Day 343: Audiobooks
I had a good sabbath yesterday. I did some knitting and finished the Deep Work audiobook.
I liked how he showed that memorization tasks (or intense study habits) exercises and increases your ability to concentrate, which then enables more focus on other tasks during the workday. I think it will help my ability to focus if I make my Japanese language learning more of a priority. If I can train my ability to focus by doing memorization, then that can only help when I have to focus to work on my books.
The last part of the book was basically disconnecting from various forms of communication and social media, which I’ve already done by only checking that on weekends. But some of the strategies in the book made me realize that I haven’t been good about communicating that I’m only checking my online communications once a week, so I added that into the drip sequence for my new newsletter subscribers, and included the links where they can leave comments or questions for me.
The audiobook also made me realize that I’d been trying to keep up with a reader poll I set up, but I’d been doing it because some marketing book told me to do it. I thought about it and decided I didn’t really need the data metrics, so I shut the poll down. Knowing the types of books my readers read or where they bought their books (and some of them probably don’t buy books but rely on free ones) wasn’t going to change what books I write or where I was going to sell them, because I have my own reasons for the books I choose to write, and financial reasons for only selling on Amazon.
At the end of the day, I also got some ideas for my fantasy serial novel and worked on that a little bit. It was not deep, focused work but I did manage to get a little more characterization done.
Although in hindsight I should have done my Japanese flashcards instead, because I never got around to doing them yesterday. I will make my flashcards more of a priority this evening after I finish my work for the day.
Today I’ll finish editing the Hawaii book (I only have 2 short scenes left) and then work on cutting 10,000 words from it. If I’m lucky I’ll get all that done today.
I’m doing to try to do two 2-hour Deep Work sessions of intense focus and see if I can maintain my concentration.
***
I couldn’t quite do 2-hour sessions. My back started aching after about 90 minutes, and I ended up doing two 90-minute sessions rather than two 2-hour sessions. I think it might be better to take care of my back and limit my sessions to 90 minutes. I do seem to get into deep concentration.
After three hours, my brain is a little tired. I finished editing the 2 scenes, However, I only got through about a third of the manuscript when cutting, and I hope I’m cutting enough. I chopped about 3800 words so far. If I can continue at this rate, I’ll be able to get it down to 25,000 words.
I didn’t think about this until I read the documentation I got from the publisher/formatter of our multi-author box set, but 12 novellas at 25,000 words each is approximately a 1000-page print book, which is humongous. The goal of the project is to try to make a bestseller list, so the print version can’t be split into two volumes, because the single-volume print book makes us eligible (I think) for the New York Times list.
So while I’m definitely trying to get it down to 25,000 words, I’m also trying to consolidate paragraphs so that the text is a little more dense on the page, which will hopefully make the novella take up a few less pages. I’m really not sure how he’s going to get all our novellas into a print book, but he’s had experience with this before.
Anyway, I want to do at least 4 hours of intense work today. I think I’ll be able to get at least 1 more hour in, but I think I need to take a walk to rest my brain before I do that.
In listening to the Deep Work audiobook, he mentioned a study that showed that most masters in a craft, like musicians, can only concentrate intensely for 4 hours. I can’t remember if he said that was for the entire day, or just a 4-hour stretch of time in the middle of a work day.
So I want to be able to work intensely for at least 4 hours each day if possible. And if I can stretch that to 6 hours, I think that would make me pretty happy, although that would cut into my reading time. I read somewhere that a famous Japanese novelist writes about 6 hours a day, then goes swimming or some other exercise. I am rather cynically assuming he doesn’t have to cook and clean his house, but at the same time I want to eventually build up to about 6 solid hours of work a day. I think that would make me very satisfied that I’d done a full day’s work.
***
I went walking to refresh myself, but I got a bit annoyed by the audiobook I was listening to, Several Short Sentences About Writing.
He was actually making really good points about learning how to revise your own work. You can more effectively learn how to revise if you know and understand the different uses of grammar and language that are possible, and the only way to really understand that is to look at different pieces of writing by different authors. His suggestion is to highlight the different grammatical parts in different colors so you can visually see the patterns, and compare the patterns of different authors. It sounds very tedious and I don’t think I’d have done it, but logically it makes sense to really understand the nuances that grammar can accomplish.
He also suggested other extremely tedious things like looking up every word, even if you think you know it, so that you can better understand the subtle differences in the meanings of similar words, which is actually a very good point. Really effective revision can only benefit if you understand vocabulary nuances and can choose the exact right word to convey the meaning you want in the sentence. But seriously, who’s going to look up every single word, even the ones they know?
