Camy's Writing Diary

I don't know if this is me just wanting to give up, or being lazy or something like that. But I'm starting to think that I need to listen to my instincts more. I've been trying to get a more efficient system in place for my writing so that I can be more productive. I do think it was good for me to try different things, but a lot of the things I was trying to do were very difficult for me. I kept pushing on, hoping that it would get easier but it hasn't. For example, I've been trying to get my writing done first thing after I wake up. For some people, that's the best time to write their minds are fresh and they are full of energy. I do admit that I am less tired than I am in the afternoon, but it was really hard for me to focus and get the writing done. I was easily distracted, and it was difficult to focus. It has always taken me a little bit of time to get going in the morning. I'm not entirely sure why that is, because it's not like my brain is f...

And once again, I did not get to writing first thing after I woke up today. I knew I had to take time to pack today, and that I wasn't going to get a lot of writing done. Now that I think about it, I probably could've done a few minutes of dictation before I started packing, but it didn't occur to me. Also, considering how things on my to-do list tend to distract me while I'm writing, the thought of all my packing might've distracted me while I was working. So I took all day to pack, and then I did a little less than 13 minutes of dictation. Editing took eight minutes. So far, when I dictate using Dragon Anywhere, my editing takes about half the amount of time it takes for me to dictate. I can't get too excited about that, though, because I don't dictate as quickly when I use Dragon Anywhere on my phone, so my words per hour rate is much lower. When I dictate into a voice recorder, my words per hour rate ranges from about 2500 to 3000 words an hour, but ...

I think it must say something that ever since I decided to try to write first thing, I've only been able to do it once. I got to my office about an hour after I got up, but I found myself feeling a bit distracted again. So I took 20 minutes to do some house chores, and then went back to my office to try again. But instead of writing, for some reason, I couldn't focus on my story. Instead, I thought about a new marketing tactic that I could use for the conference that I am attending on Thursday. I needed to order business cards to do it, so I decided to do that right away so that I could have the cards rush ordered and shipped to my hotel. All that to say, I did not write first thing, even though I had intended to. Lack of preparation? I don't really know why I was so distracted and why it was so hard for me to start writing. At first I thought that part of the reason might be because I had to figure something out about the scene and make a decision about what to do. Yesterd...

I managed to do my writing almost first thing this morning. It took a little longer to make breakfast than usual, and I also wanted to make sure I had all the tea and water I usually have at my desk before I start. However, I did get a bit distracted while writing, and I wasted a few minutes cleaning off some junk on my desk. I suppose that’s one of the advantages of going out for a walk to dictate and write—there are fewer distractions around. When I dictate in my office, there are distractions everywhere, including my messy desk. I’m not certain why I was so easily distracted. However, I realized that just because my brain is fresher right after I wake up, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m able to focus better. In fact, I was worse at my focus this morning than yesterday, when it was after dinner. I don’t know why my focus was worse, and I also didn’t write very long—only about 75 minutes before I felt tired and distracted and decided to stop. I thought I slept okay, although...

I stayed up too late last night doing marketing work for my release next week. It was all stuff that needed to be done, but it took a lot of time, and I went to bed too late. I slept in this morning, which made it feel like I had less time to get stuff done in the morning. I’m taking a course on launching your book, but it didn’t have homework last night which was why I spent so long doing marketing. However, they have office hours every weekday, which is really nice because you can ask questions and listen to other people’s questions and learn a lot. But it also does take up time during the day, and I have to plan my activities around those office hours. As a result, I got some house chores done in the morning rather than going walking and writing right away. I went to office hours, and then went walking and dictating right after it ended. I got about 90 minutes of dictation done, which was great! But it was late by then and I ate dinner. Now I’m feeling tired since it’s late in...

