Camy's Writing Diary

The problem with not blogging is that I got lazy and I don’t have the accountability of needing to confess on a blog post what I did or didn’t do that day. I fully admit I was lazy yesterday and after only about an hour of writing, I did some reading. I do know that I haven’t been reading enough and so I probably needed to refill the creative well. I feel much less antsy today and more focused on work. I had forgotten that I need the accountability of blogging in order to prevent myself from slacking off. I hadn’t been blogging because I haven’t learned anything new in regards to my productivity and efficiency. I’m doing my “ frogs ” each morning, then getting started on work. I first do my self-editing on what I wrote the day before, then I get started on writing the scene for the day. My writing speed is a bit slower than before because I sometimes take the time to look up research. I know it’s not efficient, especially since I want to write faster, but I found during the self-...

Today I had a ton of marketing stuff to do because my book is releasing on Wednesday. I got a fast response from Amazon (go KDP!) about why my paperback book was having that error message—apparently the title in the ISBN listing on Bowker’s was different from what I’d typed as the title in KDP. The problem was the apostrophe—my browser automatically changes the apostrophe to a smart apostrophe, but it’s a plain apostrophe in Bowker’s. So I just changed the apostrophe in KDP to a plain apostrophe and it worked fine. I had intended to do my writing first today, but I wanted to get all my marketing tasks out of the way early, especially because I had to send an email as early as possible today for my Street Team. This is all because I’m so last-minute with everything for this book launch, since I was pushing to release books 4 and 5 this year, within 1 month of each other. Next time I’m just going to release after the book is done, no matter how long it might take me to write it. It’s...

Today is 400 consecutive days where I’ve done at least the bare minimum of writing every single day! It helps that my bare minimum is only 100 words in my manuscript, but I think it’s been really good for training my self-discipline and motivating me to sit at my computer or even just type away on my phone no matter how sick I might be feeling. I haven’t blogged for a while because not much has happened. I finished self-editing my book, but it took longer than I wanted because I had some nausea from my IBS, which made it hard to concentrate sometimes. I sent the book to my editor, who got it back to me lickety-split. I put the ebook up on Amazon for preorder. I had problems with publishing my paperback on Amazon and now I’m just waiting on an email I sent to their help desk. On a whole, my IBS is better than it’s been, so I’ve been trying to increase the number of hours I work each day. It’s easier to do when I’m editing or doing marketing, which doesn’t require as much intense c...

My IBS is better today, and as a result, I feel like I have a lot more energy. It’s been easier for me to spend more hours working since my energy levels are higher. I can’t always count on my IBS being better and my energy levels being correspondingly higher, but I want to take advantage and get as much work done as I can while my body is cooperating. I’m editing my book right now and it’s going smoothly. However, I have noticed something although I’m not entirely sure if it’s true or not. It seems as though my writing with dictation isn’t quite as good as when I’m typing. A big reason is because I didn’t see patterns of word choice when I was dictating, and so there’s a lot of repetition. The problem is that I don’t always catch it when I’m editing, and sometimes I catch it later when I’m almost done editing the scene. I don’t think my writing is bad, and there are moments of loveliness in the prose (I hope I can say that about my own writing). But I do think that my writing ...

I happened to have the cover for book 5 ready, so here it is! I usually don’t write on Sundays, but I was almost done with the book and wanted to finish it, plus I wanted to get the book to my editor ASAP because I was behind on the time frame I told her it would be ready. I only had one short scene to write, so I just decided to push through and get it done. I haven’t blogged for a few days mostly because not much has happened in terms of writing productivity. I’ve had some IBS issues (as usual), but I managed to get about 3 hours of writing done each day. I even did writing on Thanksgiving by getting up extra early, but to be honest, we didn’t have a big gathering so there wasn’t much cooking do to for just my family, and my husband did the turkey, which was probably the most labor intensive. I had been hoping to develop more writing stamina and write for more hours each day, but I haven’t been able to get more than about 3 hours every day before I start feeling tired. Part of ...

