Day 338: Too distracted today
I woke up feeling relatively well and went walking, and listened to the audiobook of Several Short Sentences About Writing again. I’m still not thrilled with the literary nature of the language, but I do like that this book is different from other writing books I have. It’s talking about concepts that I haven’t heard before, or it talks in detail about concepts that have only been mentioned in passing before in other books I’ve read.
The section today talked about releasing inhibitions or preconceived notions about what we should be observing as writers, and just to notice what we notice. Things specific to us will jump out at us. I liked how he essentially said to trust your instincts and your way of viewing the world, and use that in your writing rather than what other people tell you to be noticing around you.
He also went into the concept of quality not quantity when it comes to what we notice around us, but also what we come up with when we write. He talked about thinking of sentences and then letting them go without writing them down, that there will always be more sentences you’ll come up with. He didn’t explicitly say this, but I think his point might have been that the more sentences you come up with, even just in your mind, the more experience you’ll gain in coming up with sentences so that what you do put down will be the product of more thought.
I don’t know if I agree with not worrying about writing it down because my memory isn’t great. But he may have been trying to point out that there will always be more sentences and the next one might be better, and to trust yourself and your intuition. And actually, I can see his point in my own experience. Sometimes I will write a bunch of stuff down and then be too focused on trying to edit what I wrote. Then it ends up that it needs to be deleted and I need to come up with something completely different.
Just yesterday (or maybe it was Saturday) I was editing scene #6, and there was some stuff I’d written in my blocking notes, and I’d written a few paragraphs of prose from those notes. And I was really focused on trying to figure out how the dialogue would flow so that those paragraphs would fit. But it ended up that I really just needed to not include those paragraphs at all. The dialogue flowed much better when I deleted them.
So I can kind of see how not writing everything down might be a good thing sometimes, but I also think it’s hard to know what to write down and what not to write down, especially if you’re a newer writer. I think writing everything down and then later going back and figuring out what to keep and what to toss is the best way to learn.
I like how he described a metaphor. It emphasizes that metaphors posses power that can be used effectively, that they should be strong and not halfhearted. I have kind of seen that in my own writing lately. I will write a metaphor for something, and it doesn’t seem to have enough punch, so I’ll revise it until it has just the right impact. I think metaphors can do that, because they have a strong effect on reading rhythm.
He’s rather strongly prejudiced against a writer’s first outpouring of prose when they’re writing. His assumption is that the first outpouring is almost always banal and cliche. I suppose my current writing style agrees with this since I’m doing constant revision of each of my sentences as I write, and the first thing I think of is usually not the best. I will have to revise to make it have the right meaning and rhythm, and to make it not boring (at least to me).
But from a psychological standpoint (putting my psychology degree to work), I do also think flow state might produce wildly creative things because the brain is in a more uninhibited state when it’s not analyzing what’s being written.
Still, flow state is hard for me to get into since it’s difficult for me to not correct things like typos, and my self-editing sucks, which would ruin the whole end product of creative flow output. So I don’t have a lot of experience in flow state and I could be wrong.
Anyway, I mostly enjoyed listening to the audiobook today. I like how the things he talks about are unusual (at least for me). I think this is a good book for more experienced writers who want a slightly different perspective on writing. You won’t agree with everything he says, but it will make you think more deeply about various aspects of your writing, and that kind of pondering is never a bad thing.
I spent a little more time than normal clearing the decks today. Small things had bothered me while I was writing yesterday, but of course I forgot to take care of them during my breaks and after I had finished working for the day. So now that those little things are taken care of, I feel a bit more prepared and relaxed before I start work.
I’m really close to finishing my Hawaii book! I have half a scene to finish (scene #8), and then the epilogue. That half-scene might be tough since it’s a more romantic scene, and a bit emotional, and for this book, the emotional scenes have been taking me a long time. But since it’s more romance that emotion, it might go faster than the emotional bits in scene #6.
***
I went to input my stop time when I stopped a sprint, and it made me start to wonder if I should rethink my time recording. It’s been useful because when I recorded my sprints, I was able to figure out what time duration sprints seemed to work best for me, and what time of day made me seem to work more efficiently. I was also able to see how much time I spent on each scene.