I got annoyed because despite the good underlying content, the literary style of the writing started bugging me. I really just don’t like that style. Plus the tedious suggestions—even though there were good reasons for doing them—seemed unrealistic. So I stopped listening to it near the end of my walk, and returned home feeling dissatisfied and vaguely irritated. Then I cooked dinner, which might have evened out my mood.
After dinner, I got another 90 minutes of work done before my back started hurting. I realized that it’s actually because I have to use the trackball so much while I’m doing the editing. When I’m writing, I don’t use the trackball nearly as much as now. The excessive trackball use without a break makes my upper right back sore.
I’m a bit shocked I’m able to focus for such long stretches when I was so distracted before. Is it just because the book told me it was possible, and so I was able to make a mental decision and believe that I could really concentrate for a long stretch of time? Is it because I’ve eliminated all sources of distraction, including music? Can I keep this up? Will it be different later when I have to outline or write the next book, and I might need to look something up online? Will I be able to keep focusing even when I have to do a task like writing, where the work is a lot of stopping and starting?
I suppose if I continue to practice deep work, and maybe exercise my ability to concentrate by doing my Japanese flashcard memorization, maybe I’ll be able to continue this even when I’m doing other types of tasks. I’d like to be able to concentrate like this while writing.
I actually did a total of almost 5 hours of deep work today, and I was not distracted away from my task at all during my sessions. However, because my brain was a bit tired, I did end up taking longer breaks in between.
Since I’m not distracted, I’m assuming I’m getting more done during my deep work sessions than I did just working like normal. I suppose I won’t really know until I can compare metrics like words per hour rate or the total number of hours it takes me to write the next book. But those metrics will also be impacted by the fact that my new writing style is much slower, so maybe it won’t show much of a difference.
I did a lot of work today. I’m down to 28,500 words, and I’ve gone through about 2/3 of the book, so I am hopeful I’ll get down below 25,000 words by the end.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 33 minutes (editing), 4 hours, 22 minutes (cutting 10k words)
Writing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Total number of words: n/a
Writing: Overall writing speed: n/a
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 41 minutes
My takeaway for today: If I make my Japanese language learning a priority, i might be able to train my ability to focus by doing the memorization.
My second takeaway for today: Because of my back, it might be better to only do 90 minute sessions, although I might be able to do longer ones if I’m not editing and using the trackball so much.
I liked how he showed that memorization tasks (or intense study habits) exercises and increases your ability to concentrate, which then enables more focus on other tasks during the workday. I think it will help my ability to focus if I make my Japanese language learning more of a priority. If I can train my ability to focus by doing memorization, then that can only help when I have to focus to work on my books.
The last part of the book was basically disconnecting from various forms of communication and social media, which I’ve already done by only checking that on weekends. But some of the strategies in the book made me realize that I haven’t been good about communicating that I’m only checking my online communications once a week, so I added that into the drip sequence for my new newsletter subscribers, and included the links where they can leave comments or questions for me.
The audiobook also made me realize that I’d been trying to keep up with a reader poll I set up, but I’d been doing it because some marketing book told me to do it. I thought about it and decided I didn’t really need the data metrics, so I shut the poll down. Knowing the types of books my readers read or where they bought their books (and some of them probably don’t buy books but rely on free ones) wasn’t going to change what books I write or where I was going to sell them, because I have my own reasons for the books I choose to write, and financial reasons for only selling on Amazon.
At the end of the day, I also got some ideas for my fantasy serial novel and worked on that a little bit. It was not deep, focused work but I did manage to get a little more characterization done.
Although in hindsight I should have done my Japanese flashcards instead, because I never got around to doing them yesterday. I will make my flashcards more of a priority this evening after I finish my work for the day.
Today I’ll finish editing the Hawaii book (I only have 2 short scenes left) and then work on cutting 10,000 words from it. If I’m lucky I’ll get all that done today.
I’m doing to try to do two 2-hour Deep Work sessions of intense focus and see if I can maintain my concentration.
***
I couldn’t quite do 2-hour sessions. My back started aching after about 90 minutes, and I ended up doing two 90-minute sessions rather than two 2-hour sessions. I think it might be better to take care of my back and limit my sessions to 90 minutes. I do seem to get into deep concentration.
After three hours, my brain is a little tired. I finished editing the 2 scenes, However, I only got through about a third of the manuscript when cutting, and I hope I’m cutting enough. I chopped about 3800 words so far. If I can continue at this rate, I’ll be able to get it down to 25,000 words.
