The last two weeks were amazing for productivity. I wrote 90% of Gray Moon Rising, I did lots of reading, and I'm getting Dark Union together.
Then I did something very, very stupid. On Saturday (my last good writing day), I looked at how many scenes were left of Gray Moon Rising—just four or five—and decided I could finish that weekend. Less than 10k of the book remaining? Dude, no problem. On my personal Twitter for friends and family, I said something like: "If Odin and Starbucks are kind to me, this book will be done by Monday."
Ha. Ah ha ha.
I should have known it was too easy. This has been the easiest book in the whole entire world to write. 45k in two weeks? No problemo! I was confident the book would be out in June. But the last leg has shattered under me and I. cannot. finish. it.
It doesn't help that my laptop has spontaneously decided that working is overrated, so I'm doing everything from my iPad right now. It's surprising how much I can do with this thing, but I can't finish a stinky book. So instead I'm doing lots of reading (right now, Breakers by Ed W. Robertson, really good sci-fi thriller, go pick it up), lots of sitting around in my underwear, and lots of procrastinating.
What else is new, amiright?
I am still going to have this book done in a week. No doubt about it. This thing MUST be complete by May if I hope to have everything else running on deadline. But I think I've been working a little too hard: I wrote and edited Darkest Gate over the last couple of months, I have a jillion things to edit, and my brain just can't wrap itself around the idea of plowing on.
So I need your help! Give me your best "getting shizz done whether you feel like it or not" tips. Bonus points if it includes red wine or chocolate or something else delicious. And... go!
The "naughty" things work to get my creativity started. Get drunk. Get laid. Both. Put a Bluetooth keyboard on your iPad and see how much more you can get done!
ReplyDeleteWhoa there, writing sounds like it's fun in your house! ;)
DeleteI do have a bluetooth keyboard for the iPad, which helps a lot, but at this point in the book I need a better word processor than everything I have on here. (And I've got, like, six of them.) Bringing together threads and keeping track of things is so hard in this screen.
Brute force. ;) And, usually I bribe myself with chocolate and/or the book in my TBR pile that's been calling my name for weeks.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
E.
That would work if I had enough self-control to resist my TBR pile. Haha!
DeleteI bribe myself with wonderful meals and chocolate. "You can have 5 m&ms per page you finish." "If you finish five pages in the next hour you get that Godiva bar hidden in the back of the cupboard." or "You know that sauce you like but you never let yourself have because you are too lazy to make the full meal? If you get to ___ page you will have EARNED it." ... I am very lucky I am not a much larger person at this point. :p but it works.
DeleteThat would probably work for me if we replaced M&Ms with Jelly Bellies, but they do turn me into a sugar-crazy toddler. Oh man. I'm lucky I'm not shaped like Violet from Willy Wonka at this point, seriously.
DeleteJelly bellies! Yeah, I get hyper the more sugar I get and then my typing speed increases, which only serves to help but also means I need to make sure I haven't had candy for at least 48 hours before editing or I might read too fast and skip over things.
Delete