But now I think it’s a data collection point that I no longer need. It was useful to experiment with different sprint durations, but since my back requires me to get up and move every hour, my sprints are usually either around 30 minutes or one hour. Also, I’ve been more focused on the total time I took to write each day, and the total number of words written, so the sprinting words per hour pace hasn’t been needed. I’ve already figured out that I (inexplicably) work better earlier in the day, despite the fact I’m a night owl.
The only information I might need from this point on is to know how long it took me to write each scene. I could adjust the spreadsheet to record daily scene time duration and word count totals rather than recording the details of each sprint.
However, I only have two more scenes for this book, so I think I won’t change my time recording for the rest of this book. Instead, I'll start to change my time recording method when I start the new book.
***
Okay, so I was TOTALLY distracted during my break with adjusting my time spreadsheet template and figuring out what I want to record when I start writing the next Regency book. The spreadsheet isn’t that much different, but I won’t need to constantly update it every time I finish a sprint. Instead, I will only update it when I finish a scene and start a new one. I got a little too into it—I think I just like the data collection.
***
I wasn’t sure if this would be good or bad, but when the timer went off, I was on a roll with the writing and so I ignored it and kept working. I don’t know if I really should have taken the break or not. I didn’t write a lot or super fast during that sprint, but I did get quite a bit done. I finally stopped when I had to get up to stretch.
I know that some writing experts say that if you’re in the zone while you’re sprinting, to just keep going even if the timer has gone off. I don’t know if any writing experts think it might be better to instead stop and take a break even if you’re in the zone. I’ve only heard the former advice, so I went with that.
***
UGH I was distracted while writing! I started looking at my next monster to fight on 4thewords.com and got a bit caught up in planning my monster battles.
***
I finished the scene! But I can’t believe I got distracted that way. I really have to work on my focus! Maybe it would be better to take my breaks, because then I would have a chance to rest my brain. Maybe it’s like the walk-run method I used when training for the marathon. When you take walking breaks, even if you’re feeling fine, it helps you last longer and feel more energized later in the race. So maybe taking breaks even when I’m in the writing zone will help me be able to focus better later in my writing sessions?
While writing the scene, I also realized I need a really short scene that will lead into the next book in the series. So now I need to block the extra scene. It will go at the end, after the epilogue, and it’ll segue into the main mystery of the series.
But since I’m already over word count, I won’t include this scene in the book for the multi-author box set. I’ll only include this scene in the longer version of this book that I’ll use for marketing.
I was waffling over if I will offer this book as a free funnel book for the series available wide on all ebook distributors, or if I’ll only offer this ebook as a free reader magnet. I thought maybe I should offer it as a funnel book instead because it might be a good introduction to the series, but then I decided against it. The tone of the book is not as suspenseful as the other books in the series will be. Plus it’s short, a novella, which is more of a prequel length than the first book of a series. Also, the storyline in this book only marginally relates to the main mystery of the series. The book introduces a few of the main characters of the series, but not all of them. After thinking about it, I decided that maybe it might only appeal to readers who had read the first book and wanted a side story involving characters from the series. Also, depending on how I wrote these characters, who are side characters in the first book in the series, it might pique the interest of readers to read their romance.
***
I was going to block the extra scene, but then I realized that I don’t actually need to write the scene right now. The extra scene goes after the next scene I’m writing (the epilogue), and it won’t be in the version I submit for the multi-author box set. Also, since this will (probably) be a reader magnet, some of the stuff in the extra scene will be a transition for the next book in the series (book 2), and I think I’d need to both write book 1 and plot book 2 before I can write the scene. So I think I’ll skip writing this for now.
I’ll just go ahead and work on the epilogue instead. Also I realized I probably need to do a little blocking of the epilogue, because I realized that my blocking notes are rather sparse.
***
I did a little blocking of the epilogue, but not enough to start writing. I’ll need to do more blocking tomorrow.
I had a bad day today in terms of being distracted. I have really got to work on my focus. I wonder if more structure to my writing sessions will help? Maybe I need to read some articles on focusing and try to get some ideas.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 30 minutes
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 33 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1373 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 386 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 27 minutes
My takeaway for today: Maybe taking breaks even when I’m in the writing zone will help me be able to focus better later in my writing sessions.