I didn’t think about this until I read the documentation I got from the publisher/formatter of our multi-author box set, but 12 novellas at 25,000 words each is approximately a 1000-page print book, which is humongous. The goal of the project is to try to make a bestseller list, so the print version can’t be split into two volumes, because the single-volume print book makes us eligible (I think) for the New York Times list.
So while I’m definitely trying to get it down to 25,000 words, I’m also trying to consolidate paragraphs so that the text is a little more dense on the page, which will hopefully make the novella take up a few less pages. I’m really not sure how he’s going to get all our novellas into a print book, but he’s had experience with this before.
Anyway, I want to do at least 4 hours of intense work today. I think I’ll be able to get at least 1 more hour in, but I think I need to take a walk to rest my brain before I do that.
In listening to the Deep Work audiobook, he mentioned a study that showed that most masters in a craft, like musicians, can only concentrate intensely for 4 hours. I can’t remember if he said that was for the entire day, or just a 4-hour stretch of time in the middle of a work day.
So I want to be able to work intensely for at least 4 hours each day if possible. And if I can stretch that to 6 hours, I think that would make me pretty happy, although that would cut into my reading time. I read somewhere that a famous Japanese novelist writes about 6 hours a day, then goes swimming or some other exercise. I am rather cynically assuming he doesn’t have to cook and clean his house, but at the same time I want to eventually build up to about 6 solid hours of work a day. I think that would make me very satisfied that I’d done a full day’s work.
***
I went walking to refresh myself, but I got a bit annoyed by the audiobook I was listening to, Several Short Sentences About Writing.
He was actually making really good points about learning how to revise your own work. You can more effectively learn how to revise if you know and understand the different uses of grammar and language that are possible, and the only way to really understand that is to look at different pieces of writing by different authors. His suggestion is to highlight the different grammatical parts in different colors so you can visually see the patterns, and compare the patterns of different authors. It sounds very tedious and I don’t think I’d have done it, but logically it makes sense to really understand the nuances that grammar can accomplish.
He also suggested other extremely tedious things like looking up every word, even if you think you know it, so that you can better understand the subtle differences in the meanings of similar words, which is actually a very good point. Really effective revision can only benefit if you understand vocabulary nuances and can choose the exact right word to convey the meaning you want in the sentence. But seriously, who’s going to look up every single word, even the ones they know?
I got annoyed because despite the good underlying content, the literary style of the writing started bugging me. I really just don’t like that style. Plus the tedious suggestions—even though there were good reasons for doing them—seemed unrealistic. So I stopped listening to it near the end of my walk, and returned home feeling dissatisfied and vaguely irritated. Then I cooked dinner, which might have evened out my mood.
After dinner, I got another 90 minutes of work done before my back started hurting. I realized that it’s actually because I have to use the trackball so much while I’m doing the editing. When I’m writing, I don’t use the trackball nearly as much as now. The excessive trackball use without a break makes my upper right back sore.
I’m a bit shocked I’m able to focus for such long stretches when I was so distracted before. Is it just because the book told me it was possible, and so I was able to make a mental decision and believe that I could really concentrate for a long stretch of time? Is it because I’ve eliminated all sources of distraction, including music? Can I keep this up? Will it be different later when I have to outline or write the next book, and I might need to look something up online? Will I be able to keep focusing even when I have to do a task like writing, where the work is a lot of stopping and starting?
I suppose if I continue to practice deep work, and maybe exercise my ability to concentrate by doing my Japanese flashcard memorization, maybe I’ll be able to continue this even when I’m doing other types of tasks. I’d like to be able to concentrate like this while writing.
I actually did a total of almost 5 hours of deep work today, and I was not distracted away from my task at all during my sessions. However, because my brain was a bit tired, I did end up taking longer breaks in between.
Since I’m not distracted, I’m assuming I’m getting more done during my deep work sessions than I did just working like normal. I suppose I won’t really know until I can compare metrics like words per hour rate or the total number of hours it takes me to write the next book. But those metrics will also be impacted by the fact that my new writing style is much slower, so maybe it won’t show much of a difference.
I did a lot of work today. I’m down to 28,500 words, and I’ve gone through about 2/3 of the book, so I am hopeful I’ll get down below 25,000 words by the end.
Outlining: time spent: 0
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 33 minutes (editing), 4 hours, 22 minutes (cutting 10k words)
Writing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Total number of words: n/a
Writing: Overall writing speed: n/a
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 41 minutes
My takeaway for today: If I make my Japanese language learning a priority, i might be able to train my ability to focus by doing the memorization.
My second takeaway for today: Because of my back, it might be better to only do 90 minute sessions, although I might be able to do longer ones if I’m not editing and using the trackball so much.
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