Camy's Writing Diary

I made the mistake last night of going to bed too late. I'm still trying to finish the library books that I borrowed which are due in a couple days, so I stayed up too late trying to read. As a result, I got up late this morning. My IBS was feeling better this morning, and I had enough energy to get some exercise done, which made me glad. When my IBS is bad, my exercise usually gets neglected, and that can make my body ache in various places when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours writing. I was going to do my dictation right after my exercise, but I had some time-dependent house chores that needed to be done first. I also ended up doing a few “frogs", so now it's afternoon and it feels like yesterday, where I did my frogs before I started work on the writing. So I completely failed at trying to get the writing done first. Maybe because it's the early afternoon, but I also procrastinated again before starting my writing work. I'm still not entirely sure wh...

I got up a little earlier today and got some of my “frogs” done first. I have to admit, it felt really good to get these tasks out of the way. I’d been neglecting them recently because I wasn’t feeling well and prioritizing the writing over these other writing-related tasks, but finishing these things today really relieved a bit of stress I hadn’t realized I had. These were marketing tasks that needed to be done, and it was a relief to get them done a little ahead of schedule. I don’t think it was wrong of me to prioritize the writing the past few weeks, but it caused me to not complete the other writing-related tasks, which weren’t as important. However, even if they weren’t AS important, they’re still IMPORTANT, and it’s definitely less stressful when I keep up with all the other writing-related tasks in addition to the writing. However, I did find myself procrastinating before starting on my dictation, and I’m not sure why. It would be easy to say that I was simply lazy, but I d...

I fully admit I was terrible about going to bed early last night. I have some library books that are due in a few days, and so I was trying to read them before I have to return them. As a result, I got up late this morning. I was terrible about procrastination yesterday, so today, as soon as I got up, I tried to be very efficient. I'm feeling a little bit better than I did yesterday, so I was able to get some exercise done first (because if I don't exercise right after I get up, I absolutely will not exercise that day). After exercise, I did some time-dependent house chores, and then I immediately set up in the backyard to dictate my fiction. Thinking about it, it really helps that the IBS cramping is not very bad today. I had enough energy to exercise, which is usually a good indication that I'm feeling better. I don't think my procrastination is related to my lack of energy, but it does seem a little bit easier to get into my work today. *** The bugs were real...

I don't know why but I procrastinated a lot before I started work this afternoon. It could be because I had some bad cramping this morning from IBS, and although I took medication, it didn't start to get better until the early afternoon. When I did start to feel better, I decided to scramble to try to get work done while I was feeling well, but for some reason I kept procrastinating starting. I don't know why I am like this. It's very frustrating. I even have all my technology already set up. I decided to dictate at my desk, and I already have my podcast microphone set up, so all I had to do was start the audio recording app that I'm using. And yet I spent a lot of time just wandering around the house and doing random house chores rather than starting work. I don't think it has anything to do with the new scene that I'm writing. It's a very necessary scene, and I thought I did a good job blocking it. It should be easy to write. And yet, I procrasti...

There’s something about Saturdays that makes me want to slow down. I got up a bit late, and then I spent too long reading during lunch. I had some family stuff and house chores to do also, but just when I was about to start work, my IBS got really bad. I had to take medication and wait for it to kick in. So I'm starting writing today little bit late. I did get some of my frogs done earlier when my IBS was bothering me a bit, so did get some writing related work done today. But I'm hoping that I can dictate a little bit more and get some more words done. My dictation has been very slow the past couple days, probably because I hadn't done dictation in a couple weeks. In order to battle my procrastination, and also to get more used to dictation, I want to try to do dictation even on days when I only have to do the bare minimum. Hopefully I won't have too many full sick days after this, but even if I do, hopefully I can get at least five minutes of dictation done durin...

My IBS was still bothering me today, but I still wanted to get some work done. I did some of my “frogs" in the morning and early afternoon, since I could do them even though I wasn't feeling well. So I got some marketing and my email done even though my IBS was bothering me. By the time my IBS symptoms died down, it was already in the late afternoon and I was feeling really tired. However, I remember blogging yesterday about how it was hard to get myself to start work. In order to combat my tendency to procrastinate, I decided to try to do at least a little bit of dictation every day, even if it was only five minutes of writing to do the bare minimum in order to keep up my writing streak. I decided to try something a little different today, and I did my dictation at my desk, using my podcast microphone. I wasn't sure how that would work out, especially because my podcast microphone is pretty heavy, and I don't have a boom mic stand to use with it. I will probably n...