I had a bad IBS flare-up this weekend, which really set me back on my writing. I had a bunch of marketing tasks to do on Saturday that didn’t get done, so I spent about 5 hours yesterday doing all of that. It was a lot more work than I had expected, but I’m glad it’s finally done. But since that was all I did (besides the bare minimum of writing on my manuscript, about 100 words), I didn’t bother to blog about it. My self-publishing To Do list helps me to keep track of everything that needs to be done, but it’s been really tough to coordinate the scheduling of everything when a book releases a month after the other. If I ever wanted to release a book a month, I will have to readjust my self-publishing To Do list and schedule. I simplified my To Do list a bit yesterday. It makes self-publishing easier because I can just copy and paste a lot of stuff that needs to be written, such as newsletters and messages to my Street Team. The only thing that took a lot of time yesterday was comi...

I felt absolutely terrible this morning, so I took medication and relaxed, waiting for the medicine to kick in and the symptoms to calm down. It took a while, longer than I had expected, and by then, I was so tired that it was hard to force myself to get started on work. However, it was my writing streak that saved me this time. I try to do at least 100 words each day, and I hadn’t yet done my writing for the day, so I needed to at least sit at my desk to get that done. Just the act of firing up my computer helped get me in a better frame of mind, and I got started on my writing almost immediately. I wasn’t even aiming for only 100 words—I was ready to work as long as it took to finish the scene I was writing, since I had stopped in the middle yesterday. I finished the scene and decided to start the next one, and finished that, too. I think it really is very motivating for me to set scene goals rather than word count goals for each day. I seem to end up getting a lot more done that...

(I discovered today that I miscounted a few days ago, so today is actually day 899 and my writing streak is actually 378 days today.) I started the day off rather badly, with bad IBS nausea when I woke up. However, since I wasn’t in any mental state to write, I finished a lot of house chores. I usually have a heavier load of house chores than normal on Thursdays, and I got it all done. Because of the number of chores I need to do on Thursdays, I have also scheduled Thursdays as a marketing day, and so I did some marketing tasks that were due today. I finally started feeling better late in the day, but by then I was already feeling tired. I found myself procrastinating a lot rather than just getting started on my work. I really don’t know why I have such a tendency to procrastinate. It’s not like I hate my work—I love writing, plus I’m at the end of the book, which is usually the best part to write. And yet I wasted time on Amazon. I bought supplies that I did need, but I didn’t...

I was sick for most of yesterday with nausea from my IBS. I tried to push past the nausea and get some writing done, but in the end I only got about 1000 words written before I called it a day. I went to bed early, but woke up around 1:30 am and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I just got up and had breakfast. My schedule is now a bit messed up, but I’m going to try to get work done. I might be able to get a lot done since I got up earlier than normal. I realized I’m working mostly on my self-discipline these days—to get started on my writing without procrastinating, to go to bed on time, to wake up on time, to exercise (assuming I’m not feeling too sick from my IBS), to stop eating so much. If I develop stronger self-discipline in one area, I’m hoping it will help me develop stronger self-discipline in other areas. But I’m not sure, because self-discipline isn’t exactly like a muscle fiber, it’s psychological instead, and brain chemistry doesn’t work the same as physiology. Anyway,...

I managed to have the self-discipline to go to bed on time last night and I got up early this morning, but I’ve still got some IBS issues that are making it hard to concentrate on my work. The nausea is especially making my body feel fatigued. However, I am only 9 scenes away from finishing this book and I really want to try to get it done by my self-imposed deadline of the end of the day on Wednesday.  Yesterday, since I usually don’t write on Sundays, I didn’t work on the manuscript, but I had lots of marketing tasks that needed to be done yesterday, and I ended up doing marketing for several hours. So while I usually don’t work on Sundays, I did anyway. :P I got a lot done and I did my best to get tasks out of the way so that I wouldn’t have any urgent marketing tasks to do until Thursday this week, clearing my time for as much writing as possible. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done today because of my IBS, but I’m going to try my best. I was reading a nonfiction book and was r...

