Camy's Writing Diary

I fully admit that even though I don’t want to be superstitious, I felt kind of weird to be posting yesterday because of what day number it was, so I skipped it. In some ways that makes me feel silly because I know it’s not like there’s anything that can hurt me if I posted on day 666, but at the same time I felt uncomfortable and since it’s my blog, there’s nothing wrong with me deciding not to post. Unfortunately, maybe because I had decided not to post, I ended up being really lazy yesterday. I got the bare minimum done on my writing and blocking, just to make sure I did it and kept my streaks alive, and then I was supposed to do my taxes the rest of the day. But I ended up procrastinating by doing a bunch of house chores. Granted, they all needed to be done yesterday and they weren’t things I could put off. And they all needed to be done before dinner. When I finally sat down to work, I felt unmotivated (since I dislike doing taxes) which was probably why I got distracted with some...

I fully admit (even though I didn’t post) on Saturday, I was rather lazy. I did my bare minimum of writing and blocking, but I had an IBS flare-up in the morning that made me really tired. I took a break and thought I’d get to work later, but I never did. I’ve been thinking about it, and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t get back to work. I had fewer house chores to do than I did on the day before, but I was just mentally and physically tired. I retreated into my usual way to cope with it, which was reading. I wonder if I haven’t been reading enough the past few days and that’s why I felt rather starved for reading? Regardless, today I still have taxes to do, but I’ve developed a bad sinus headache today (the rain is probably affecting my allergies). So I just took a bunch of drugs, and I’ll need to wait for them to kick in. I’ll do my bare minimum writing and blocking, just to make sure I get them done today and don’t break my streak, but I’ll have to wait until later to do my taxes....

I’m hoping to finish doing my taxes today. I did only the bare minimum of writing and blocking just to make sure I did it and kept up my streak. If I have time later, I think I’ll devote it to figuring out the outline for my Hawaii series. Yesterday I did a little more work on it before bed, and I found I could do more when I have more time to devote to it, rather than only 30 minutes or so each day. And if I can finish the outline quickly, then I can get started writing it. The writing itself will hopefully only be a few minutes each day since I’ll be writing it as a free read on my blog, and I only need to write about 100 words a day. *** No, I ended up needing to do a lot of house chores that took up a lot of time today, and after doing a few hours on my taxes, I’m exhausted. I think I’ll stop here for today and try to finish my taxes tomorrow (I hope that’s not wishful thinking). Regency series: Editing: Time spent: 2 minutes Writing: Time spent: 5 minutes Writing: Total number of ...

I deliberately decided to make this a bare minimum workday because I have to do our taxes. I really should try to do a little every day starting in February, but I didn’t think of that until recently, and I figured I should just take a day and do it all. It’s just easier for me to compartmentalize it and do it all in one day. I have been feeling like I have more energy lately so today I went out for a walk, which I haven’t been able to do in a couple weeks because of the IBS pain. And I ended up getting some brainstorming done on the Hawaii book while I was out walking today, so that was great! I even came up with some good ideas to solve a couple problems I had come up against. *** I was too optimistic and I didn’t get my taxes finished today. I’ll have to work on it tomorrow, too.  Regency series: Editing: Time spent: 11 minutes Writing: Time spent: 5 minutes Writing: Total number of words: 126 words Writing streak: 140 days Blocking: time spent: 5 minutes Blocking streak: 134 da...

I got a late start today because I had a lot of house chores to do before I started work. I have a little bit of IBS discomfort today but it’s not bad, so I think I can do my work without problems. *** I got my writing and blocking done today, although I was feeling a bit unfocused after lunch. But when I realized I wasn’t concentrating, I stopped and did some breathing, and then I did some free writing to focus my thoughts and ideas on the problem I had to figure out. The free writing helped a lot to make me focus my scattered thoughts only on the exact problem I was trying to work through. However, I still have a long way to go to get better at deep focus for my work. It’s still too easy for my thoughts to get distracted away from my work. I want really intent focus like I’ve experienced a few times before where I do my work and I barely realize time is passing. I have noticed that when I have that kind of focus, I’m extremely productive in both writing and blocking. I think I just n...

