Day 401: Distraction and walking around

Yesterday ended up being very busy, but for non-writing reasons. I had a bunch of important house things to do, and it was late in the afternoon by the time I was done with them. I still hadn’t done my Japanese yet, either, so I decided to skip the writing yesterday in favor of doing my Japanese and then getting to bed early.

I got a good night’s sleep, and got my Japanese done early in the day. I also had a scheduled coffee meeting with another writer friend, but that was only for a couple hours, and now I’m ready to start work.

I actually feel pretty energetic, despite the fact I got a lot done this morning before starting my writing. The good sleep helped, I think, and also the fact that I got that non-writing business out of the way yesterday, so I don’t have to worry about it anymore. I think I’m the type of personality where it significantly lowers my stress levels and helps me to focus better if I get things done and off my To Do list rather than having little things left for me to do later.

I’m still doing the Snowflake step 8 (Scene spreadsheet) and blocking for book 4, and right now I’m in scene #4. It’s good because I have figured out how to fix some issues I needed to address, and the way the synopsis had originally been laid out, the scene would have been poorly paced, so the blocking definitely is helping me with scene structure.

I hope I can get a lot done today!

***

I DID get a lot done today! Yay!

I was a bit distracted a few times while working. I noticed that it usually happened when I was stuck on a problem that I was trying to solve when blocking the scene. My mind would wander to something unrelated. But I usually managed to force myself back to concentrating on work.

Sometimes when I got distracted, I’d get up and walk around for a few minutes to rest my back, but a few times, I was able to come up with a solution to the problem I’d been working on. Maybe it was because of the (slight) change of scenery that helped shake my brain up.

So maybe next time I find myself being distracted, I should get up and walk around, because it might mean I’m stuck on a problem.

The blocking today was a bit complicated, too. I ended up adding a scene. I needed to add it to improve the pacing, but I also didn’t want the added scene to have no real importance for the story, so I was able to come up with ways to include some important information that is revealed, and it also set up events for an ambush that happens later in the book. So it ended up being a rather vital scene to include.

I didn’t have to cook tonight, so I pushed myself to get 6 hours of work done, despite the fact that I also spent a couple hours with my writer friend this morning. I’m really glad I got so much done, although now I’m really tired. I’ll probably go to bed early again today.

Outlining: time spent: 0

Blocking: time spent: 5 hours, 51 minutes

Editing: Time spent: 0

Writing: Time spent: 0

Writing: Total number of words: n/a

Writing: Overall writing speed: n/a

Time spent doing other writing-related business: (Forgot to set Toggl timer)

My takeaway for today: A good night’s sleep mades a huge difference in my energy levels!

My second takeaway for today: Next time I find myself being distracted, I should get up and walk around, because it might mean I’m stuck on a problem.