Camy's Writing Diary

My IBS wasn’t terrible when I woke up, but it was just uncomfortable enough that it was very distracting when I tried to do my writing. I managed to write about 480 words, but I also copied and pasted some old text I’d written for this scene, so the word count is higher than that. I decided to stop there since I was feeling more uncomfortable by that point. I think I’ll take a break and see if I feel better later. *** I actually didn’t feel much better later, and I had to take more medication and then wait it out. Finally after dinnertime, the discomfort died down enough that I could sit down at the computer to do some blocking. I felt kind of tired by then, but I wanted to get at least a little bit of work done while I felt better, and I didn’t know how long that would last. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, thank God for 4thewords. I kept needing to take breaks while I was blocking, not as much from the IBS discomfort at that point, but instead mostly because I was...

For some reason my IBS is really bad today. When I woke up, I was feeling so awful that I just wanted to do the bare minimum of work and crawl back into bed. I tried to take medicine and then just wait until I felt better, but I never seemed to feel better. I ended up trying to work through it. As usual, the discomfort and pain was very distracting and kept pulling my attention from the writing, but I would just take a break, take more medication, and wait a little while until I felt a little better. Sometimes I was tempted to throw in the towel and finish quickly, but I tried to just be patient. Sometimes I waited almost half an hour, but I eventually felt a bit less uncomfortable and could go back to work, even if only for 15 or 20 minutes. Because I did a lot of stopping to rest, I took longer to get my writing done today, and I didn’t get as much work done while blocking. But I’m really proud of myself that I decided to try to get some work done. I felt terrible when I woke u...

My motivation to work has been terrible today, and it’s frustrating that I really don’t know why. I did have some IBS discomfort earlier, and so I waited a little while until I felt better, then got some writing done. But ever since lunch, I’ve been feeling terribly lazy and unmotivated. But I have to force myself to get work done. After all, if I don’t write, I don’t get paid. To give myself a kick in the pants, I started a 700 word count monster on 4thewords with a 3.5 hour time limit so that I’ll have to write at least 700 words to beat the monster. On days like this, I’m so thankful for 4thewords as an external source of motivation. It helps that it’s something I can’t cheat at. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit how lazy I can be. However, confessing it in my blog post does spur me to do work so that I’m not a total loser. *** I did spend more time working, but I didn’t feel like I got a lot of work done. I was really distracted, my mind kept wandering, and I kept having t...

I’ve blogged before about how gamifying the writing has really improved my productivity. Today I was again reminded how 4thewords has really helped to prod me to write more even on days I don’t feel all that great. I had taken a quest that has you write 4000 words in 48 hours. I had already written 2000 words for the quest when I started writing today. I wrote 1500 more words, and then I started feeling tired, but I needed to write only about 500 more words to complete the quest, and I had only a few more hours left before the deadline. So I pushed myself to work a little longer to finish the quest in time. I definitely would have just quit once I started feeling tired today. I’m still feeling a bit of discomfort from the IBS, and the intermittent queasiness is extremely distracting when I’m writing. I always end up not being able to get much done because my brain gets pulled away from the writing when the discomfort gets above a certain level. It always dies down after a few minut...

I haven’t blogged recently even though I probably should have, for accountability. But honestly, not much has happened. My IBS is better although not entirely under control—I still get some bouts of discomfort and pain at random moments during the day. However, they’re mild enough that some medication can clear them up within about 30 minutes, and I’ve been able to get some writing done every day. Most days I get about 2-3 hours, although there were a few days where I only did the bare minimum. I’ve realized that trying to work while battling this IBS has forced me to be patient and flexible. If I’m not feeling well at the moment I sit down to work, I try to remember just to take some medication and wait a little while before trying again. Granted, there were some days I was so unhappy that I just threw in the towel and did the bare minimum for the day, and then didn’t look at my computer for the rest of the day. That happened about 25% of the time. But the other 75% of the time,...

