S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 105

Top 5 Tips For Flow-State Writing

When you’ve gotta write, and write for long periods, or get lots of writing done in shorter periods, you want to get into the “flow state.” I’m sure some of you have heard about it. It’s that state of being when you’re IN THE STORY and you’re writing and you don’t really care about anything else. Santa could be landing on the roof, and you wouldn’t even notice because you’re writing and that’s ALL that’s happening. Flow-state writing also rarely stops to edit or fix things. If that does happen, it happens quickly and then it’s back to adding words. Flow-state writing is the holy grail for authors. Authors I know that achieve this with every single session get their books written fast. They stay productive and their books are clean and well-written.

So how does one achieve this flow state? I have some tips that I’ve gained in the past six months, all of which I use to help me get there and stay there for writing sessions. Let’s get to them!

1) Get everything else done first

Nothing can pop you out of the flow state like something hanging over your head. If you have business you need to do, GET IT DONE FIRST before sitting down to write. If your brain is preoccupied with that formatting you have to do, the ads you need to buy, that fight you had with your kid, or whatever, flow state is not going to happen. Get everything else done first and you’re more likely to fly high on the wings of words.

2) Set up beats ahead of time

You don’t have to be a plotter to know what you’re going to write ahead of time. If you want to achieve flow state, you need a plan going in. You don’t have to plot out your entire book, but getting ready to write, you should have some beats or sentences already down about what your session is going to work towards. It can be as simple as “This is the party scene. There’s a fight and someone sets fire to the counter.” Boom. You have something to write. The majority of writers who write fast and hit flow state consistently know what they want to write when they put fingers to keyboard.

3) Eliminate Distractions

Nothing will pop you out of writing faster than someone interrupting you. To achieve flow state, you need to turn off distractions. Some people say, turn off the internet, but I can’t do that because I use Brain.fm (see next tip), so instead I turn off all the distractions. On my Mac, I open the Notifications bar on the right and turn on Do Not Disturb so no notifications pop up while I’m writing. I close my browser too and turn on DND on my phone too. When I’m at home, I lock myself in the bedroom and don’t answer the door. I make sure I have a drink by my side and use the bathroom first too, Lol. Anything I can do to make sure nothing interrupts me!

4) Brain.fm

Brain.fm may be controversial as it’s a paid service and sometimes it gives people headaches. But I urge you to try it out. I use the Focus section at least once per day to get into my writing, and I also especially use it while I’m dictating to help me block out the sound of my own voice. Brain.fm has come up numerous times in my authors groups and the majority of authors seem to love it. There are always a few though that complain of headaches, so don’t be surprised if this happens to you. It is worth it to stick to it and keep trying it. Nothing beats it, and I’ve listened to music, rain/thunder noise, cafe noise, etc. They all pale in comparison to Brain.fm. I have a lifetime membership, but if you google, you may find some codes for money off and they have a free trial. Go get it!

5) Walking and writing

And finally I recommend walking and writing at the same time. This one is also controversial it seems. Every time I mention it people ask me how I don’t break my neck or they brush it off as “I can’t do that.” People, give it a shot. Try a treadmill desk. With your legs moving and working, your brain disconnects and focuses on the writing. I switched to walking and dictating this year and it has been a godsend for me. Walking, dictating, and Brain.fm together and I hit my word count every time. Something about the combination puts me in the flow state immediately. I would not be a good person if I didn’t urge you to try it.

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Sunday Update – December 18, 2016

We had another solidly busy week here and I suspect the same will happen this coming week as we roll into the Christmas holiday.

This was a week when I struggled to stay active. When the temperatures drop, I don’t want to do anything. I want to stay in bed where it’s warm or hibernate on the couch under my electric blanket. Most of the time, I just want to sleep. So it’s important during these winter months when I want to shift into bear-mode (aka hibernation) to get up and get moving as much as possible.

