Camy''s Writing Diary - Atom

Procrastination or visualization

Earlier, I was a bit disappointed in myself because it took me a while to get started writing today. I wasn't entirely sure why, but I putzed around and procrastinated a bit. It frustrated me because I felt like I just wasted time, and I really wanted to figure out why I did that. I felt like if I could just figure out what my problem was, I could get rid of my habit of procrastinating before starting.

But then I realized that one of the reasons I procrastinated today was because I was starting a new scene, and I needed to take time to visualize a new character that was appearing. I also had to figure out how to start the scene, because I had not made that decision when I wrote the blocking notes.

So even though I was frustrated that I was procrastinating, in hindsight, I was actually taking time to think about the scene beforehand. I think I need to stop looking at that as wasting time when it was obviously important visualization work that I needed to do in order to start writing.

So in future, I'm just going to try to consider it as part of my writing time. Even though I have these detailed blocking notes, dictation at least, I think I need that visualization time in order to get started. I actually remember reading about this in Sean Platt's dictation book. He recommends visualizing the scene before dictating it. So the fact that I had to take the time to visualize the scene makes a lot of sense.

Dictating into my computer

After spending several hours setting up Dragon and Parallels on my Mac computer and training dragon to improve accuracy, I was able to dictate directly into my computer today. Rather than using a voice recorder and transcribing the MP3 file, I used a headset with a microphone and a really long cord to dictate and pace in my office.

It ended up working really well. I was able to correct my prose on the screen as I wrote it. It was really helpful because sometimes I wasn't quite certain how I wanted to word something, and I had to repeat the sentence a few times before I got it. Since I could see it on the screen, I could delete my previous iteration and dictate over it with the new wording.

In the end, I feel pretty satisfied because my rough draft today was pretty clean. I know that there are things that I'll need to clean up later, but I can do that on my last self-editing pass. It's clean enough that I don't need to spend time cleaning up the dictation like I do when I dictate into my voice recorder or even when I dictate into the Dragon Anywhere app on the phone.

I ended up dictating for an hour and 15 minutes, because I wanted to finish the scene. I thought it would only take me a few minutes, but it ended up taking me half an hour more.

Energy management

The problem is that now, I'm pretty exhausted mentally. I'm also a little tired because I was pacing in my office almost the entire time, and now my feet are a little sore because I had also gone running this morning.

I am a bit frustrated with myself because I had hoped to be able to get some writing done in the Regency book also, today. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to get to it, because I need to do some intensive work on the outline, and it's going to be tricky. Because it's going to be a logical problem that I'll have to fix, my brain might be a little too tired for me to be able to focus.

But also I wonder if maybe I just need to build up my stamina to be able to write for longer. After all, I haven't done lots of dictation work in a long time. And today's dictation might have been a little intense because I was able to do much more exact editing on the manuscript as I was dictating, which I can't do when I use the Dragon Anywhere app on my phone.

I wonder if maybe I should try to do as little editing as possible when I dictate, so that I can use the most energy for dictation. I don't need quite as much energy for editing. I can't let the dictation be too messy or else it'll be like yesterday, and the editing will simply take too long to be worth it.

But making corrections on the screen as I was dictating today was a lot like when I edit as I go when I type and write. Earlier, I had felt that dictating into my phone allowed me to dictate when I had more energy, and edit when I had less energy. This separation of my energy states seemed to work really well for me because I could dictate a lot in a short time., and then edit when I was a little tired. As opposed to writing and editing both for the entire time, which is much more tiring.

Even though I was tired, I have to admit that I really did enjoy being able to correct my dictation errors as I was going. It made the text all nice and clean, which made me feel better about myself and about the writing.

The only reason I left some things to be edited when I was dictating into my phone was because I didn't have my Story Bible with me. But I have that with me on the computer, so I can dictate a description correctly the first time rather than making a note for myself to insert it later, and things like that. Now that I'm dictating into my computer, not only is it more accurate, but I'm able to correct things as I go.

