Day 609: Writing streak: A little each day adds up
I had a really awful IBS flare-up for the last several weeks, and I’m only now starting to feel better. It was a combination of a couple factors, one of which was “Well, that’s an honest mistake,” and the other that was “Well, that’s just complete stupidity.” (One food was supposed to be okay for me to eat but ended up not, and then I misread “teaspoon” as “tablespoon.”)
I managed to keep up my writing streak in the meantime, doing just the bare minimum for both writing prose and also blocking/outlining. Some days I felt a little better and got a whole hour of blocking done, other days I only did a few minutes.
For the writing, my bare minimum is 100 words or 5 minutes, whichever’s faster. Some days I went about 300 words, and other days I did between 50-100.
However, I recently finished writing a scene that was about 5700 words, all through doing just the bare minimum of writing each day. That’s actually kind of neat! It took me all of January, but still, that’s a lot better than nothing. It averaged out to about 150 words a day, with some days being more than double that and some days being less than 100.
This gets me kind of excited. My January was pretty pathetic, health-wise, but I still managed to get a scene written despite feeling like dog poop rolled over by a car.
Earlier, I had said that the writing streak helps my productivity more on the days when I’m feeling better and able to work more. Since I’ve been keeping my manuscript at the forefront of my mind by working a little on it every day, I’m more efficient in jumping into work on those days when I feel better.
But now I realize that the writing streak actually can help me be productive just by doing a little each day. It’s still too slow a pace—at that rate, it’ll take me almost two years to write my next novel—but I’m at least moving forward and adding words to the manuscript even when I don’t feel well, which is much better than nothing at all.
It also helps me alleviate the guilt I feel that I can’t work as many hours each day as I want to. I’m still getting a little done each day, so I’m not being a complete loser.
And when I do feel better, I get a lot more done than I would have if I hadn’t been working a little each day.
I’m still in the midst of my IBS flare-up, but it’s slowly getting better. I hope to start feeling better soon and then improve the number of hours I work each day.
Editing: Time spent: 3 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 12 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 230 words
Writing streak: 88 days
Blocking: time spent: 43 minutes
Blocking streak: 82 days
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 33 minutes
My takeaway for today: The writing streak forces me to do a little bit every day, even when I’m not feeling well, which eventually adds up. It not only helps me still be productive, it also helps me feel less guilt about not doing as much work on days I feel sick.
I managed to keep up my writing streak in the meantime, doing just the bare minimum for both writing prose and also blocking/outlining. Some days I felt a little better and got a whole hour of blocking done, other days I only did a few minutes.
For the writing, my bare minimum is 100 words or 5 minutes, whichever’s faster. Some days I went about 300 words, and other days I did between 50-100.
However, I recently finished writing a scene that was about 5700 words, all through doing just the bare minimum of writing each day. That’s actually kind of neat! It took me all of January, but still, that’s a lot better than nothing. It averaged out to about 150 words a day, with some days being more than double that and some days being less than 100.
This gets me kind of excited. My January was pretty pathetic, health-wise, but I still managed to get a scene written despite feeling like dog poop rolled over by a car.
Earlier, I had said that the writing streak helps my productivity more on the days when I’m feeling better and able to work more. Since I’ve been keeping my manuscript at the forefront of my mind by working a little on it every day, I’m more efficient in jumping into work on those days when I feel better.
But now I realize that the writing streak actually can help me be productive just by doing a little each day. It’s still too slow a pace—at that rate, it’ll take me almost two years to write my next novel—but I’m at least moving forward and adding words to the manuscript even when I don’t feel well, which is much better than nothing at all.
It also helps me alleviate the guilt I feel that I can’t work as many hours each day as I want to. I’m still getting a little done each day, so I’m not being a complete loser.
And when I do feel better, I get a lot more done than I would have if I hadn’t been working a little each day.
I’m still in the midst of my IBS flare-up, but it’s slowly getting better. I hope to start feeling better soon and then improve the number of hours I work each day.
Editing: Time spent: 3 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 12 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 230 words
Writing streak: 88 days
Blocking: time spent: 43 minutes
Blocking streak: 82 days
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 33 minutes
My takeaway for today: The writing streak forces me to do a little bit every day, even when I’m not feeling well, which eventually adds up. It not only helps me still be productive, it also helps me feel less guilt about not doing as much work on days I feel sick.
Comments
Post a Comment