I don’t remember much about Monday or Tuesday. I believe I got writing done both days and I started my new routine of taking care of the kitchen duties in the morning. I did go for a walk outside on Tuesday, which was great, and then both my girls’ Girl Scout troops banded together to make sandwiches on Tuesday night for a local homeless shelter. That was a lot of fun and we made almost 200 of them.

Wednesday, I grocery shopped in the morning, went to my chiropractor, and then finished of the Miso Cozy novella! It’ll go out to all newsletter subscribers between Christmas and New Year’s. I think they’ll really enjoy it.

Thursday, it was deep winter cold here. WAY below freezing. And I had a lot of trouble leaving the couch. I eventually got some dictation in on the couch that day, but I remember it not being a lot.

Friday, my kids had their Winter Concert at school. My oldest had a flute solo and she did really well! I’m super proud of her, and then both kids sang in the choir. It was a lovely day and my husband was home from work, so everything was easy to get done.

Saturday, we spent the day at home due to a lot of snow on the ground. The kids played outside, had a piano lesson, and I got dictation in on the treadmill.

The NaNoWriMo novel is coming along and I’m enjoying living with these new characters in my head and figuring out where this series is going to go. I hope to have the first draft done in the beginning weeks of January, when I’ll then work on the final draft of Daydreamer 3.

What else happened this week?

My walk in the park was really nice and quiet, but also cold. You can see the lake is starting to freeze over.

My new routine is to clean the kitchen and do dinner prep in the morning. It’s working out fine so far.

I’ve been nursing my arm with a heated pad. It’s much better and I’m confident that I’ll be right as rain by January.

My kids built a snowman outside yesterday.

A fire was much needed this week!

And my family played Monopoly yesterday while I worked.

Book Chat #28 – Scifi, Urban Fantasy, Non-fiction by James Scott Bell, and more!

What I’m reading…

[image error]I’m currently reading THEIR FRACTURED LIGHT by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, the third book in the Starbound Trilogy. It’s been a year since I read Book 2 in this series, so it’s been hard to get back into the story, but so far so good. I had a few problems with some of the early plot points in the book, but they were resolved swiftly and then the story moved on to territory I didn’t expect, and I’m devouring it. I’m hoping to read it between writing sessions in the next week!

What I read…

[image error]I finished off the Red Rising trilogy with MORNING STAR by Pierce Brown. I’m not gonna lie. This book made me cry at the end. It was so good, and the whole trilogy will go down as my favorite. I loved the writing, the plot twists, the characters. I was completely invested in the trilogy from beginning to end. Brown did an amazing job with this series, and I recommend it to whomever I run into.

[image error]I then read LIPSTICK & LATTES by Tracy Krimmer (full disclosure, she’s my critique partner and good friend) and I loved this too. The story was original and sweet, with enough tension and drama to keep the story moving at all times. If you’re looking for a sweet romance, you want to check this one out!

When I was done with LIPSTICK & LATTES, I flipped through two non-fiction books by James Scott Bell, CONFLICT & SUSPENSE and VOICE – THE SECRET POWER OF GREAT WRITING, while I was writing for NaNoWriMo. I learned some good tips in both of them and I hope that I applied them well in my writing!

S. J. Pajonas.

How’s Dictation Going?

I’m so glad you asked this very important question! I’ve been dying to talk about dictation again on the blog but seeing as I’ve been dictating every day trying to get my word count in for my fiction, I haven’t had time to actually talk about dictating. Lol. Such is the way of things.

If I remember correctly, it was a year ago October that I tried dictating for the first time. I was using Dragon 5 for Mac at the time and things were going pretty well. I was dictating into TextEdit on the Mac and copying over to Scrivener when I was done with each session. I found, though, that correcting Dragon on the Mac was quite difficult. It doesn’t have the same correcting capability that the PC version does and it would often blow away my work if I wasn’t careful with it.

I also had problems with it crashing frequently or stalling on start-up. There were days when it would take five minutes or longer to boot up. Honestly, I’m pretty impatient when it comes to things like this. When I start software, it should boot up and work immediately. This is not 1997. I have expectations and Dragon wasn’t meeting them. But I still managed to dictate most of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE and THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE BRAVES THE WINTER.

