Yay, Another Week Over!

This week was a bit tougher than previous weeks, though it wasn’t as awful as that one week in October, when I did little writing at all. Instead of not writing, I managed to write later than usual. On more than one day this week, I didn’t start working on my tasks, including writing, until after 18:00. I still managed to be productive pretty much every day, but It was a challenge.

Unwritten Letters is still going strong. I wrote on it five days this week, adding at least 300 words most days, if not more. Also, I had to do a plot card on it, and tomorrow may have me doing another. I haven’t looked at the project at all today, so I’m not sure if my thinking that the most recent plot card is all done being written from. Before I make that decision, I need to review it.

My next project, Masters of the Schism 1: “This Book Needs a Title” started off well this week, with me getting two plot cards on it. I’ve also started working on the character list for this as well, as it’ll be slightly different than what I had before. This is because I’m touching on different periods and aspects of my MCs’ lives and there are different people in at least two of their lives in this version of the book.

So that’s where things stand this week!

Better Weeks

I knew I’d forgotten to do something last Saturday. Just tonight looked to see that I’d missed last week’s post here. My apologies. Here’s a combined report on the last two weeks instead.

Both have been better than the second week of this month. I’ve managed to write most days of both weeks, though it looks like I’ll be taking my second writing break tonight, though we’ll see. Still working on convincing myself it’s going to be a writing night for me. Either way, I did a plot card on UL on the 21st or 22nd this week, and those come out to anywhere about 250-500 words depending on how detailed I get with them, so I generally count plot cards as writing days.

Unwritten Letters is progressing nicely. So far, it’s taken anywhere from 5-8 writing sessions to complete a scene, and I’ve completed two since starting. I’m not stopping right on the 250th word every time. Sometimes I want to complete a thought, so I write until I reach that point. But I always go over my wordcount goal. And I don’t go back to write more until the next day.

Restricting myself to one writing session of a relatively small amount is helping me keep up with the goal. This pleases me, and was what I hoped would happen. Before, I think I burnt myself out on writing gads of words over brief periods of a few days to a week. Also, I was writing mostly due to feeling inspired, and the thought of adding another 1500-2500 words a day got daunting, so I didn’t bother trying. Now I’ve been saying to myself, “It’s only 250 words—10-15 minutes of writing max. I can squeeze that in right now.” Makes it really easy to get my goal in most days.

I spent a few days the past week taking notes on a brand new thing. This too was one of my goals—that I’d take notes and tell the idea to wait its turn in line. It helped, I think, that I also told myself repeatedly that I didn’t know where to begin the story. Not that I didn’t have ideas for the opening, which I did, but I didn’t let myself decide on one. This new thing has 3 MCs, triplet sisters, and no visible ending, so I’ve told it to wait.

Though I’ve got about 5 or 6 or so more notes in Scapple for UL’s plot cards, I’m going to spend next week or so figuring out what I want to work on next. No, I still haven’t finalized that decision. I definitely want to do that before I finish UL though. I may work on 2 projects, one with an outline, and one without.

Oh, I’ve had some important epiphanies about DH04-06 the past couple weeks. Spent about 30-45 mins rambling stuff to one of my long-distance writing friends one morning. I’ve also got more notes to add, once I remember them. Haven’t really forgotten them as much as I’ve just shunted them into a spot in my memory that’s going to require some focused time coaxing to release the ideas again. Years ago, I used to do this all the time, but I’ve fallen out of practice, so it takes a little longer than usual. Reading through the notes I have already should help too. Right now, DH04-06’s playlist has all of one song, and I’m debating adding a couple of those from DH01-03’s playlist. Not sure I’m ready to hear those on a regular basis again though.

So that’s where things stand on my Fool’s Errand. Next week, I’ll try to remember to post on Saturday—November 3rd. After I call and wish my sister a happy birthday, of course.

A Bit Disappointing

Considering where I was on the 10th when I posted my last blog here, I had hope of getting more done over the remainder of the week. That, unfortunately, didn’t happen.

I’d really hoped to get a bit more writing in from the 10th-13th, but I think the only days I managed were Thursday and Saturday. Not really sure, I just know I didn’t meet my own expectations over the past few days. Because of a nap I took late Thursday afternoon (starting around 17:00), that lasted a little about 2.75 hours, I didn’t sleep that night. As a result of this, I had an exhaustion day on Friday, and was not productive at all. Beyond going to the VA to pick up a medication I needed a refill on in the morning, nothing really productive got done.

The most productive I actually got was in reading through what I had of TPOV2 and trying to make progress on it. I think I also managed to get some more ideas for DH04, which was good. Aside from those things, nothing else.

So, a disappointing week overall.

I intend to make some progress this next week, which is going to be a bit busier than last week. The difference is that I’m feeling motivated about the week, and when I feel motivated, things tend to get done. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling motivated last week, and I can’t really explain why, outside of possibly a bit of depression. Instead of writing, I did more houseworky things, which is odd in and of itself, but I felt then and feel now it was just procrastination on what the writing. The houseworky stuff would have gotten done anyway, but for some reason, when I wasn’t suffering exhaustion, I was in cleaning mode, and I let that distract me from my writing.

One thing I intend to do this week is take my laptop with me to Demolition Games so if people don’t show up to play Magic: The Gathering, I can work on my writing goal that day if I don’t get it done before going. Another thing I plan on is getting to bed by 01:00 each night; that’s an hour past my preferred bedtime, but I’m giving myself some time to argue myself into taking my night meds and hit the sack. Week after this, I intend to cut that hour out and go to bed by midnight—and No More Naps! Also, if I’m still awake after 2 hours, I’ll be taking one of my Trazodone to help knock myself out. I don’t want to sleep past 10:00 any morning this week.

So that’s where things stand, and the plans I have to get myself back into my writing goals.