As for accuracy, I say it's more accurate, but it's like the difference between 95% and 97%. On the computer, it's not quite trained enough and there are still errors. There are a few more errors when I dictate on the phone, but the difference between the phone and the computer is pretty minor.

I just realized that I should give myself a little bit of grace because I didn't sleep very well last night, and that might be contributing to why I am so tired. I'm grateful that I had the energy to go running as well as get some writing done.

Next steps

I guess next week I'll continue dictating into my computer (and editing on the screen as I go) and seeing how things go. The fact that I was really happy with the writing output today might be a sign that I should continue this method, even though logically it might not be the most efficient way to do things. But I think I might enjoy this method the best. This is all part of my new determination to listen to my instincts more.

Hopefully I'll be able to improve my writing stamina, or even maybe improve my dictation speed. My writing speed today was about 1100 words an hour, which isn't too bad. It isn't super fast, either, but I also didn't have to do cleanup editing afterward, and when you factor in the time I take to do the editing, my writing speed is probably about the same. Yesterday, I edited about 3000 words. It took me three hours for both the dictation and the editing, so my overall writing speed was 1000 words an hour, which is a tiny bit slower than what I did today.

This week, I wrote about 6000 words in my contemporary novel, two chapters. That's not too bad even considering two of the days this week were minimal writing days because I was doing work on my newsletter, the audiobook version of one of my books, and also setting up my new subscription service with Ream.

I'm not sure when my subscription will launch, since I want to build up a backlog of chapters, but I'm also using this time to see if I'm able to keep up with the writing pace of two chapters a week. So far, it seems very doable, and I might even be able to write more if I can build up my writing stamina and write more hours in a day. 

Sometimes I'm a bit embarrassed that it's so difficult for me to write longer than an hour or two, but when I consider how mentally tired I am afterward, I try not to be too hard on myself. That writing time usually requires very intense focus, and that takes up a lot of mental energy. But I also know from reading books like Deep Work that you can train yourself to do longer periods of focus.

Since I'm feeling so tired right now, I think what I'm going to do is some work that doesn't require a lot of mental energy, like working on my website. I have to rebuild the pages on my new hosting service, and that's taking time.

Next week will be a fresh start. I still need to set up dictation for my Regency book, but dictation is now pretty well set for my contemporary book. I set up my Dictation profile for my Regency book, I'll see if I can manage to get 1000 or 2000 words done on both books every day. 

   

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 foggy and I need caffeine to wake up or anything like that. It simply takes a while for me to get into a work mindset.

I think that is one of the reasons why it's easiest for me to exercise first thing in the morning, because my mind is not ready for work, and it is easy for me to force myself out the door to go running or walking.

I wanted to be stubborn and keep trying to make it work, but I'm starting to realize that maybe I'm just not built that way. It takes me a while to get started in the morning. If my mind is unfocused, it's going to be difficult to force myself to focus. It would be a more efficient use of my time to do other things in the meantime.

So I've gone back to a schedule that I used before, where I did my exercise and some house chores after I woke up, and then got started on work after I cleared those tasks away. I still consider the writing more important than chores, but it's almost as if doing those things is part of my writer's rituals before I can get started writing. I would never have considered cleaning the toilet as part of a ritual, but there it is.

Another example of listening to my instincts happened today. I've been doing pretty well and dictating into the Dragon Anywhere app on my phone. I noticed that half the time, I don't even look at my screen.

When I did dictation before, I would go walking and I would dictate into my digital voice recorder. I've been wanting to get back into walking and dictating, so I went out walking today and decided to try my voice recorder again, since it seemed I was hardly looking at the screen when I used the Dragon Anywhere app.

Maybe because I was using a different piece of technology, the dictation was terrible today. But what was worse was the knowledge that the editing was going to be absolutely horrible because I made so many mistakes in the dictation in my voice recorder. And I was right, because it took me two hours to edit an hour and a half of dictation in my voice recorder.

As I was dictating, and getting more frustrated with myself, and dreading the editing I was going to have to do later, I realized that I should have listened to my instincts and used the Dragon Anywhere app on my phone instead. I actually think I was dictating more cleanly when I could see my words on the screen after dictating them. I think that seeing the words enabled me to organize my thoughts better.