My self-discipline wasn’t great last night, I went to bed a couple hours later than I should have. However, I also woke up a little earlier, so hopefully that will make up for it. My IBS isn’t too bad today, so I managed to get my “ frogs ” done before starting work, which always makes me feel better. It’s a refreshing feeling that's a bit like cleaning my desk before starting work. Since today is Saturday, I had a bunch of marketing tasks that needed to be done before I could start writing. If I weren’t trying to finish this book by Wednesday or Thursday, I would have simply worked a bit on my Hawaii serial novel being posted on my blog. However, I’m trying to write as much as I can to make my personal deadline, so I need to get Regency writing done today in addition to the marketing tasks, which makes for a more busy day. I didn’t finish all my marketing tasks, but I already spent 90 minutes on it, and I want to make sure I get my writing done. I’m feeling a bit tired—maybe...

I’ve still got some IBS issues today, so writing is going to be a little difficult since I’ll have to push past the pain. However, the discomfort is not as bad as normal, so that’s good. I’m still apparently eating something that’s causing issues, but it’s not in a huge amount, so I can still get my work done while I try to figure out what it is. I got most of my “ frogs ” done this morning—exercise, a little Japanese study, my email. I skipped the house chore for now and will try to get to it later, because I wanted to get started on my writing as soon as possible. I did get to sleep early last night, but still overslept a little. I think my body tends to need more sleep when I’ve had a flareup, and I forget that. However, I was glad I had the self-discipline to get to bed on time, and I hope I’ll have that same self-discipline tonight. I think that I get more done during the day when I go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. It might be because of the daylight hours. I’m going to ...

I have such AWFUL self-discipline sometimes. I stayed up too late last night watching Netflix. In a sense it was good since I heard some rather good dialogue in the show I was watching, but later episodes had worse writing, so the dialogue was not as good and the character development was incredibly inconsistent. And I really shouldn’t have spent so long watching Netflix because ultimately it will cut into my writing time for today. To top things off, I have a small IBS flareup today, so I’m pushing myself to work past a bit of pain. However, I’m still going to try to get as much work done as I can despite my self-destructive tendencies. I really need to develop more self-discipline, especially because I’ve set a personal goal of finishing this book by the 17th. I’m not sure if I can do that, but I’m really going to try. I was listening to a podcast this morning while I was doing the house chores that I need to do on Thursdays, and it got me fired up about being disciplined with ...

I woke up a bit late this morning, and I wasn’t feeling 100%, but after doing a few of my “frogs”, I got started on work as soon as possible. I wanted to have as much time to get writing done as I could while I didn’t have too much IBS discomfort, just in case some flared up later in the day. That didn’t happen, thank the Lord, but I was still glad I was conservative with my energy today. I haven’t been spending as much time on my “ frogs ” lately because of my health. I usually try to do exercise, email, my Japanese study, and house chores. I’ve been cutting short the time I spend on my email and Japanese (my exercise is already only 45 minutes of walking and I don’t want to go less than that). Eventually, I’d like to spend more time on my Japanese in the morning before I start work, but since I’m still in that stage where I’m not sure if my IBS will flare up later the day, I’ve been rushing my “frogs” to prioritize the writing. Now that I’ve moved my marketing to Thursdays and Sa...

I’m feeling much better today, but I didn’t bother to try to do dictation. As a result, it was very easy for me to simply sit at my desk and start writing. No procrastinating, I didn’t have to fight myself to get started on the dictation. I still don’t know why dictation is so much harder for me than typing, but at the moment, I’m more interested in finishing this book on time. I also hope that typing will enable me to write for longer and longer hours each day until I can get back to writing 6 or 7 hours a day, assuming my health keeps improving. My writing today was slow, however, because I found a couple plot holes that needed to be fixed. I could have left them to be fixed later, but I felt that it would be better to fix them now, while I knew where exactly in the manuscript I needed to revise the text. I worked longer hours today than I have recently, about 4.5. I got about 3900 words done. I had been aiming for 5000 words, but writing was taking a long time today and I was ge...

