writing goals

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout and Camp NaNoWriMo Update

I didn’t get to all my workout apps today but I was strapped for time and recovering from a weekend dealing with a horrid upset stomach. I’m fine now; food is staying down and I don’t feel dizzy and sick anymore.
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Of course I didn’t get my word count up there and there’s no way I’m going to hit 50k words. And that’s mostly because I only have two story beats left to go: the climactic battle and conclusion. That’s just not going to be 30k words. Even if I stuffed it with fluff and that’s just a waste since I’ll have to cut it out later. I have enough to fix with all the typos and parts where I literally forgot a character’s name. I’ll have to take the general victory of finishing a book in a month without considering the word count.

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atthequillsmercy

Camp NaNoWriMo Day 19 and Today’s Workouts

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I seem to average about 1,000 words a day which isn’t bad for when I want to write more short stories when this is over. Figure if I outline and write a story at 1,000 words a day, I could have something to publish by the end of the week! And one of my goals is to publish more stories faster. I find this promising.

I did my usual biking at work and did the rest of these after I stopped writing around 10pm. I still need to tweak things so that I have time to do some meditation or relaxing breathing right before bed to help me wind down. Just because I’m in the bed doesn’t mean I always get to sleep right away. And with the heat, I’m having issues staying asleep and waking up in the middle of the night broiling hot and miserable; blearily scrambling to adjust the temperature so I can go back to sleep. At least I lost some water weight that way?

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Camp NaNoWriMo Day 18 and Workouts

As you can see, I am still behind and I’m ok with that. See, over the weekend, I went to have dinner with friends and people kept asking me if I was ok. Earlier last week, I had a coworker ask me if they’d done something to make me mad since I was so quiet. When I looked at myself closely in the mirror, I looked dead on my feet; just tired and sullen.

I need to take better care of myself. I’ve been up very late and not getting enough sleep. I haven’t even been cooking much because cooking takes writing time.

I did manage to make a few things but mostly, I’ve been living on snacks and leftovers. I look angry all the time and yeeeaaahhh, that’s not good.

So, this week I’m writing at a leisurely pace and stopping at a decent hour to get some sleep. I don’t even think I’ll hit 50k words just because the story doesn’t need it. I’m gonna chill the hell out and enjoy this process.

I took a walk to get some broccoli to make a real dinner and did my desk peddler. Once I got home, I used all my workout apps; including the sleepytime stretching to wind down and sleep soundly. Today I feel more normal but breaking the grindset mode is gonna take a while.

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atthequillsmercy

Camp NaNoWriMo Day 14 (a late update)

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At a certain point every night, I try to put my phone down and leave it alone so I can track my sleep and not be tempted to play around or doom scroll. This was my word count from yesterday.

I need to somehow get to 25,000 words today to get caught up and be on track for the possible 50k words. I say ‘possible’ because I’m not going to force it if I finish the story and I’m under. That’s not the point of this whole thing.

I’m a little stressed (meaning a LOT stressed) about how far I am from the right track but I’m not giving up. I was able to do this in November, I should be able to do it again.

I’ll try to update again today. It depends on how tired I am.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workouts and Camp NaNoWriMo Day 13

 

Of course today is more desk peddler and body weight workouts. I had to go a little easy because my hip is sore for some reason (don’t get old, kids) which serves to remind me why I’m working out in the first place: to be stronger as I age.

I am not entirely caught up but the words were flowing today. I think they’re mostly keepers as well. I tend to edit out a lot when I go back through but maybe I won’t need to do so much this time. It depends on how things continue. I’ve already deviated from my outline quite a bit and maybe this will turn out darker than I’d originally thought. Maybe I’ll add some more funny parts during the editing process to balance it out.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workouts and Camp NaNoWriMo Day 12

I did my desk peddler at work and some body weight workouts after I got in my word count for the day. I’m noticing I can do way more arm reps now. With no hand weights, I can do 50-100 lifts and I can feel my muscles working. I have noticed a bit of toning up but nothing major. I’m not lifting heavy weights after all.

As for my word count, I am still behind but not so much that I feel I won’t be able to catch up. I just need one good say where I can log over 3k words and I’ll be in the clear.

The worst part of this is not being able to do anything else. I keep getting shows recommended to me and cool books I wanna read but I have to use all my spare time writing. Not that I don’t enjoy writing. I love it, that’s why I keep doing it even if I don’t make a living from it. But every once in awhile, I wanna sit and watch some anime or type up reviews for cool books I’ve been reading. Those will come if I can catch up with my word count.

However, I am having a blast working on this world. I wrote Gods in the Grey City a decade or so ago and I’ve always wanted to expand it. The characters are fun to write, the setting is interesting, and coming up with new villains has been awesome. If you liked the first one, I think you’ll enjoy the next entry.

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Camp NaNoWriMo Day 5

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I am behind in my word count but today flowed so well towards the end. I’m gonna be tired in the morning but so worth it.

Tomorrow, I’ll try to get 2k words in over the course of the day instead of trying to squeeze it all in before I go to sleep. Work was busy so, I did have to wait till I get home.

Honestly, I should be doing 2k a day normally so I can get stories published faster. There’s a book I got about finishing a book in a week. I don’t have time to sit and read it now but I’ll share my thoughts in it when I get the chance.

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Camp NaNoWriMo Day 2

While not as many words as I’d hoped, I think this was good progress! Especially since I managed to wash, dry, fold, and put away all the clothes and make the bed. Sunday will be totally free to write, other than making dinner. I will need to remember to get up and move around more instead of being hunched over the Freewrite for hours at a time. I stayed up too late to do my body weight workouts so I’ll have to make up for that tomorrow.

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NaNoWriMo Day 22

I am behind. And, I don’t really feel bad about it because over the weekend, I was doing chores and writing until almost 3 am. Last night, I decided getting some halfway decent sleep was more important.

Only to be woken at 3 am because my nose decided breathing wasn’t important anymore but, whatever. I need to whip out the humidifier…

As as I’ve stated before, I think this story is going to be under 50k words overall. I have the one big fight scene and the conflict resolution and I’m done. As, I’ve said, I may end up adding more words in the editing process (since I have been reading back over what I’ve written and a TON of descriptions need to be filled in and/or fleshed out) and I’m looking forward to that process! I want what I’m picturing in my head to be clear to others when they read it.

I think what I look forward to most about all this is when it’s done, I can start working out again. I sneak in words all day, I go home for a really fast dinner, fast shower, then I’m back at it for a few hours.  This has consumed my brain and time. It’ll be nice to take 30 minutes for a quick run to clear the stress of the day, then go write some more. Or maybe do some reading; since I’m behind on my reading goal for the year. I also need to keep doing needlework so I can use up all the yarn I bought. I guess December will be as busy as November even without this challenge.

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