least for today. I didn't waste time during my breaks, anyway. But now I'm feeling too tired to want to do my Lady Wynwood editing. I think maybe I should prioritize doing that during my breaks, so that I can make sure I get at least a little of that done each day.
I almost finished the scene, but there's a strong emotional moment at the end, and I realized I couldn't write it because I had to add something to a previous scene, and that addition would come into play here. Also I realized I had too much introspection in the previous scene, and I'd need to revise most of the first 1000 words or so. So I stopped just short of finishing this scene.
When compared to writing, I think self-editing might take more of my energy. Just the thought of it makes me feel tired. So rather than trying to force myself to do the editing on that previous scene today, I'll push it off to Monday and do it first thing. Also, my IBS is starting to bug me a little, so I think I'll stop here rather than trying to edit the scene with IBS bothering me.
In comparing the editing-as-I-go writing today with the little bit of editing I did yesterday on Lady Wynwood's Spies book 1, I realize that my editing is maybe a little more thorough when I do it as I'm writing. Maybe it's because I hate the self-editing so much, but it also seems easier for me to see what needs to be changed when I do it as I'm writing. I can better spot where I might need an alternate word, or move around a phrase. I'll still do my best on the editing, but I think I notice word choice and rhythm better when I'm writing as opposed to reading and editing.
My writing speed was a bit faster today overall. I'm not sure if it's because the scene was better blocked than others, or because it wasn't as emotional or humorous as other scenes, and so I didn't need to work as hard. Maybe a bit of all of that.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 4 hours, 23 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 3080 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 703 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 55 minutes
My takeaway for today: Make a list of 5-minute tasks I can do during breaks to help me not be distracted and to get some important but non-urgent things done.
I only have three more scenes to the book, and hopefully they won't take much time since none of them are very long in length.
***
I did something a little different with my house chores today. Instead of doing them all before I started working, I wrote down what I needed to do, and decided to do a little bit each time I took a break in between a Pomodoro. Each task only took 5-10 minutes so it was a nice, short thing I could do during a break.
I found that when I have specific things lined up to do during my breaks, I'm less likely to be distracted by other things. That's kind of a "duh" moment right now, but it hadn't occurred to me before this. Or maybe I blogged about it a while ago but forgot about it.
I also started thinking again about the length of my Pomodoros. Is 25 minutes a good time for me, or should I lengthen it to an hour so that I get a chunk of writing time done at once? I actually considered changing my intervals, but then decided to keep it at 25 minutes, at least for today. I'm thinking that the 5 minute breaks in between might be a really good way for me to do small tasks that I might otherwise skip doing, such as my Japanese language flashcards, or Regency nonfiction reading, or more detailed revising of my published Regency novels.
There are some important but non-urgent tasks I've been trying to do every day for self-improvement or for self-publishing. One is to do my Japanese language studies, which usually involves flashcards. Another is to do some Regency non-fiction reading every day as research to help with my Regency writing.
Now that I've been doing this more detailed and slower writing style, I also want to try to do some revisions to Lady Wynwood's Spies, volume 1: Archer, if only to see if another revision pass would really make that many changes. At the very least, I want to do one more editing pass so that I know that the product is the best I can do at this point in my writing career, especially after knowing my other self-editing passes have a tendency to be sloppy. If I don't make that many changes, then I won't bother doing another revision of books 2 and 3, but I at least want to see how many changes I make in book 1.
If I leave those three things (Japanese flashcards, Regency non-fiction reading, Lady Wynwood 1 revisions) for after I finish working that day, I will often skip them if I feel tired or unmotivated or just plain lazy. But I can do them in small 5 minute intervals without much resistance. It's easy to think about doing something for only 5 minutes, especially if it's things I would otherwise be too lazy to do. And I would be able to do each of those things several times during my 5-minute breaks during my writing day, so I might end up with 10 or 15 minutes of work on each of them.
And if I have them listed down to do during my breaks, I might be less distracted and get back to work faster. Maybe. I'll try it today and see.
***
Well, it kind of worked. I did get some Regency non-fiction reading done, three 5-minute sessions. But then I forgot to set the Pomodoro for my last writing session and ended up writing for 90 minutes straight without a break, which I suppose isn't a bad thing, either. I got a lot done.
Having set things to do during my breaks turned out to work well for me, at least for today. I didn't waste time during my breaks, anyway. But now I'm feeling too tired to want to do my Lady Wynwood editing. I think maybe I should prioritize doing that during my breaks, so that I can make sure I get at least a little of that done each day.
I almost finished the scene, but there's a strong emotional moment at the end, and I realized I couldn't write it because I had to add something to a previous scene, and that addition would come into play here. Also I realized I had too much introspection in the previous scene, and I'd need to revise most of the first 1000 words or so. So I stopped just short of finishing this scene.
When compared to writing, I think self-editing might take more of my energy. Just the thought of it makes me feel tired. So rather than trying to force myself to do the editing on that previous scene today, I'll push it off to Monday and do it first thing. Also, my IBS is starting to bug me a little, so I think I'll stop here rather than trying to edit the scene with IBS bothering me.
In comparing the editing-as-I-go writing today with the little bit of editing I did yesterday on Lady Wynwood's Spies book 1, I realize that my editing is maybe a little more thorough when I do it as I'm writing. Maybe it's because I hate the self-editing so much, but it also seems easier for me to see what needs to be changed when I do it as I'm writing. I can better spot where I might need an alternate word, or move around a phrase. I'll still do my best on the editing, but I think I notice word choice and rhythm better when I'm writing as opposed to reading and editing.
My writing speed was a bit faster today overall. I'm not sure if it's because the scene was better blocked than others, or because it wasn't as emotional or humorous as other scenes, and so I didn't need to work as hard. Maybe a bit of all of that.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 4 hours, 23 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 3080 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 703 words/hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 55 minutes
My takeaway for today: Make a list of 5-minute tasks I can do during breaks to help me not be distracted and to get some important but non-urgent things done.
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