I really wanted to do more dictation today, but because my IBS was bothering me off and on all day, it just seemed easier to type rather than dictate. Logically speaking, I don’t know why it’s easier. Theoretically, I could easily turn on my digital recorder or start the recording app on my computer, almost as easily as starting typing on my manuscript. I think it’s simply that it’s more mentally challenging to dictate than to type, at this point, since I’m more used to typing. I was able to type and write in my manuscript, stopping at times when the IBS gave me issues, for almost 2.5 hours today, which is great. It’s much more time than I’ve spent on my writing in several weeks, since the IBS flareup first got bad. I wrote almost 3000 words today and finished a scene. I did notice that while my writing speed was slower when I first started, it picked up in the middle, but it slowed down again at the end because I was feeling tired. But I pushed through because I was almost done ...

I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I miscounted my days and my 365 writing streak was yesterday! I didn’t notice it until this morning when I discovered I’d forgotten to count two days before. So, yesterday was 365 consecutive days of writing at least 100 words in my manuscript every single day! It was really hard, especially on days I felt sick. But even when my IBS was particularly bad, I always had at least 10 minutes here or there when the pain or nausea would subside temporarily, and so I whipped out my phone and wrote 100 words. It was especially easy to do because I write in 4thewords, and so the most recent chapter I’m working on is saved online at the website, and I can access it anywhere. It’s also easy to start a battle with a 100-word monster and then stop when the monster is defeated. 100 words a day is really not very much, so it’s easy to do, although it would take a long time to write a book that way. But just the act of getting my head into my manuscript every day ...

I had a bad IBS flareup the past few days, and I'm still not feeling well but I wanted to get some work done today. I took some medication but was still dealing with pain and nausea, but I just powered through it to get some marketing work done. My book is releasing on the 16th this month, and I had some issues with uploading it to Kindle with the ISBN I had purchased from Bowker. After chatting (rather fruitlessly) with Amazon customer service, I finally tried a different ISBN number and that seemed to work. So now I'll have to deal with customer service with Bowker in order to fix it (and likely they'll say nothing's wrong with the ISBN and the problem was with Amazon). I was still feeling crappy so I was only going to do the bare minimum of writing today, and I started work on my manuscript, typing in 4thewords. However, I started feeling better as I was writing and I ended up writing more. I also accidentally started a large word count monster, which made me wri...

I had a bad bout of IBS yesterday, so I only did the bare minimum of writing. I thought that it wouldn't be hard to do just five minutes of dictation, but it really is just easier to type. There seems to be a lower threshold of resistance to just starting it. I wonder why? Dictation is just talking. It must be because it's still difficult for me to do--to reorganize my thoughts so that I speak my writing instead of sending it to my hands--so getting started is harder. Typing is no longer difficult for me, so it's easier to get started typing. I actually ended up doing several " frogs " yesterday first thing after I woke up. My IBS wasn't quite so bad at the time, and it was mentally relieving to get those things out of the way before I got down to my writing. However, by the time I was ready to write, my IBS had gotten much worse and I had to take medication to calm it down. Unfortunately, that left me feeling tired and sluggish, which was why I opted to sim...

After several weeks of being sick, now that I’m feeling better, my self-discipline is in the toilet. I stayed up too late last night and ended up sleeping through my alarm again this morning, so I had another late start to the day. I was going to try to do my writing right after getting back from exercise, but I’ve been feeling bad that other important things have been not getting done lately. Usually, there are things I do as my “frogs” first thing (exercise is one of them) because if I don’t do them first, then I never get around to doing them at all during the day. That’s just how I am—I’m usually too tired to get to them after I’ve finished my writing for the day. So many of those things haven’t been getting done recently, and while they’re not urgent, they’re still important. Things like house chores (because really, I can only stand so long before the floor has to be mopped and the shower has to be cleaned). So I did my “frogs” this morning before writing, and I admit I felt ...