On Sunday, I was again put in a position where I didn’t have blocking notes for the next scene to dictate. I had been thinking I would simply dictate some brainstorming for my Hawaii book, but I realized that wouldn’t be dictation practice for writing prose. I ended up doing more blocking work yesterday than I had intended. There were a couple co-op battles (multi-player monster battles) on 4thewords.com , and since the type of monster being battled is usually up to pure luck, I decided to jump into the battle since I needed to fight those monsters to complete a quest. I don’t usually do long hours of writing work on Sundays, which is supposed to be my rest day, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to fight those monsters. I have found that 4thewords is usually more active on weekends than weekdays, and I need other players in order to participate in co-op battles. So I ended up working on the blocking for the next scene for almost 2 hours. I did the co-op monsters I needed for...

I completely admit I haven’t blogged lately because I’ve been lazy. I also haven’t gotten much actual writing done, but I had a good excuse for that—I was visiting my parents for a month, and when I returned home, after a couple days unpacking and cleaning up the house, I had a bad IBS flare-up. But now that I’m feeling better, I haven’t blogged because I haven’t gotten much done, but I realized today that I really need to keep up my blogging in order to keep myself accountable. I wrote one scene in my new book (book 7 in my Regency series) before I left to visit my folks, but I haven’t written any other new scenes. Part of the reason is that the next scene—which ended up becoming two scenes—were not blocked well. My notes about the scene were a mess of ideas thrown together, and I didn’t have a cohesive structure for the scene at all. If I tried to dictate based off of my notes, it would end up being a bunch of prose thrown messily together, and I’d need to spend a lot of time ...

The good news is that my IBS hasn’t been bothering me as much lately. The bad news is that I ended up having a lot of family/personal/house business the past week(s) that kept me from doing more than just the bare minimum on my writing. New priorities In light of the fact that I’ve had other non-writing things to do, I decided to cut back on my work time and reprioritize my projects. In a sense, it’s like when I was working full time and I only had 2-3 hours each day to do my writing. At the moment, I have to try to cram in all my work in the time I have available each day, which is usually only a few hours, and I don’t have many uninterrupted hours. The time I have to write is usually only available here and there in small chunks throughout the day. However, it’s actually been really good because I’ve been able to focus since I only have a limited amount of time to get my work done. Something about the time deadline really does make me resist distractions. Anyway, since I have...

During lunch today, I was reading Elana Johnson’s Writing and Marketing Systems , because she has such good advice (at least, it really resonates with my personality) and I was hoping for reminders on how to improve my productivity. Re-reading it was a good idea, because I picked upon things I had only skimmed over before. Or maybe it’s just that my life is in a different place this time when I read the book, and so different pieces of advice were more apropos. First I made a definite goal for myself. I’ve been wanting to increase my writing time and word count, but I haven’t actually set a goal. So I set a minimum goal of 10,000 words a week, and a stretch goal of 20,000 words per week on the Regency, and then for the Hawaii book, I set a minimum goal of 2 chapters a week and a stretch goal of 4 chapters a week. I also set a couple bribes for me. When I finish a scene, I can have a piece of candy. I can only eat a small amount of it because of my IBS, but since moderation is som...

Yesterday, I was listening to some podcasts and thinking about my writing system. I know that many prolific authors write in multiple projects at the same time. Sometimes they work on another project while waiting for edits on the book they just finished, or else they work on two books at the same time, working a few minutes on each of them every day. So I was thinking would it be better for my career to release books in both pen names more slowly but at the same time, or to release books quickly in one pen name and then nothing while I write in the other? I honestly think it would be better to release books in both pen names rather than having a long stretch of no releases in one pen name while I’m working on the other. But I don’t know if I could work on two projects at the same time. Do I really want to do two projects in a day? Is that the most efficient use of my time? Or, on the other hand, would it be better to work on two projects so that I can give my brain a rest fr...

I am getting started on my dictation a little late in the day today, because I had to go pick up the vegetables from the co-op. In hindsight, I should have done the dictation first, and then gone to pick up the vegetables afterward, and then I could have done the cleanup editing after that. But I'm so used to picking up the co-op vegetables at a certain time, that I simply didn't think of it. I'll have to try to remember this for next week. Also, I don't know why this is, but before, when I tried to write via typing, if I hadn't yet picked up the vegetables, the thought of that would nag at me while I was writing. I think because I was afraid that I would forget. It's a little bit easier to simply go pick up the vegetables as soon as the alarm sounds on my phone. I'm not sure if the reminder to pick up the vegetables would still nag at me if I were walking and dictating, but I suspect it would not simply because I am outside, and I also have found that I...