The section today talked about releasing inhibitions or preconceived notions about what we should be observing as writers, and just to notice what we notice. Things specific to us will jump out at us. I liked how he essentially said to trust your instincts and your way of viewing the world, and use that in your writing rather than what other people tell you to be noticing around you.
He also went into the concept of quality not quantity when it comes to what we notice around us, but also what we come up with when we write. He talked about thinking of sentences and then letting them go without writing them down, that there will always be more sentences you’ll come up with. He didn’t explicitly say this, but I think his point might have been that the more sentences you come up with, even just in your mind, the more experience you’ll gain in coming up with sentences so that what you do put down will be the product of more thought.
I don’t know if I agree with not worrying about writing it down because my memory isn’t great. But he may have been trying to point out that there will always be more sentences and the next one might be better, and to trust yourself and your intuition. And actually, I can see his point in my own experience. Sometimes I will write a bunch of stuff down and then be too focused on trying to edit what I wrote. Then it ends up that it needs to be deleted and I need to come up with something completely different.
Just yesterday (or maybe it was Saturday) I was editing scene #6, and there was some stuff I’d written in my blocking notes, and I’d written a few paragraphs of prose from those notes. And I was really focused on trying to figure out how the dialogue would flow so that those paragraphs would fit. But it ended up that I really just needed to not include those paragraphs at all. The dialogue flowed much better when I deleted them.
So I can kind of see how not writing everything down might be a good thing sometimes, but I also think it’s hard to know what to write down and what not to write down, especially if you’re a newer writer. I think writing everything down and then later going back and figuring out what to keep and what to toss is the best way to learn.
I like how he described a metaphor. It emphasizes that metaphors posses power that can be used effectively, that they should be strong and not halfhearted. I have kind of seen that in my own writing lately. I will write a metaphor for something, and it doesn’t seem to have enough punch, so I’ll revise it until it has just the right impact. I think metaphors can do that, because they have a strong effect on reading rhythm.
He’s rather strongly prejudiced against a writer’s first outpouring of prose when they’re writing. His assumption is that the first outpouring is almost always banal and cliche. I suppose my current writing style agrees with this since I’m doing constant revision of each of my sentences as I write, and the first thing I think of is usually not the best. I will have to revise to make it have the right meaning and rhythm, and to make it not boring (at least to me).
But from a psychological standpoint (putting my psychology degree to work), I do also think flow state might produce wildly creative things because the brain is in a more uninhibited state when it’s not analyzing what’s being written.
Still, flow state is hard for me to get into since it’s difficult for me to not correct things like typos, and my self-editing sucks, which would ruin the whole end product of creative flow output. So I don’t have a lot of experience in flow state and I could be wrong.
Anyway, I mostly enjoyed listening to the audiobook today. I like how the things he talks about are unusual (at least for me). I think this is a good book for more experienced writers who want a slightly different perspective on writing. You won’t agree with everything he says, but it will make you think more deeply about various aspects of your writing, and that kind of pondering is never a bad thing.
I spent a little more time than normal clearing the decks today. Small things had bothered me while I was writing yesterday, but of course I forgot to take care of them during my breaks and after I had finished working for the day. So now that those little things are taken care of, I feel a bit more prepared and relaxed before I start work.
I’m really close to finishing my Hawaii book! I have half a scene to finish (scene #8), and then the epilogue. That half-scene might be tough since it’s a more romantic scene, and a bit emotional, and for this book, the emotional scenes have been taking me a long time. But since it’s more romance that emotion, it might go faster than the emotional bits in scene #6.
***
I went to input my stop time when I stopped a sprint, and it made me start to wonder if I should rethink my time recording. It’s been useful because when I recorded my sprints, I was able to figure out what time duration sprints seemed to work best for me, and what time of day made me seem to work more efficiently. I was also able to see how much time I spent on each scene.