This might be why my prose was a little better when I typed rather than dictated. When I can see my words on the screen, I can organize my thoughts better and maybe write a little bit more cleanly. With the voice recorder, I can't see my words and the dictation is a mess.

I know that I used the voice recorder because I have been trying to improve my system, and so many people mentioned that dictating into a voice recorder and transcribing it is much more efficient. It's true that my writing speed was faster when I dictated into the voice recorder, but I had to get rid of so many words that a huge chunk of that was deleted.

But I need to listen to my instincts about what gives me the best prose. Dictating and seeing my words on the screen may be the best compromise that I can come up with.

Also, I don't need only one method of dictation. I could go walking for a shorter amount of time and dictate only 30 minutes. The editing wouldn't be quite as bad. And I could do the rest of my dictation either on my phone or at my computer, watching the screen.

However, I'm still a bit undecided about if I should still try to use a voice recorder. I think it will depend on how messy the dictation is when I use it. Today might have simply been a bad day, and I might do better another time.

I think the lesson that I learned is that I need to listen to my instincts about the way that I work, even if it's not how other people do things. The system that I come up with might be a bit unusual, but if it works for me, that will be most efficient for me.

***

I'm still considering a subscription model for my writing, to help diversify my income. When I emailed Patreon, I discovered that I can't change my account from per-creation to subscription. But it turned out to be a good thing, because it caused me to look into Ream instead, and I think I like the website software better.

I'm considering my tiers and also what I will be able to promise to my subscribers. I want to say that I'll be able to write two chapters a week, but because of my health, I'm always leery of setting a goal like that. When I get an IBS flareup, it completely messes up my schedule, and my writing is not very efficient even during the pockets of time when I'm feeling a little better.

But I do think that a subscription model might really work, especially for my Regency Series. Since it's a serial novel format, I think that readers would be more likely to subscribe in order to read ahead.

But before launching my subscription, I need to do several things first. I want to build up several chapters so that I have a cushion. I also want to launch the subscription in a purposeful way, getting the word out to my readers over the course of a month rather than simply launching it and seeing what happens.

I'm also experimenting with doing work on two different books a day. Usually, I work on one book at a time, and then switch to a book in the other pen name. But if I try a subscription service, I would want to consistently release chapters even if I have a book in the other pen name due.

If I wrote, say, Camille Elliot book A and then released it to my subscription, I would need to write Camy Tang book A AND also Camille Elliot book B before all the Camille Elliot book A chapters have been released to the subscription, so that I could start releasing the chapters of book B when book A was completed.

That sounds complicated, doesn't it? It's easier to simply try to write one to two chapters in each pen name every week so that I consistently have something to release to my subscription whether I have a subscription for only one pen name or for both.

I'm not entirely sure if I can do that, since I've never tried it before. So, since I need to build up extra chapters as a buffer before I launch my subscription, I'm going to try to do that. I figured the easiest way would be to try to work on both books a little bit every day.

Theoretically, it shouldn't be too difficult. I would dictate 30 to 60 minutes on a contemporary book, and 30 to 60 minutes on a Regency book. That would give me time to do the editing on my dictation on the same day. 

If I could do that 5 to 6 days a week, I'm pretty sure I could write one to two chapters a week in each name, but ideally I would write more chapters than that. That way, if I were ahead of my subscription posting schedule, I would have a bit of time to plot the next book after I finish writing the one before without interrupting the release of my chapters to my subscription.

I'm still not entirely sure if I will do a subscription for both pen names, but at the very least, I want to do a subscription for my Regency pen name. I also think that having the subscription will be the external pressure I need to push myself to be a little more productive than I would be without a weekly obligation.

So, I'll be using the next few weeks to try to work on two different books every day.

