Camy's Writing Diary

Maybe because of the heat wave going through California, but I’ve had a recurring headache for the past week, as well as IBS issues. It was too difficult to focus and work when I was so uncomfortable, so I just took several sick days while trying to get my body back under control. I read a lot, which also refilled the creative well , which was honestly feeling a bit dry. I’m easing back into work today. Not sure how much I’ll get done, but I’m not intending to push myself too much since I still have lingering IBS issues. After going through all the Snowflake step 6 (extended synopses) for the rest of the books in the series, I’m a bit impatient to write these books. I want to write these stories, but I also have to admit that a part of me just likes the idea of having the series done sooner rather than later. I think it’s what James Scott Bell (I think it was him) referred to as, “I don’t want to write, I want to have written.” I fully admit I love the feeling of satisfaction when...

After I finished the 3rd book in my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series, I spent a couple days doing just business work—marketing and self-publishing stuff in preparation for the book release. This time, I sent the book to the editor for the multi-author box set, who is also one of the authors. She said she’d try to squeeze in my book before the deadline of May 30th and thinks it might be possible since I don’t need it until then. Hopefully she won’t come up with a bunch of structural issues that will need to be fixed, because the deadline for the manuscript is June 1st and I wouldn’t be able to make any major edits by then. But I also don’t have any of the business work that I had with the Regency novel, since I’m not doing the self-publishing this time. There are pros and cons to this—with my own self-publishing, I can set my own deadlines and not have to worry if illness puts me behind schedule. After all, I had mental burnout for much of December last year, so that Lady Wynwood’s Spies b...

I had intended to work today, which is Sunday, but I sat down and was about to pray my Surrender statement , and felt God’s conviction not to work today. Even though logically I could probably finish the book today or tomorrow and I could just take my sabbath rest day right after that, I felt God telling me that I should rest today. Not because it's logical, not to be legalistic about my sabbath, but because it’s a gesture that puts God first in my life. I suddenly feel like that is more important than getting the book done. So, to my editor and the authors in the multi-author box set, sorry, the book will be a day later. I admit I am also influenced by the Deep Work audiobook I’m listening to. I just finished the chapter talking about how the subconscious mind needs time to process all the information we’ve inputted in order to make decisions. It's like the subconscious is a big supercomputer and you input your data and then wait for it to compute the answer for you. All su...

I got a late start on my walk today but enjoyed listening to the Deep Work audiobook. I finished the chapter on learning to disconnect from the work entirely at the end of the day, and I realized that I might not do that. Sometimes I’ll think about the fantasy serial novel and do a bit of work on it. I originally started that as a way to play around, but maybe my brain sees that as “work” also. After all, eventually I’ll hopefully be publishing that. So maybe I don’t get as much downtime to refresh my brain as I think I do, even though I’m not working on the Hawaii book. I wonder if that’s why I’m a bit tired today? That might also be because my IBS was bad last night, though, and I didn’t get a very restful sleep. Anyway, tonight I’ll really disconnect and do something else entirely, like read and knit. I have to make sure I realize that any work I do on the fantasy serial novel has to fall under “work time." In the audiobook, he also talked about doing conscious internet bl...

I actually spent most of yesterday doing editing for the Japanese version of The Spinster's Christmas . After the experience working on the Japanese version of Sushi for One of working with a proofreader who's more knowledgable about standard Japanese publications, I decided to revise The Spinster's Christmas in the same way. Previously, I asked my translator to include the furigana for all the kanji in the manuscript, but now I'm removing all furigana below grade 7. I'm also redoing the formatting of the print version. It's taking a long time to remove the furigana since I don't read Japanese very well, and so I have to go through each kanji one by one to search for each occurrence in the manuscript. Unfortunately I can't just do a Find and Replace All because that won't work to remove the furigana, and I have to check each word manually since some words that are a combination of lower grade and higher grade kanji retain their furigana. I only d...

I'm still not feeling great, but I'm doing better than I did yesterday. I started off my writing today doing something different, and it was solely because I wanted to finish some monsters on 4thewords.com . I had to write about 700 words in an hour, and I didn't think I'd be able to do that while working on the Hawaii book, so I instead did some brainstorming on the fantasy novel that I had been considering doing as a serial novel a week or so ago. At this point it's still just plotting and character development, but I had a world backstory that had been drifting in my head which I wanted to get down. I also had two story ideas for the fantasy world, one which was more vague while another which was more thought-out, and I also wanted to write those down rather than let them be locked in my head. Actually, whenever I had to finish a monster quickly on 4thewords, I would write a little on the fantasy brainstorming in order to finish off the monster, since I'm j...

I got up late today so I got a very late start to my day. I listened to the Dear Writer, You Need to Quit audiobook today on my walk and it prompted me to think about the things I fear, since a lot of writers are motivated by fear. The author encouraged writers to face their fears and execute their plans rather than letting it stall them. I have been feeling an impatience when I write, wanting to write faster, but I don't think I'm motivated by FOMO (fear of missing out). I am not focused on putting out books as fast as possible, nor do I feel compelled to do rapid release in order to make a best-seller list or to make a certain amount of money each month. However, I think I do fear not being able to finish this series, which is planned for so many books. I think it's because my health has been so bad for the past year (or two) that I kind of worry if I'll be able to get these books out of me before my body gives out. Not that I think I'm going to be so sick ...

I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but instead of reading last night, I brainstormed a new fantasy series. I had actually come up with the story idea a long time ago, and I had also come up with a separate fantasy world, and so last night I merged the two. The reason is because I had heard about the new Kindle Vella coming out, and it inspired me because I actually really like serial novels (well duh, considering I'm writing one). I don't really have time to be writing a new story, but at the same time I couldn't help thinking of new ideas. I suppose it's that whole thing about being attracted to whatever's new and shiny. The fun thing is that this fantasy story idea perfectly lends itself to a serial novel, because it's actually quite episodic, although there is also an overarching plot. I wish I could write faster! I think I'm crazy. I'm actually considering writing the story in small pieces, 300-500 words a day, and see how it goes. I cou...