But now I think it’s a data collection point that I no longer need. It was useful to experiment with different sprint durations, but since my back requires me to get up and move every hour, my sprints are usually either around 30 minutes or one hour. Also, I’ve been more focused on the total time I took to write each day, and the total number of words written, so the sprinting words per hour pace hasn’t been needed. I’ve already figured out that I (inexplicably) work better earlier in the day, despite the fact I’m a night owl.
The only information I might need from this point on is to know how long it took me to write each scene. I could adjust the spreadsheet to record daily scene time duration and word count totals rather than recording the details of each sprint.
However, I only have two more scenes for this book, so I think I won’t change my time recording for the rest of this book. Instead, I'll start to change my time recording method when I start the new book.
***
Okay, so I was TOTALLY distracted during my break with adjusting my time spreadsheet template and figuring out what I want to record when I start writing the next Regency book. The spreadsheet isn’t that much different, but I won’t need to constantly update it every time I finish a sprint. Instead, I will only update it when I finish a scene and start a new one. I got a little too into it—I think I just like the data collection.
***
I wasn’t sure if this would be good or bad, but when the timer went off, I was on a roll with the writing and so I ignored it and kept working. I don’t know if I really should have taken the break or not. I didn’t write a lot or super fast during that sprint, but I did get quite a bit done. I finally stopped when I had to get up to stretch.
I know that some writing experts say that if you’re in the zone while you’re sprinting, to just keep going even if the timer has gone off. I don’t know if any writing experts think it might be better to instead stop and take a break even if you’re in the zone. I’ve only heard the former advice, so I went with that.
***
UGH I was distracted while writing! I started looking at my next monster to fight on 4thewords.com and got a bit caught up in planning my monster battles.
***
I finished the scene! But I can’t believe I got distracted that way. I really have to work on my focus! Maybe it would be better to take my breaks, because then I would have a chance to rest my brain. Maybe it’s like the walk-run method I used when training for the marathon. When you take walking breaks, even if you’re feeling fine, it helps you last longer and feel more energized later in the race. So maybe taking breaks even when I’m in the writing zone will help me be able to focus better later in my writing sessions?
While writing the scene, I also realized I need a really short scene that will lead into the next book in the series. So now I need to block the extra scene. It will go at the end, after the epilogue, and it’ll segue into the main mystery of the series.
But since I’m already over word count, I won’t include this scene in the book for the multi-author box set. I’ll only include this scene in the longer version of this book that I’ll use for marketing.
I was waffling over if I will offer this book as a free funnel book for the series available wide on all ebook distributors, or if I’ll only offer this ebook as a free reader magnet. I thought maybe I should offer it as a funnel book instead because it might be a good introduction to the series, but then I decided against it. The tone of the book is not as suspenseful as the other books in the series will be. Plus it’s short, a novella, which is more of a prequel length than the first book of a series. Also, the storyline in this book only marginally relates to the main mystery of the series. The book introduces a few of the main characters of the series, but not all of them. After thinking about it, I decided that maybe it might only appeal to readers who had read the first book and wanted a side story involving characters from the series. Also, depending on how I wrote these characters, who are side characters in the first book in the series, it might pique the interest of readers to read their romance.
***
I was going to block the extra scene, but then I realized that I don’t actually need to write the scene right now. The extra scene goes after the next scene I’m writing (the epilogue), and it won’t be in the version I submit for the multi-author box set. Also, since this will (probably) be a reader magnet, some of the stuff in the extra scene will be a transition for the next book in the series (book 2), and I think I’d need to both write book 1 and plot book 2 before I can write the scene. So I think I’ll skip writing this for now.
I’ll just go ahead and work on the epilogue instead. Also I realized I probably need to do a little blocking of the epilogue, because I realized that my blocking notes are rather sparse.
***
I did a little blocking of the epilogue, but not enough to start writing. I’ll need to do more blocking tomorrow.
I had a bad day today in terms of being distracted. I have really got to work on my focus. I wonder if more structure to my writing sessions will help? Maybe I need to read some articles on focusing and try to get some ideas.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 30 minutes
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 3 hours, 33 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 1373 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 386 words per hour
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 2 hours, 27 minutes
My takeaway for today: Maybe taking breaks even when I’m in the writing zone will help me be able to focus better later in my writing sessions.
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