I had a bit of a flare-up on Saturday and only got the bare minimum done both then and on Sunday. Earlier, I had blogged about trying to get work done in small bursts even on days I wasn’t feeling well. After all, there are always small pockets of time where the IBS pain dies down and I can spend a little bit of time working. It’s especially easy because my manuscript is online on 4thewords.com, so I can access it even on my phone. However, I had forgotten how much the IBS discomfort takes a toll on my energy, not just physical but also mental. I tried to be aware of when the flare-up started dying down so that I could perhaps get more done when that happened, but by the time I felt better, not only my body but also my mental state was exhausted. I absolutely couldn’t get more work done on Saturday and ended up going to bed early. I had been a bit too optimistic about being able to get work done even on days I wasn’t feeling well. I had forgotten that sometimes even if I’m not ph...

One of my (many) writing weaknesses is that I don’t like doing research. It’s especially hard to make myself do it when I’m anxious to start writing the book. For previous books, I could usually get away with putting off research until the editing stage. Then I’d do any research that needed to be done and edit the prose as necessary. But right now I’m blocking a book while writing another one. While blocking, I’m reaching a point where I really ought to do more research, and unlike previous books, now I don’t have to choose between research and writing the book. I don’t have to set aside the research in favor of the urgency of writing the book because I’m already writing one. So after spending a little time blocking today and feeling a bit lost, I decided to instead devote some time solely to research. I think it will help with not just this book I’m blocking (volume 5), but also the one I’m currently writing (volume 4) and the other books in the series. I had never expected th...

Today was a weird day. I was originally feeling sick and tired and only did the bare minimum. But then I ended up doing over 2 hours of work on the contemporary free read I’m working on, and I ended up doing a bit more editing and writing, too. I was going to do more blocking but it’s getting late. What I should have done was monitor how I was feeling sooner in the day. I might have realized I was feeling well enough to do more writing and blocking, but I didn’t even think about it after I did my bare minimum this morning. I always forget, but I need to remember that how I feel when I get up isn’t always indicative of how I’ll feel later in the day. I mean, sometimes it is and I feel like crap all day. But like today, sometimes the pain dies down enough for me to get an hour or two of work done.  The percentage of time I spent on different projects is a little skewed since I didn’t do as much blocking on my Regency, but I managed to get a lot of work done despite not feeling that...

I blogged yesterday about wanting to develop more discipline in going to bed earlier, but of course it wouldn’t be that easy. No, I did not go to bed on time yesterday, and yes, I was late getting started with work today. As a result, I didn’t get as much blocking done as I had wanted to, and I didn’t get anything done on the contemporary romantic suspense I’m supposed to be outlining for posting on my blog as a free read. The problem is that I don’t know how to develop discipline in this area. For my writing streak, I made each day’s bare minimum amount of work very small and doable. But going to bed on time is not easy to do because often I’m simply not tired, or I’m in the middle of a book or something and don’t want to stop. I’m going to have to brainstorm about how to make going to bed easier so that I can develop better discipline about it. Regency series: Editing: Time spent: 29 minutes Writing: Time spent: 1 hour, 5 minutes Writing: Total number of words: 839 word...

Despite the fact that I’ve kept up my writing streak for over 90 days now, I’m still woefully lacking in discipline in other areas of my life, which is rather frustrating. I suppose I had hoped that if I can develop discipline in one area, then the discipline would come easier in other areas. It does help that I have a daily checklist of things to accomplish each day. I have to check off my Japanese language study, my writing streak, and my blocking streak. I don’t have streaks going, but I also have boxes to check off for checking email, reading Regency novels to keep my head in the language of the time period, reading nonfiction for research, and also reading my Bible every day. I also have a box to check off for doing one task from my writing-related business To Do list, and also a box for doing 30 minutes updating my book catalog (it’s a huge project because it’s incomplete and out of date). I don’t always check off on reading nonfiction for research, or doing a writing-related...

Marketing is a necessary aspect of writing, whether you’re published traditionally or self-published. Unfortunately since I’ve published in two genres, I have two newsletters for marketing. While I can usually find something to write about in my Regency newsletter, recently I’ve had difficulty figuring out what to do about my contemporary romantic suspense newsletter when I’m not writing a contemporary novel at the moment, and I don’t have plans to release one until after I finish the Regency series. I’ve been trying to adhere to the “one a month” marketing strategy. It’s hard sometimes to have something of value to include in my contemporary newsletter. Actually, sometimes it’s hard to have something of value to include in my Regency newsletter too, but at least I can write about the book I’m working on. Mostly I’ve been blogging about “extra” tidbits that relate to my books. That includes recipes of food mentioned in the books, knitting patterns of knitted items mentioned in the ...