My IBS has been bothering me a bit lately. I think I ate too much of a food that is okay for me to eat, but only in moderate amounts. The pain has not been as bad as it has been before, but it has still been distracting. I'm doing a little bit of dictation every day. My bare minimum is only five minutes of dictation, but most days I do about 30 minutes dictation, and then the cleanup editing is another 30 minutes. I also try to do my cycling edit every day. So even though my IBS has been bothering me, I am still able to get work done on my book. I am approximately one third of the way through the book, but I had hoped to have more done on it by now. I started the book in early December, but I was busy because the previous book released in mid-December, and then I had a couple promotions to set up after that. Then I was traveling over Christmas, and got hardly anything done for about two weeks. I thought I would start getting more writing done after Christmas, but I have been ...

I’ve had somewhat bad IBS for the past couple days—I was in pain, but it wasn’t as bad as I’ve had it at other times. It was still distracting and hard to work, but I still managed to get writing done. What I did was work on stuff like marketing and editing in the morning, when my IBS was worst, and I took medicine and waited for it to kick in. Sometimes the medicine didn’t work all that well and I didn’t start to feel better until the late afternoon, but I usually found at least 30 or 60 minutes where I wasn’t feeling too badly. I took advantage of my time when I felt better in order to dictate a bit of my book. I mentioned earlier that it seems easier for me to focus when I’m dictating. Maybe it’s because I tend to walk when I dictate—whether walking outside, or like yesterday, just pacing in my room. I find it’s easier for me to forget about my IBS when I’m walking and dictating, at least most of the time—sometimes there was just so much pain and nausea that it distracts me from...

Just when I was blogging about disruptions to my schedule yesterday, I had another disruption today. I woke up with a terrible headache, and while I can usually do certain types of work (marketing, editing) while suffering from IBS pain, I absolutely cannot get work done with a headache. Actually, I could force myself to do some work, but after about 20 minutes, my headache will get worse and turn into a full-blown migraine, and I have to avoid that at all costs. A migraine on one day will leave me feeling drained and slightly headachy the next day, also. So I did my best to get rid of the headache. I moved around, I drink lots of water, I drink some tea, and I took pain meds. However, it didn't start to go away until the late afternoon, and now that it's dinner time, I still feel a slight headache. However, I want to get some work done today, so I'm going to try to do some dictation on my book. And while it’s transcribing, I will also try to get done the cycling edit o...

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I have had a difficult time getting started on work today because my morning schedule was disrupted. We awoke to find the power had gone out because of the storms. I usually have a set schedule of things I do in the morning. It's partly because I have found that my brain tends to be a little fuzzy for the first hour or two after I wake up. It's not a problem if I have things to do that don't require a great deal of creativity, but I found that my fuzzy brain makes it hard to write, because I will usually stare at the blank screen or have long periods of silence when I dictate as I try to think of what to write next. So my morning ritual keeps me busy and helps to get my mind warmed up and firing. I usually exercise, do some house chores, make breakfast and make tea. The tea is especially comforting when I sit down at my computer after breakfast. My reliance upon rituals and routine is also probably why it's difficult for...

Since today is Saturday, I decided to dictate my writing for my contemporary contemporary romantic suspense, Year of the Dog. It was a lot more difficult than I expected. I'm not certain if it's because it's a new story, or because the language is different, or perhaps both. I only dictated for a little less than half an hour. I could have I needed another 30 minutes of dictation to finish the scene, but it was due to rain, so I decided to go home. I was going to dictate the rest of the scene while walking around my house instead, but I ended up getting distracted when I got home (argh!) and instead typed it at my desk. But I finished the scene, at least, so that’s great. I'm glad I did the dictation, but I'm also wondering if I need to to do exercises before I start the dictation. When I was doing dictation before, I found that doing dictation exercises before jumping into the writing made it easier for me to immediately start dictating quickly, and I think my ov...