I woke up with a sinus headache today, probably from my allergies since the weather suddenly turned hotter. However, strangely, I also have more energy than I did yesterday and my IBS is much better, so it was frustrating to be in so much pain when I’m feeling quite well otherwise. I wasn’t sure if the headache would go away after I took medication, since my sinus headaches tend to not always go away when I take painkillers. After I took medicine, I did some house chores while I waited to see if it would kick in. However, it didn’t get rid of the headache. But I wanted to get work done since I have so much energy, so after I took a little more medicine, I decided to try to work through the pain. If the headache develops into a full-blown migraine, then I’ll have to stop, but I thought I’d try to do as much as I could before then. I started work a little later in the day because I’d been trying to wait out the headache, but I hope I can get a few hours of work done before I have to cook...

My editing and writing time was a bit longer today because in the middle of each I had to do house chores (laundry and cooking) and I didn’t bother stopping my Toggl timer. But then it hit me that I feel very freed in not recording my words per hour writing speed. Part of my problem was that I was conscious of the fact that my writing time and speed was being recorded. Knowing my writing speed made me want to write as fast as possible. So I would feel the urgency to write quickly during that time, even when I was trying not to vomit write but to write more mindfully. It made my writing sessions a little stressful because I was aware I was measuring my writing speed, which made me conscious of how fast I was typing and every time I had to stop to think. But what also made it stressful to record my words per hours writing speed was that if I was slower one day over another, I felt disappointment in myself. I would then think about how to write faster. But I know by now that writing faste...

I didn’t have a very productive day today. I woke up with my back a little sore because I slept on it funny, and then I had an IBS flare-up. I took medicine and waited half and hour, and ended up feeling better so I did my 800 words of writing. I got another flare-up and had to take more medicine and wait before I did my blocking for today. But I got really tired in the middle of blocking and my thinking was fuzzy and slow. Since I wasn’t getting a lot done, I decided to stop and see if I felt better later. However, maybe the IBS sapped my energy, but I’m pretty exhausted, plus my back is still bothering me. I think I’ll quit for the week and start fresh on Monday. I hope I’m not just being lazy, but I think it’s still a good call. My brain is so tired that I’m just not able to concentrate. Regency series: Editing: Time spent: 13 minutes Writing: Time spent:  Writing: Total number of words: 135 words Writing streak: 135 days Blocking: time spent: 50 minutes Blocking streak: 129 day...

UGH! I was terribly distracted and didn’t get straight to work today. I got really excited about some new books coming out and added them to my book catalog, which I probably could have done later but I got into it and next thing I know, it’s an hour and a half later. It’s because after I did some Japanese reviews on Bunpro, I clicked on an interesting forum thread and heard about some new books coming out, so of course I had to go see what they were. I should have been more mindful and not checked the forum boards after doing my Japanese grammar reviews. I know very well that checking any news or social media before work is a recipe for disaster, but at that moment, I had forgotten. I actually haven’t been distracted by social media in a long time, so I got complacent about guarding against checking social media. A lot of authors I know simply unplug and don’t go online. That would certainly keep me off of social media, but I often need to do some research or look up a word while I’m ...

Health versus laziness For the past few days, I had some bad IBS flare-ups. On Monday and Tuesday, I actually got some writing done before the flare-ups started, but ended up only getting the bare minimum of blocking done. And then yesterday, the flare-ups were on and off all day, so I only got the bare minimum done. I probably should have posted my daily writing times even though they were just the bare minimum, but sometimes I feel like there’s no point in doing that, because there have been SO many days where I simply felt too sick to work. I also have to be careful not to just give up and do the bare minimum on a day where the pain isn’t TOO bad but I’m just being lazy. Monday was actually like that. I did get a full 800 words written, and when the flare-up started, I did the bare minimum of blocking (just to make sure I got it done for the day), and I intended to do more blocking later. But I never went back to work, even though the flare-up died down a bit more after dinner. I do...

