Camy's Writing Diary

I didn’t sleep well last night, I woke up with IBS pain, and I also found a huge plot hole in this next scene I was going to write, so I’m not sure how much writing I’m going to get done today. I intend to dictate a brainstorming session to try to fix my plot hole. I think that I tend to brainstorm better while dictating, but it might also partly be because I’m moving around while dictating, and that probably helps me to think better, too. *** Well today ended up being rather terrible in terms of word count. My IBS didn’t get any better despite taking medication, which only made me sleepy. I did manage to get some marketing done while I wasn’t feeling well, so it wasn’t completely wasted time. When I finally felt better in the late afternoon, I had technical difficulties. First my digital voice recorder set up had issues. Then our external hard drive started beeping and I had to figure out what was wrong. Then I decided to set up a different headset for recording to see how that ...

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...

Okay, actually I’m posting this on Monday because I had bad IBS on Saturday and couldn’t post this then, but my writing streak reached 450 days! I’ve written at least 100 words or 5 minutes every single day for 450 consecutive days. It got easier for me to discipline myself to keep the streak as it grew longer, simply because I didn’t want to have to break it! It was sometimes hard to do those few minutes of writing on days when I had bad IBS pains or a sinus headache, but I knew I could at the very least lie in bed and write a few minutes on my phone, so I had no excuse. The biggest benefit has been that I have kept my head in my story. Before, whenever I skipped writing due to IBS or a headache, sometimes I wouldn’t get right back to work for a few days—the IBS especially usually flares up for a few days at a time. So by the time I got back to writing, I had to reorient myself with the scene and the story. It felt a bit like a hill I had to bike over, but I’d stopped pedaling at...

I woke up yesterday with another IBS flare up, but I managed to get some marketing work done in the morning, which is stuff I can do despite the pain. It got only a little better in the afternoon, but I wanted to try to get some work done on the manuscript, so I decided to dictate a bit. I realized I needed to block the scene better, so I dictated my blocking notes and managed to get that done. I didn’t write any prose, but I was ready to start writing the scene today. Unfortunately I had some IBS pain this morning, and so I did a little bit of marketing instead. But the IBS didn’t decrease much by the afternoon, so I ended up doing dictation while still being a bit uncomfortable. I thought I’d only do a little dictation, but I ended up dictating about half the scene, approximately 3000 words, which took 75 minutes. My dictation speed wasn’t too bad, about 2500 words per hour. The cleanup editing took a little less time, 65 minutes. I made a decision today to change how I recorded ...

I kept up my dictation streak over the weekend even though I was scheduled to only work on my Hawaii contemporary story on Saturday. I did some blocking for the next scene, which needed a lot of work before I could start writing it. I also was scheduled to do mostly marketing on Saturday, and I happened to have a lot to do this weekend, so I decided to only do a little work on the Hawaii book (only about the amount of time it took to finish blocking the next scene). I still wanted to keep up my dictation streak and usually try to do at least the bare minimum of 5 minutes, but I didn’t want to do only 5 minutes of dictation on the Hawaii book now when I won’t get back to it until next week Saturday. So instead I did five minutes of dictation on the Regency manuscript, and then I spent the majority of my workday on Saturday on the marketing stuff. And then on Sunday, I did another 5 minutes of dictation on my Regency manuscript, just to keep up my writing and dictation streaks. To...

I had a bad IBS flareup last night, and it was really hard to get started on writing today. I am a bit tired, but I also wasn't able to go walking outside and dictating because the weather was too cold and I simply don't have appropriate gloves to be able to dictate in cold weather (at least, cold for Northern California). When I walk for exercise, I can keep my hands in my jacket pockets, but I have to hold my digital recorder when I walk and dictate, and when I tried doing that today, my fingers were too cold and painful before I got even a block away from my house, so I had to turn back. The gloves I was wearing just didn't cut it. So I had an excuse to spend money, and bought some gloves online so that I can walk and dictate in colder weather. Now, knowing my luck, the weather will turn superhot by the time the gloves arrive. Because I'm feeling a bit tired today due to the IBS flareup last night, I might only do a short duration of dictation, and spend a little...

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...