Camy's Writing Diary

I managed to get up an hour earlier today, and couldn’t believe how tired I was and how hard it was! Why is this so difficult? Anyway, after spending so much time yesterday waffling over if I should combine volumes 9 and 10 or leave them as separate volumes, I’ve decided to combine them. I had originally only done the spiritual and romantic arcs for volume 9 and not volume 10. Now that they’re combined, I have to rearrange the spiritual and romantic arcs to spread out over the entire combined volume. *** I developed a headache and didn’t get much done today. I’m almost done with the spiritual and romantic arcs for the volume, but I just can’t keep working through the pain. I’ll finish it tomorrow. Time spent writing: 54 minutes Time spent doing other writing-related business: 29 minutes *** Update: I hit the Advil and Excedrine hard, and as a result the headache eventually went away, so I went back to writing. *** Wow! I finished the spiritual and romantic arcs for vol...

Lately I’ve been frustrated that even when I go to bed early, I often can’t get to sleep right away and end up tossing and turning for an hour or two. Then I get up later, which cuts into my writing time. I really don’t know how to fix this. I had thought going to bed earlier would help me to get up earlier, but that’s turning out not to be the case. Today I’m continuing work on Snowflake step 6 (expanded synopsis) on volume 10. It’s looking like it’s a short volume, just like how volume 9 was short, so I’m going to spend time today trying to combine volumes 9 and 10 together and seeing how they are. *** I finished Snowflake step 6 for the combined volume 9/10, which is now volume 9. I’m worried that volume 9 will be really long, just like volume 8 (which is what used to be volumes 8 and 9 combined). What’s also worrying me is that volume 10 (the last volume) will be much shorter than any of the other volumes. I’ll have to think about if there’s anything in volume 9 that I can...

I think I learned a lot for the past 4 weeks of writing this blog diary. Clearing the decks: First off, let me say that every person is different, so this may not pertain to other writers. But for me, when I do all my daily chores first, then I am free to focus only on my writing until I have to cook dinner. Also, after dinner, I am free to focus on my writing until bedtime. I just seem to be able to concentrate on my work better when I’ve done all the little nagging things that need to get done first. That way, they don’t pop up in my head and distract me while I’m working. One major task at a time: Again, every person is different, but for the past month, I have been more efficient and productive when I focus on just one major task at a time, whether that’s plotting, writing the first draft, editing, or miscellaneous self-publishing work (formatting the ebook and print books, uploading to Kindle, etc.). Most writing teachers say to form a daily writing habit, so since mid-Dec...

I got a late start today, and I spent some extra time blogging that I hadn’t intended to do. I’ll see how much I can get done today. I also had a realization while walking today. I spent about 9-10 hours a day working when I was in biology research full-time, but now that I’m writing full-time, I don’t spend the same amount of time working on my writing and writing-related activities. I did some calculations. I sleep about 8 hours, although lately that has been flexible since sometimes I wake up after 6 hours and sometimes I wake up after 9 hours. After I wake up, I take about 4 hours to do home chores that I want to get out of the way so I can clear my To Do list and have nothing else to do but my writing, at least until I have to start cooking dinner. These home chores include my personal hygiene, my quiet time with God, cleaning the house, laundry, washing dishes, daily exercise, gardening, breakfast/lunch cooking. I don’t always have gardening, laundry and cleaning the house ...

Got up a little early and started my home chores. Since it’s Friday, I don’t have as many chores to do so I’m starting work a little sooner than usual. Today I’m working on the spiritual and romantic arcs for volume 8. I’m introducing a new character in this volume, so I need to do the spiritual and romantic arcs for her. I have a little bit done, but since I altered the plotline a bit since I wrote that, I need to revise it. Also, her spiritual arc is too similar to another character in the series, so I want to tweak it so it’s more unique for her personality and background. *** I finished the spiritual and romantic arcs for volume 8! Now on to Snowflake step 6 (expanded synopsis) on volume 9. I think this will take longer than other Snowflake step 6s that I’ve done for other volumes, because my Snowflake step 4 (one-page synopsis) is rather sparse for this volume. I’m still feeling a bit physically off because of my period (which surprisingly still hasn’t come), but I notice...

Wowwww I got really distracted today. I did get some work done on the spiritual and romantic arcs for volume 8, but I didn’t get as much done as I wanted. A lot of it was because I’m about to get my period, so physically I feel off. I finally stopped work and started reading, and ended up doing that for about 3 hours! I’ll go to bed early and hopefully get more work done tomorrow. Time spent writing: 3 hours, 3 minutes Time spent doing other writing-related business: 10 minutes My takeaway for today: Blaming my period might be just a lame excuse, but I did feel kind of off today.

Today I’m working on the spiritual and romantic arcs in volume 7 of my series. As I was walking today, I realized that it helps that I’ve come to associate the plotting work with something I enjoy, namely spinning on my wheel or with my drop spindles, and eating snacks I really like. I think this may be a key to not procrastinating as much and being able to focus. The snacks are probably not healthy for me, but I tend to need tactile stimulation when I’m being creative (which is why spinning helps so much), and sometimes having pleasant flavors in my mouth helps me to think. I have a writing friend who needs visual stimulation to write, so she keeps a television on mute while she’s on her computer, playing movies that inspire her. Many other friends need audio stimulation and have music playing. But I’m a tactile creator (that’s what I call myself, anyway), so things that I can touch or taste usually work best for me. I’m about to start my period, so I’m feeling rather out of sor...