Camy's Writing Diary

After several weeks of being sick, now that I’m feeling better, my self-discipline is in the toilet. I stayed up too late last night and ended up sleeping through my alarm again this morning, so I had another late start to the day. I was going to try to do my writing right after getting back from exercise, but I’ve been feeling bad that other important things have been not getting done lately. Usually, there are things I do as my “frogs” first thing (exercise is one of them) because if I don’t do them first, then I never get around to doing them at all during the day. That’s just how I am—I’m usually too tired to get to them after I’ve finished my writing for the day. So many of those things haven’t been getting done recently, and while they’re not urgent, they’re still important. Things like house chores (because really, I can only stand so long before the floor has to be mopped and the shower has to be cleaned). So I did my “frogs” this morning before writing, and I admit I felt

I got started REALLY late today. It was totally my fault, I overslept through my alarm. On the bright side, I woke up feeling really refreshed and awake. Unfortunately, it’ll probably be hard for me to get to sleep tonight, which will make me get less sleep and feel tired tomorrow morning. I didn’t blog yesterday simply because I was a bit lazy, plus I ended work kind of late. I not only finished blocking the next scene, but I also blocked an additional scene which I had realized I needed a few days ago. Unfortunately I ended work around 11 at night and felt too tired to blog about it. I also feel guilty that I haven’t done any dictation for several days. A part of me wonders if it’s even worthwhile for me to dictate, since it has been taking me extra days just to do the cleanup editing. It’s nice that I can write 3000-5000 words in one day, but if I have to take an extra day or two to do the cleanup editing and rearrange my blocking notes, what’s the point? Then again, I am red

4thewords.com was down for maintenance yesterday, and for some reason I was too lazy to blog. I also had some IBS issues yesterday, and afterward, I realized that while each bout of discomfort likely adds to my stress levels, it might be possible to dissipate some of my stress with a walk, assuming I was feeling better by then. So I took a walk and found that I did indeed feel like I had a bit more energy than before. Taking advantage of that, I did a bit of editing on the manuscript. I had intended to do more, but I was feeling tired, and I admit I was a little lazy. I did not do any dictation yesterday. I am hoping to have more self-discipline today. However, I’ve been distracted all morning for some reason by little house concerns, which has caused me to procrastinate starting work. Argh! I don’t know why I do this! So I’m going to fall back on the Pomodoro Method for a little while to see if that helps me focus better. I need to do the cleanup editing of my dictation that

Exercise before writing I FINALLY felt well enough today to not only exercise but also do some dictation writing on my book! I can’t believe how good that feels! I considered doing the writing before exercise, but in the end I chose exercise first since my brain is usually firing at half-speed right after I wake up. The exercise helped me feel a bit more alert when I got back. Microphone setup I also have to admit that I did procrastinate a little bit before I started work. Part of the reason was my dissatisfaction with the setup of my microphone at my desk, but after I fiddled around with that, I think I’ve got a good setup down. Plan to slowly increase writing stamina I did 1 hour, 43 minutes of dictation, which I think was really good considering I haven’t done much dictation in the past several weeks. Eventually I’d like to do as much as 3 hours of dictation, but I’m also trying to slowly build up my writing stamina since it’s been so long since I’ve had a day where I w

I wasn't feeling very well when I woke up this morning, but I wanted to try to get some dictation done today regardless. I've been wanting to try to do dictation first thing, not only because it helps me not to procrastinate doing it, but also because my brain tends to be freshest in the morning. However, if I'm in pain or queasy, it's really tough for me to do my dictation. So even though I have the desire to try to do the dictation first thing, my body doesn't always accommodate me. I'm always hoping I’ll be well enough to be able to do the dictation first thing, to see how well it goes, but I'm starting to realize that I simply cannot count on that happening, even though I tried to be really strict about my diet. I simply never know when I'm going to wake up and not feel well. Instead, I need to try to work around my IBS. With that in mind, I think I need to give up or postpone my hopes to try to do dictation first thing. I almost always feel wors

Productivity while sick:   For the first time in a long time, I'm finally feeling well enough to be able to write for any length of time. My IBS was really bad for several weeks, mostly because I couldn't figure out what I was eating that was causing the IBS flareup. I think I finally figured out what food it was, because I'm feeling much better today than I have for the past several weeks. I did a little bit of writing every day, just to keep up my streak. I also did about five minutes of dictation on four different days since I last blogged. However, most days, my nausea was especially bad, and so I just did 100 words on my manuscript through typing. I also adjusted my microphone set up at my desk, and I am hoping that this will make it easier for me to start dictation every day. I know from experience that in order to get myself to stop procrastinating, I need to make it very easy for me to start work. I'm hoping that this new desk set up will help me so that I