I got started REALLY late today. It was totally my fault, I overslept through my alarm. On the bright side, I woke up feeling really refreshed and awake. Unfortunately, it’ll probably be hard for me to get to sleep tonight, which will make me get less sleep and feel tired tomorrow morning. I didn’t blog yesterday simply because I was a bit lazy, plus I ended work kind of late. I not only finished blocking the next scene, but I also blocked an additional scene which I had realized I needed a few days ago. Unfortunately I ended work around 11 at night and felt too tired to blog about it. I also feel guilty that I haven’t done any dictation for several days. A part of me wonders if it’s even worthwhile for me to dictate, since it has been taking me extra days just to do the cleanup editing. It’s nice that I can write 3000-5000 words in one day, but if I have to take an extra day or two to do the cleanup editing and rearrange my blocking notes, what’s the point? Then again, I am red...

4thewords.com was down for maintenance yesterday, and for some reason I was too lazy to blog. I also had some IBS issues yesterday, and afterward, I realized that while each bout of discomfort likely adds to my stress levels, it might be possible to dissipate some of my stress with a walk, assuming I was feeling better by then. So I took a walk and found that I did indeed feel like I had a bit more energy than before. Taking advantage of that, I did a bit of editing on the manuscript. I had intended to do more, but I was feeling tired, and I admit I was a little lazy. I did not do any dictation yesterday. I am hoping to have more self-discipline today. However, I’ve been distracted all morning for some reason by little house concerns, which has caused me to procrastinate starting work. Argh! I don’t know why I do this! So I’m going to fall back on the Pomodoro Method for a little while to see if that helps me focus better. I need to do the cleanup editing of my dictation that ...

Exercise before writing I FINALLY felt well enough today to not only exercise but also do some dictation writing on my book! I can’t believe how good that feels! I considered doing the writing before exercise, but in the end I chose exercise first since my brain is usually firing at half-speed right after I wake up. The exercise helped me feel a bit more alert when I got back. Microphone setup I also have to admit that I did procrastinate a little bit before I started work. Part of the reason was my dissatisfaction with the setup of my microphone at my desk, but after I fiddled around with that, I think I’ve got a good setup down. Plan to slowly increase writing stamina I did 1 hour, 43 minutes of dictation, which I think was really good considering I haven’t done much dictation in the past several weeks. Eventually I’d like to do as much as 3 hours of dictation, but I’m also trying to slowly build up my writing stamina since it’s been so long since I’ve had a day where I w...

I wasn't feeling very well when I woke up this morning, but I wanted to try to get some dictation done today regardless. I've been wanting to try to do dictation first thing, not only because it helps me not to procrastinate doing it, but also because my brain tends to be freshest in the morning. However, if I'm in pain or queasy, it's really tough for me to do my dictation. So even though I have the desire to try to do the dictation first thing, my body doesn't always accommodate me. I'm always hoping I’ll be well enough to be able to do the dictation first thing, to see how well it goes, but I'm starting to realize that I simply cannot count on that happening, even though I tried to be really strict about my diet. I simply never know when I'm going to wake up and not feel well. Instead, I need to try to work around my IBS. With that in mind, I think I need to give up or postpone my hopes to try to do dictation first thing. I almost always feel wors...

Productivity while sick:   For the first time in a long time, I'm finally feeling well enough to be able to write for any length of time. My IBS was really bad for several weeks, mostly because I couldn't figure out what I was eating that was causing the IBS flareup. I think I finally figured out what food it was, because I'm feeling much better today than I have for the past several weeks. I did a little bit of writing every day, just to keep up my streak. I also did about five minutes of dictation on four different days since I last blogged. However, most days, my nausea was especially bad, and so I just did 100 words on my manuscript through typing. I also adjusted my microphone set up at my desk, and I am hoping that this will make it easier for me to start dictation every day. I know from experience that in order to get myself to stop procrastinating, I need to make it very easy for me to start work. I'm hoping that this new desk set up will help me so that I...