I had a really bad IBS flareup for the past two weeks. It was so bad that I had to take full sick days because of the pain and nausea. Some days, the pain subsided for a few hours. I did get the cleanup editing done on the dictation from 9/6 and 9/7, and I also managed to do the final round of edits on the 4th book of my series, which I had given to my editor. But on a whole, I felt pain and nausea almost all day. I never knew when I would start to feel better. And while the IBS usually felt better in the afternoon, by then I was usually too exhausted from dealing with the pain all day. I also realized that while it might seem like dictation is less work than typing, it’s actually more difficult. I have to concentrate harder when I dictate, so it takes more energy. When I’m tired, I can barely string together two sentences, so dictation is completely out. I’m a bit upset at myself. I had set a personal deadline of September 14th to get as much work done on book 5 as I possibly ...

I had bad IBS yesterday, and I woke up a little late. I had wanted to do dictation earlier in the morning, but because the IBS was really bad, I decided to do other things instead. What I should've done was get some marketing done, but instead I ended up doing house chores. I was trying to do the dictation in the backyard yesterday, since I had been distracted by cars and pedestrians when I went walking, plus I’m getting a bit of plantar fasciitis from walking too much and wanted to rest my foot. Unfortunately, it was really difficult for me to simply get started on the dictation. I putzed around and got distracted by various house chores. I must have wasted at least 45 minutes. And then once I finally did get started on writing, the dictation was absolutely terrible. It was a combination of factors, but the biggest one was probably because I got called away right after I did my dictation exercises to do some house chores, so there was a break before I started dictating my Re...

I'm really disappointed in myself. I got up extra early, but I ended up wasting time. One half hour here, one half hour there. I'm not sure if it's because I just tend to go slowly in the morning since I'm not a morning person, or if I just need to improve my discipline. Regardless, I got started late this morning, but I am now going walking and dictating. It's supposed to be very hot today, which was another reason why I had gotten up early in order to try to get started work earlier, but now that I am leaving the house so late, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to go walking. I may need to cut my walk short if it gets too hot. However, even if I do have to return home early and cut short my walking and dictating, I will try to make up the extra time by dictating in the house or in the backyard. I want to try to get at least 6000 words today. That means I will have to do at least two hours of dictating, and possibly five or 10 minutes extra just to be ...

I wanted to try walking and dictating earlier in the morning again today, but I woke up extra early with bad IBS pain, and the medication only half-worked. There are some days where I have the energy and want to push through the pain in order to get work done, but today wasn’t one of those days. So instead of dictating in the morning, I’ll do my dictation later in the day, whenever the IBS lets up. Since I couldn’t dictate, I decided to do my cleanup editing, which I’m way behind on anyway. Some of the editing took a really long time yesterday, so I didn’t finish editing all the dictation from Wednesday, and I didn’t do any of the editing of the dictation from yesterday (Friday). It’s not easy doing the editing while I’m feeling sick, but it’s easier than trying to dictate. I had done marketing and my Hawaii book on Thursday, which turned out to be good since I was behind on my marketing tasks before then, and I’m getting behind on my marketing again now. It seems I have so many ma...

I got up on time today, but I had a little bit of IBS this morning. However, I took some medicine and was able to get out of the house by 9:30. It's not as early as I wanted to go out walking and dictating, but it's earlier than I have been for the past several weeks. I wanted to try the dictation in the morning, before I did most of my other “frogs," in order to see if I dictate a little better in the morning as opposed to the afternoon or evening. I was also a little late getting out of the house because I was unprepared. That's my fault. I should have gotten everything ready the night before, but I just didn't think of it. I'll be ready next time. This morning, I had to print out my blocking notes so that I could use them while dictating. I have been reading my blocking notes on my phone, but it times it's very difficult to read. Also, the phone will often go to sleep, and I need to juggle it so I can use my thumb to unlock it. It’s only a small thing,...

I had yet another bad morning because of my IBS, but once it calmed down in the afternoon (helped by a lavish dosing of medication), I managed to get about 3 hours of marketing done. I’m really behind on my marketing tasks. I have to stop skipping my daily 1 hour of marketing during my other writing days. It’s piling up so much that I’m going to need to cut short my writing time in order to make sure I keep on top of the marketing. I feel most sluggish in the morning—partly because I’m still sleepy and I’m not a morning person, but also partly when my IBS is acting up. I usually do my Japanese study first, but what I should do is do some marketing during that time since that’s easiest for me to do when I’m not feeling 100%. I didn’t do any dictation exercises today, but I managed to write another short chapter in Year of the Dog , the Christian Humorous Romantic Suspense I’m posting chapter-by-chapter as a serial novel on my blog. I’m moving pretty quickly through the manuscript ...