Day 820: Dictation, day 27 - Editing my dictation
I was very bad about keeping to my schedule today. I let myself get distracted by various house chores. They were important, but 20 minutes here or there adds up, and I ended up starting my writing work later in the afternoon than I wanted.
I should have expected this because I had skipped my frogs for several days, but my marketing and my email took longer than I wanted. I cut my marketing a little short also.
I started off doing the cycling edit on the scene that I had finished a few days ago. Unfortunately, the editing took a lot longer than I had expected.
That seems to be the common theme. All these things seem to take much longer than I expect. I am vastly underestimating how long these tasks should take.
I don't know how long I thought the cycle edit would take. I probably thought it would only take a few minutes, like it used to when I did the cycle edit before starting writing (via typing) every day. But I had forgotten that when I do the cycle edits at those times, I'm usually editing only a few thousand words. In this case, the scene was 7000 words, and it took me about two hours.
By the time I was done with the cycle edit, my shoulder and wrist were sore from using the mouse so much. I think that I am going to have to really limit how much time I spend on the mouse every day so that I don't aggravate this injury more than it already is.
It was already fairly late in the day. I had a choice—I could do the cleanup edit of my dictation yesterday, or I could go out and walk and dictate without doing the cleanup edits. Since my shoulder and wrist were sore, I decided to go out and dictate.
I'm not certain if this is really a good idea or not. I don't want the cycle edits to pile up. When I was doing the cycle edits, I noticed that I had done a shoddy job of the cleanup editing. There were still lots of mistakes. It was obvious that I had rushed through it.
This was the problem that I was afraid of. I do not want the writing to suffer simply because I'm rushing through the cleanup edit. At the same time, I don't want to aggravate my shoulder and wrist injury by sitting at the desk for hours at a time in order to do edits.
I'm going to have to figure out a way to fix this problem. At the moment, I don't really have a good idea of what to do.
I could go back to my method of doing the cycle edit on the few thousand words I did the day before. However, when I do that, I don't to the entire scene on once. I noticed today while doing the cycle edit that it helps a lot to do the entire scene at once. It help me to better be able to spot inconsistencies, continuity errors, and repetition. So I want to continue doing the cycle edits one entire chapter at a time.
Another option would be to skip the cycle edits entirely. Instead, I would be relying upon the cleanup edit to be more thorough, and make an effort for them to be less rushed. Then I would do a final edit after the entire book is done.
This would save me time. But I'm hesitant to do this because I don't want to cut out and editing pass from dictating and writing. The dictation is a lot messier than when I type.
Right now, when I type, I am editing as I go, which functions a bit like the cleanup edit does for the dictation. Then, the next day, if I'm typing, I would do the cycle edit on what I had typed the day before.
However, if I eliminate the cycle edit, that would be like eliminating the cycle edit when I write and type. I'm not sure if it's smart for me to eliminate that editing pass.
I thought about doing the editing within Dragon, but I rejected that pretty quickly. Doing the editing in Dragon is extremely slow and fussy and inefficient. I have hated doing the editing in Dragon the few times I have done it. It's one of the reasons I have not spent much time training my Dragon, because in order to train it, I have to edit my writing within the program. It doesn't help that my computer is old, and the Dragon program runs very slowly.
By rights, I should jump at the chance to eliminate an editing pass, since I hate editing so much. But I really worry that the writing will not be as strong without that extra editing pass.
However, the more I think about it, the more I think that a good option to reduce RSI and to also save time is to eliminate the cycle edit and to spend more time on the cleanup edit than I have been. Up until now, when I do the cleanup edit, I leave notes to myself to look up words and do research when I do the cycle edit. But instead, I think I will have to do all that research while I am doing the cleanup edit.
I will also have to spend more concentrated time on the cleanup edit rather than rushing to finish it after I’ve transcribed my dictation for the day, which is what I have been doing. However, if I dictate at the end of the day and then do the cleanup the next day, I will probably be able to spend more time and brainpower on the cleanup.
Also, my final editing pass usually does not have many changes I need made. So skipping the cycling editing pass might be all right if I take more time on the cleanup edit as well as the final editing pass.
I might do this. It will certainly save me time, and reduce the amount of time I have to use the mouse.
***
During my walk and dictation, my intestines felt okay for change, but I had to turn around early because, of all reasons, I had to use the bathroom. :P
I had also forgotten that I was supposed to edit my blocking notes before I started dictating again. They were a complete mess. I did a lot of repeating sentences as I dictated a paragraph and then had to change what I said. It was very frustrating. It was probably just as well that I returned home early.
I still got some words done, and I'm glad of that. However, I won't have time to do the cleanup editing today, just like yesterday.
Walking in the late afternoon was actually quite pleasant because it was not so hot. I think I will try it again tomorrow. In the morning, I will work on doing the cleanup editing and also editing my blocking notes so that they are in better shape, to make it easier for me to dictate the scene. And then I’ll go walking and dictating in the late afternoon.
Also, tomorrow is 300 days in my writing streak!
Writing streak: 299 days
My takeaway for today: To reduce the amount of mouse work I have to do and to save some time, eliminate the cycle edit, but spend more time doing the cleanup and also the final editing pass after the manuscript is completed.