I hope I won’t be too distracted today. I started re-reading Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World again to refresh my memory on deep focus practices. Also, for the past 3 days, I’ve been setting an alarm on my watch to remind me to do 1 minute of breathing every hour that I’m working. Sometimes it will snap me out of it when I’m distracted, sometimes it won’t (I’ll just turn off the alarm). But it’s valuable for the times it does work to get my focus back or to help quiet my distracted thoughts with some breathing. *** It took me a little while to get started with my work today, but once I did, I was able to focus while writing and got quite a lot done! I took a break for lunch but was able to get back to work right afterward, unlike yesterday when I was distracted and procrastinated a bit. I wonder what’s different today? Well, my back isn’t bothering me so that’s probably the biggest difference—yesterday, my upper back was bugging me quite a bit, and while it w...

The writing went a lot faster today because I noticed that my blocking notes for this scene were more detailed. The blocking for some scenes are more detailed than others, but lately I’ve been trying to have the same level of detail in every scene that I block so that the writing can go smoothly like today. It takes extra time to do the blocking, but being able to write smoothly and quickly as a result is very satisfying and makes the writing a lot more enjoyable for me. Not every writer likes this depth of outlining, but for me, it really works to make the writing process go quickly and feel more fun. *** WOW I had a hard time getting back to work after lunch. I started working on my blocking, but then I got distracted. I don’t know how much time I wasted, since I didn’t stop my Toggl timer while I was distracted.  I think part of the reason is that my upper back has been bothering me since I woke up, and it got a bit worse during lunch. However, I had been able to work through i...

I have a busy day planned for today. I have a doctor’s appointment, and then several errands that I have to run. In the midst of that, I will have to wait for my husband while he’s at a meeting at work, so I won’t be at my computer. I’m going to try to work while I’m waiting. It helps that I write in the 4thewords website, so I can access my files on any device with internet access. However, it might be a little tedious to write prose while I’m not at my computer because I usually have open a thesaurus website and an etymology website (to make sure words are appropriate for the Regency period), plus I will often reference my series “bible” on my Scrivener app. It’s a bit more fiddly to use those things on my iPad, but not impossible, so I’ll give it a shot. I’ll also hopefully get some blocking done, which is easier on my iPad since I only need my series “bible” for that. (I don’t often have to write on the go, and I’m really glad for that. It’s nice having a setup where everything I n...

This past Sunday, I didn’t intend to, but I ended up doing a lot of marketing stuff, blogging and writing my newsletter. On one hand, I’m glad it’s all done for the month, although it took a really long time. On the other hand, I feel like I didn’t get a rest day. Today, it occurred to me that I really should come up with a better plan for how to handle my marketing tasks. I’ve gotten into a rhythm and schedule for editing, writing, and outlining my manuscripts, but I don’t have any type of procedure or process for how to handle my marketing. This includes blogging, my newsletter, and many small tasks that mostly only need to be done once I’ve completed a manuscript. At the moment, I compose my newsletter within the Mailchimp website, but after thinking about it, I realized that I could write it in a word processing program instead. I know enough html to be able to format and add links on my own, and I would only need to log in to Mailchimp once I have to add images and schedule th...

Now that I’m starting to feel better, I have the luxury to start thinking about my publishing goals (as opposed to simply trying to write despite feeling like crap). At 500 words a day, it would take me over 6 months to write a 100,000 word novel, which means I would only publish 2 books a year. So I decided to increase my daily word goal to 800 words. As long as I am healthy, that will enable me to write 100,000 words in about 4 months, which would be 3 books a year. It’s the number of books I want to release each year at minimum, although I would prefer to release 4 or 5 books a year. At the moment, I think I can handle writing 800 words a day now that I’m starting to feel a little better and also since I’m learning to better manage my pain and work around it. After realizing that I could release 3 books a year if I up my word count, I’m also very motivated to push myself a little harder, which might help me be disciplined about doing those 800 words. Yesterday, I was really dist...

I had a couple flare-ups while working today, and each time I had to wait until it passed before I could start work again. As a result, I was pretty distracted during my writing time, and I also didn’t get a whole lot done. I couldn’t do anything about the flare-ups and needing to wait them out, but I really should do something about managing my distraction. I probably just need to practice more, but I feel bad about days like today when my attention is jumping all over the place. It took a while for me to get my attention back on my work, but I managed to stop what I was doing to procrastinate, and I closed my eyes and did some deep breathing for a minute. It really worked to help me calm my thoughts, which were jumping from topic to topic. I took that time to remember that I need to practice my deep focus, and then I went back to work. I think it worked pretty well, but the problem is snapping myself out of whatever mental state I drift into when I’m distracted and procrastinatin...