I've been keeping up my dictation streak, doing at least five minutes of dictation every day except for Sundays. The time I spent writing today included editing the dictation I did yesterday, because I didn't do the editing yesterday, and also about an hour and 40 minutes doing work to train my dictation software to improve accuracy. I still need to do another hour of work on training the software, but it’s for my Regency profile, so it can wait a little while.

   

I went to a conference last week and praise the Lord! my IBS didn't act up at all while I was there. Of course, I was downing digestive enzymes like they were candy, so that probably helped.

I thought I'd have more intestinal issues after I got back from the conference, but surprisingly, my bouts of pain and nausea haven't been too bad, not enough to prevent me from working for very long.

I kept up my dictation streak while at the conference, although in hindsight, I probably should have just decided not to write during the days of the conference and during the travel days. However, since I was dictating into my phone, it was very easy to just whip out my phone and dictate for 5 minutes in order to keep up my streak. It's a lot easier than using a voice recorder and then taking the time to feed it into Dragon on my computer, although it's not quite as accurate.

I finally got Dragon installed on my computer, but I haven't set up my profile yet since I want to set it up right. I bought Scott Baker's course on Dragon dictation and he lays out a method to adjust your settings and train the profile for maximum accuracy, and I need time to get that done.

I've honestly been pretty stressed because I couldn't verify my sending domain for camytang.com. I followed the instructions for ConvertKit, and then I couldn't log into iPower.com for some reason. But I managed to get on iPower help chat and tried logging in with a different browser, and the help guy said I needed to switch my nameserver. That finally worked and ConvertKit verified my sending domain, so I switched the nameserver back (which I hope won't ruin my VSD).

I've also been thinking about switching up my Patreon, especially since Patreon retired the "per creation" tier. I've considered copying what Tao Wong does and posting my rough draft chapters on my Patreon so my patrons get to read ahead. It means I'd need to change my Patreon to a Subscription model, which scares me a little. I don't know if anyone would want to subscribe in order to read my current book ahead of publication.

But if I did have an obligation to my Patreon to post 1 or 2 chapters of my books each week, it would definitely push me to produce every week. I would have to make sure I wrote at least 1 chapter every week.

I am considering this because I've been finding it a lot easier to write via dictation. I think I mentioned this before, but I am able to dictate when my energy is highest, and then edit the dictation when I'm feeling more tired, which I think is the more efficient use of my energy.

Today, my total writing speed wasn't all that high. I dictated for about 2 hours 10 minutes, and edited for about 2 hours 20 minutes. My writing speed when dictating was 1500 words per hour, but after the editing time is factored in, my writing speed was around 750 words per hour.

Still, I wasn't quite as tired from 4.5 hours of writing as I would have been if I'd been typing, because the actual dictation was only about 2 hours. And I don't have to expend as much energy when I am doing the editing. Anyway, all that to say that I got a chapter done today, and I had gotten a (short) chapter done yesterday.

I also think that it's okay if I try this new Patreon system for 6 months, just to see how it goes. If it's terrible, I can always stop.

I guess I should just try it and see if anyone wants to subscribe.

   

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 the editing also takes the same amount of time because I will often repeat myself in order to get a sentence right, and I need to edit stuff like that out of the writing.

When taking into account the editing time, my dictation today was a little over 1000 words an hour. That's better than what my words per hour rate while typing has been for the past few months.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to increase my words per hour rate in using this method, because editing my dictation as I go is always going to take extra time, which reduces my writing speed. But the final pros at the end of the day is a bit better than the transcription method of dictation, so I'm OK with that.

If I practice my dictation, I am hopeful that I might be able to increase my dictation speed even though I'll be editing as I go. Just like how my dictation now is better than it was when I first started, practice helps me become more comfortable with dictation and hopefully I'll get faster at it.

Useful Dictation Streak

The dictation streak has been very useful, just like how the writing streak was useful, forcing me to write just a little bit even when I'm tired at the end of the day. I only dated for a few minutes, but I got a good start on the next scene.

Because I write more words when I dictate, I'm hoping that this dictation streak will help me to be more productive and get my books out faster. It helps that I can do even a little dictation on my phone using Dragon Anywhere.