A few days ago, I changed up my writing routine a little (on days when I’m feeling well—when I’m not, I only do bare minimum on writing and blocking). Before, I had been writing only about 100 words in my manuscript each day and then spending more time on blocking. But a few days ago, I decided to increase my writing to 500 words so that I could release books faster. So far it’s been doing well. In 4thewords, I do several 100 word monsters each with a 10 minute time limit. The short time limit for each monster forces me to keep writing so that I’m not tempted to just sit and stare at the screen, or to revise each sentence too much. I get each sentence to a good place where I’m reasonably satisfied with how it reads, and then I’m forced to move on since the time is counting down. 100 words is actually not a lot to write in 10 minutes, so it’s not a very stressful time limit. My only concern is that it takes me anywhere from 30-60 (or more) minutes each day, and I’ve been finding tha...

Since I was thinking about my health yesterday, I also decided to make some adjustments to my writing desk today. My seat and keyboard and mouse and monitor is mostly adjusted to be comfortable, but I realized that I don’t move around enough during the day, and sometimes my back and butt get sore. So I decided to try for a different type of seat. Instead of sitting only on my seat cushion on the floor, I’m sitting on a small circular buckwheat meditation pillow on top of my seat cushion on the floor. I also adjusted the height of my monitor and the bed tray that holds my keyboard and trackball. Sitting on the buckwheat pillow forces me to keep better posture since I don’t have a backrest. Also, the buckwheat is a bit more comfortable than just the seat cushion since it conforms to my sit bones better. The buckwheat pillow forces me to move around a bit more, even while sitting. I change positions often—cross-legged most of the time, but sometimes sitting seiza , sometimes with my...

I don’t know if I can say that my IBS is a chronic illness, because the pain and discomfort can be controlled and maybe even eliminated with a very strict diet. It’s not like other illnesses where there isn’t a lot you can do to prevent pain. But I had to take a break from writing today because I had a sudden bout of pain, and I wondered how writers with real chronic illnesses get work done. I suppose they pushed themselves to work through the pain when it wasn’t too bad. It reminded me of one of my writer friends who does have a chronic illness, and she once told me that she often writes on her phone. I think what she does is at moments throughout the day when her pain is lessened, she gets some writing done no matter where she is or what she’s doing. She doesn’t have to sit at her desk or get out her computer. She just writes until she can’t anymore. When I thought about it, that’s rather freeing, too. She doesn’t have to feel guilty about not writing a lot in each session beca...

Today marks 90 days where I’ve done a little bit of writing every single day! Some days I barely got 50 words written, but I worked in my manuscript every single day no matter how I felt. On bad IBS days, it was really hard to force myself to work, but since my bare minimum only takes a few minutes, I was able to suffer through it just to keep up my streak. I started feeling better yesterday and got a lot done on the book, and that was partly because I’ve been working on it every day so the story is fresh in my mind. I don’t have to take time to re-read where I am in the story, and so I was more efficient with my time, writing fresh words instead of trying to play  catch-up. I didn’t get a lot of writing done in the past 30 days, but I still did manage to finish a scene, which was great! Those little bits of words really do add up! It also helped that I’ve been doing what some writers call cycling, which is that I’ll edit what I wrote the day before, and then start work on writi...

I’m feeling better lately, or at least, while I still have some IBS pain, it isn’t as bad as it was for the past few weeks. So I guess, relative to January, I’m feeling better. While it was gratifying to finish a scene despite feeling so crappy, I do still want to finish this series within a couple years, which means I should try to be more productive on the days I’m feeling okay. So I thought about it and decided to try for 500 words written on those days. Previously, I’d decided to focus on blocking/outlining the rest of the books in the series as fast as possible because it was just too confusing to write a scene in one point on the timeline and then do blocking on another point in the timeline. I wanted to finish the blocking quickly so that I wouldn’t have to worry about writing in a continuity error when I’m writing a scene. So I made a goal of only the bare minimum of writing each day (100 words), and then do as much blocking as my health will allow. But today, I decided t...