Lately, I’ve been waking up feeling sick from IBS, and so I have to take medicine and then just wait to see if I feel better. But that wait period can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours (although usually not that long). It also means I don’t get started on work right away, and so it  feels  like I end up having fewer hours during the day to get stuff done. Realistically, I have plenty of time since I don’t write for a full 8 hours. Even on a regular day, my actual writing time is rarely more than 6 hours since the other two are for writing-related things like reading to refill the creative well or do research. Also, I count my Japanese study time as part of my workday since it relates to my writing, although lately I’ve only been doing the bare minimum of my Japanese since I haven’t been feeling well. Also, even if I have home chores, I can sometimes shift them around to do them on other days if I’m really short on time. But just starting work one or two hours later still...

Today marks 120 consecutive days of writing prose every single day! Maybe because of my Achievement-based personality, the streak has helped me a lot to force me to work on my novel at least a little every day despite struggling with a chronic illness. I progress in my manuscript every day, a bare minimum of 100 words and a daily goal of 500 words. The bare minimum is low enough that I could easily do it even on days I’m feeling more sick than normal (I could even do the 100 words on my phone while in bed). I keep my mind refreshed daily with the story and characters so I don’t forget things and need to waste time re-reading to remember them. I’m much more efficient in my writing time and get more done. So despite the fact I didn’t think it would work at all, keeping a writing streak has actually helped me a great deal to get stuff done and be more productive. As has been the case for the past several days, I woke up feeling very sick from the IBS, and had to wait a couple hours for it...

I hate it when I get a late start to the day, but I was up late last night with some pain and discomfort, which made me get up later today, and then I had a bunch of house chores that needed to be done before I could start work. I’m also still feeling some IBS pain, but I took some medication and I’m just waiting for it to kick in.  Once again, I’m practicing patience with my health. I don’t know why I’m the type of person to throw in the towel so easily when I’m feeling sick, but that’s how I am. When I feel really terrible, I want to just quit and not think about work for the rest of the day. But I’m trying to learn how to be patient and wait to see if I feel better. So far, I usually only need to wait a few minutes or at most a couple hours before I feel well enough to get to work. I haven’t had a really bad day recently, so hopefully all this practice will help me to do the same when one of those hits. I realized that I’m also learning how to work through a little bit of discom...

Today might be a bare minimum day, because I woke up with a bad headache. I took medication but it’s doing a number on my stomach, which was already sensitive because of the IBS. I’ll do the bare minimum right now, just to make sure I don’t break my streak, and then see how I feel later. I was going to just not post today, but I realized that I need the public accountability. Otherwise, I might just throw in the towel and not even try to work later today, when I might be feeling better. *** It doesn’t always happen, but in this instance, after waiting a while, the headache medicine kicked in and I felt well enough to get work done. The IBS is still bothering me a bit, but that’s manageable with a bit of medication. I’m glad I waited to see how I’d feel later. At the time, I had felt pretty horrible and couldn’t imagine feeling well enough to get any work done, plus my headache medicine doesn’t always work (especially if it’s a sinus headache). But as I’m learning in how to work with a ...

I have to confess that not only did I go to bed late last night (I was watching Kingdom on Netflix—SO good!), I also wasted a bunch of time this morning updating books in my Apple Books reader app (basically I was adding series numbers to books I haven’t read yet so I’d know which book was next in the series after I read the first one). I fully admit it was a colossal waste of time, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself once I’d started, because I wanted to finish it so I wouldn’t have to remember to do it later. Which, thinking on it now, I should have just left a note for myself in my bullet journal to do later. Part of the reason I did it was because my IBS was bothering me and I didn’t want to write. It’s actually still bothering me now, but I have to get work done since I wasted my morning. Why do I do this???? Actually, I think I know why. I get focused on a task and don’t think about other things, such as the fact that I should stop the task and leave a note for myself to do...