A streak is always kind of difficult to keep up, but it helps that this time I'm giving myself permission to take Sundays off, and I'm not counting it when I calculate my streak days. The writing streak was really helpful to get me to do at least a little work every day, but it was difficult to get work done on Sundays and on holidays.

Conference

I'll be going to a writing marketing conference for the next few days. It has always been difficult for me to get writing done when I go to conferences. Actually, it's difficult for me to get writing done when I'm not at home. My writing output is always much lower whenever I travel, even when I go to my parents' house and there isn't anything I need to do.

However, I am more hopeful this time that it won't be too difficult for me to keep up my dictation streak. I've gotten used to opening the Dragon Anywhere app on my phone and jumping into dictation.

I realized that it's much easier for me to start writing when doing dictation in the app. Maybe it's because there are fewer distractions on my phone, or maybe it's because I'm usually pacing when I start dictation, which seems to help my brain to think better for writing.

I am hopeful that I'll be able to do at least five minutes of dictation every day even while I'm at the conference. I'll try to do some writing in the morning, but even if I have to do it in the evening, I don't think it'll be too hard. I have a hotel room to myself, so I should be able to have a nice quiet place to work, and I'll be able to pace when I dictate, too.

   

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.

Yesterday, I knew I would have to find a different way to end the scene, but I didn't try to figure it out. So this morning, when I was trying to start writing (before I got distracted), I was trying to solve the problem and ended up taking a lot of time to do it. I didn't entirely figure it out before I got distracted and went to order business cards.

It occurred to me that I need to set everything up so that I can immediately jump into dictating as soon as I enter my office. I need to make sure that the previous day's chapter is on my iPad as well as blocking notes for the next chapter or two.

I need to look ahead to the next section to write and see if there are any decisions I need to make about the scene structure. It would be better to make those decisions the day before, rather than the morning when I'm writing. I already know that making decisions is hard for me, so needing to make a decision first thing stalled my momentum.

However, my distraction wasn't solely because of my lack of preparation of my blocking notes for the next scene. I wonder if I just need more discipline.

Lack of distraction?

Regardless, I did not actually start writing until several hours later since I made lunch for myself after ordering the business cards. However, I found I was able to get into my dictation and focus pretty well. I don't know if it's because of the time of day or the fact that I had already addressed all the things that had distracted me in the morning, and so there was nothing left to distract me.

It's a little early for me to determine this, but this is making me wonder if I don't actually write all that well first thing in the morning because my brain is too distracted. Maybe I am able to focus later in the day because I'm a little tired, or because I've already taken care of all the tasks that might otherwise distract me when I'm writing.

I dictated for 91 minutes, but editing took 60 minutes. I'm not entirely sure why—there weren't a lot of errors, but I did have to add to the ending of the scene so it didn't stop so abruptly.

Dictation posture

I never noticed this before, so I don't know if I do this all the time, but after I finished my dictation, I noticed that my back and shoulders hurt. I have absolutely terrible posture when I walk and dictate into my phone, because I am looking down at it as I dictate.

It made me wonder if it will be better for my back if I dictate into my computer using my podcast microphone. It's set up on a stand so that I have to stand straight and speak into it, and my monitor is directly in front. It's set up on a standing desk, so I can pace in between dictating sentences. The walking seems to help me be able to think better when I dictate and write, so I want to be sure I will still be able to walk around my office no matter if I use my computer or my phone to dictate.

I did not get around to installing Dragon onto my computer yesterday, so maybe I will do it later tonight.

Weekly goal

I was listening to a writing marketing audiobook today and I realized that I don't really have a word count goal. Sometimes that's difficult for me, because there are some days where I spend the majority of my writing time doing my blocking for the next chapter or two, but the total number of new words written is zero.

I've been enjoying the books by Tao Wong, and he puts out two chapters a week in his current series, A Thousand Li, to his Patreon. It made me wonder if I could do write at the same pace.

So rather than having a daily word count, I will instead try to make sure that I block and write two chapters a week. I'm not sure I could keep this up because of my health, but I think I'll try.