My second takeaway for today: Don’t forget to edit your blocking notes, stupid!
I should have expected this because I had skipped my frogs for several days, but my marketing and my email took longer than I wanted. I cut my marketing a little short also.
I started off doing the cycling edit on the scene that I had finished a few days ago. Unfortunately, the editing took a lot longer than I had expected.
That seems to be the common theme. All these things seem to take much longer than I expect. I am vastly underestimating how long these tasks should take.
I don't know how long I thought the cycle edit would take. I probably thought it would only take a few minutes, like it used to when I did the cycle edit before starting writing (via typing) every day. But I had forgotten that when I do the cycle edits at those times, I'm usually editing only a few thousand words. In this case, the scene was 7000 words, and it took me about two hours.
By the time I was done with the cycle edit, my shoulder and wrist were sore from using the mouse so much. I think that I am going to have to really limit how much time I spend on the mouse every day so that I don't aggravate this injury more than it already is.
It was already fairly late in the day. I had a choice—I could do the cleanup edit of my dictation yesterday, or I could go out and walk and dictate without doing the cleanup edits. Since my shoulder and wrist were sore, I decided to go out and dictate.
I'm not certain if this is really a good idea or not. I don't want the cycle edits to pile up. When I was doing the cycle edits, I noticed that I had done a shoddy job of the cleanup editing. There were still lots of mistakes. It was obvious that I had rushed through it.
This was the problem that I was afraid of. I do not want the writing to suffer simply because I'm rushing through the cleanup edit. At the same time, I don't want to aggravate my shoulder and wrist injury by sitting at the desk for hours at a time in order to do edits.
I'm going to have to figure out a way to fix this problem. At the moment, I don't really have a good idea of what to do.
I could go back to my method of doing the cycle edit on the few thousand words I did the day before. However, when I do that, I don't to the entire scene on once. I noticed today while doing the cycle edit that it helps a lot to do the entire scene at once. It help me to better be able to spot inconsistencies, continuity errors, and repetition. So I want to continue doing the cycle edits one entire chapter at a time.
Another option would be to skip the cycle edits entirely. Instead, I would be relying upon the cleanup edit to be more thorough, and make an effort for them to be less rushed. Then I would do a final edit after the entire book is done.
This would save me time. But I'm hesitant to do this because I don't want to cut out and editing pass from dictating and writing. The dictation is a lot messier than when I type.
Right now, when I type, I am editing as I go, which functions a bit like the cleanup edit does for the dictation. Then, the next day, if I'm typing, I would do the cycle edit on what I had typed the day before.
However, if I eliminate the cycle edit, that would be like eliminating the cycle edit when I write and type. I'm not sure if it's smart for me to eliminate that editing pass.
I thought about doing the editing within Dragon, but I rejected that pretty quickly. Doing the editing in Dragon is extremely slow and fussy and inefficient. I have hated doing the editing in Dragon the few times I have done it. It's one of the reasons I have not spent much time training my Dragon, because in order to train it, I have to edit my writing within the program. It doesn't help that my computer is old, and the Dragon program runs very slowly.
By rights, I should jump at the chance to eliminate an editing pass, since I hate editing so much. But I really worry that the writing will not be as strong without that extra editing pass.
However, the more I think about it, the more I think that a good option to reduce RSI and to also save time is to eliminate the cycle edit and to spend more time on the cleanup edit than I have been. Up until now, when I do the cleanup edit, I leave notes to myself to look up words and do research when I do the cycle edit. But instead, I think I will have to do all that research while I am doing the cleanup edit.
I will also have to spend more concentrated time on the cleanup edit rather than rushing to finish it after I’ve transcribed my dictation for the day, which is what I have been doing. However, if I dictate at the end of the day and then do the cleanup the next day, I will probably be able to spend more time and brainpower on the cleanup.
Also, my final editing pass usually does not have many changes I need made. So skipping the cycling editing pass might be all right if I take more time on the cleanup edit as well as the final editing pass.
I might do this. It will certainly save me time, and reduce the amount of time I have to use the mouse.
***
During my walk and dictation, my intestines felt okay for change, but I had to turn around early because, of all reasons, I had to use the bathroom. :P
I had also forgotten that I was supposed to edit my blocking notes before I started dictating again. They were a complete mess. I did a lot of repeating sentences as I dictated a paragraph and then had to change what I said. It was very frustrating. It was probably just as well that I returned home early.
I still got some words done, and I'm glad of that. However, I won't have time to do the cleanup editing today, just like yesterday.
Walking in the late afternoon was actually quite pleasant because it was not so hot. I think I will try it again tomorrow. In the morning, I will work on doing the cleanup editing and also editing my blocking notes so that they are in better shape, to make it easier for me to dictate the scene. And then I’ll go walking and dictating in the late afternoon.
Also, tomorrow is 300 days in my writing streak!
Writing streak: 299 days
My takeaway for today: To reduce the amount of mouse work I have to do and to save some time, eliminate the cycle edit, but spend more time doing the cleanup and also the final editing pass after the manuscript is completed.
My second takeaway for today: Don’t forget to edit your blocking notes, stupid!
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