Then I took a break from writing in order to do editing, so I wasn’t using Dragon for a few months. I figured I would just come back to it when I was ready. This summer I decided to work on a short story, SECRET KEEPING SAKURA, so I fired up Dragon to get working. This was when I realized that Dragon had somehow given up the ghost on my machine. It no longer recognized my microphone headset, and it would just output gibberish. SO FRUSTRATING! I tried starting over with a new profile, new microphone, everything. Still, it didn’t want to work. It would take forever to boot up, would work fine for a day or two, then not work at all. The damned thing cost $300 and was basically useless.

I broke up with Dragon for a while. I was pretty mad at it, yet I missed the convenience of dictation and how easy it was on my hands. I started to write Daydreamer 3 and I did it all typing, and it was slow and painful, both to write and on my hands and fingers. My hands would be in pain every night and I wondered if I would be able to even write all of these books I wanted to write. I was pretty down about it, but I couldn’t pinpoint how to fix the problem.

Then Dragon 6 for Mac came out and there was a coupon so I could get it for $99. I was wary of throwing $99 after $300, but I did it anyway, because I realized I needed dictation now. NEEDED IT. And I had to make it work somehow. I completely uninstalled Dragon 5 on my Mac and installed Dragon 6, fingers crossed. Guess what? IT WAS WORSE THAN DRAGON 5. I have yet to use it where it’s not crashed on me in the middle of dictation.

I was ready to throw in the towel completely and crank back my book writing to one or two novels per year to save my hands when I cried to my husband about it. He asked me, “I thought a lot of people love Dragon?” “They do love the PC version. I hear it’s awesome. But the Mac version sucks and I’ve already spent $400 on it.”

Then it came to me and I asked him, “Whatever happened to that old PC laptop of ours?” It was in the basement, an old Lenovo ThinkPad that was my husband’s then it was the kids’ until we gave them my old MacBook. We resurrected the PC, added more RAM for $20, installed a fresh version of Windows 7, and I bought Dragon 13 for PC from Amazon for $85. THIS WAS THE BEST DECISION I’VE EVER MADE.

Since getting the PC running Dragon 13 on November 19, I’ve dictated 40,000 words in a happy state of being. Dragon 13 for PC is hundreds of miles better than Dragon for Mac. It’s more accurate and the correction commands work well. I like using it on the PC because there’s literally nothing else on that PC except Google Chrome. I listen to Brain.fm, turn on the Do Not Disturb on my phone, and just get into the story. I’m very happy to be back dictating. My hands are happy, and I feel like I’ve saved my career.

So that’s where I am right now with dictation! I’m back in the groove and using it every day to get the majority of my words down. I then edit them in the evening, saving my hands and getting twice, sometimes three times, the amount of words I normally do. I’m very happy and give Dragon 13 for PC a hearty thumbs up.

Have you tried dictation?

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Sunday Update – December 11, 2016

I know I say this every week, but where does the time go? Lol. We had another busy week around here, and I struggled to get through it. This was one of those weeks that was interrupted by my own body and there was very little I could do about it (*cough* ahem). Not only is my arm still healing from my fall the previous week but I was suffering from a lack of iron that I didn’t figure out until Friday. So I spent the whole week feeling like the life had been sucked out of me but I didn’t know how to fix it. Regardless, I still got a lot done, excepting exercise.

Monday was a normal day and we were able to relax in the afternoon with no appointments. But then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all half days for my kids for conferences. In one sense, this is a good thing because mornings are less hectic since I don’t have to make lunches for them. But then they’re home at 12:30 and my writing time diminishes. Sigh. Can’t win. Tuesday, my oldest had her usual tutoring. Wednesday, they had tennis lessons, and Thursday, it was piano lessons. Really busy! I got in my writing where I could using dictation to hit my daily word counts.

Friday was when my body had had enough. I sent the kids to school and went back to bed, sleeping until close to 11am. I haven’t done that in FOREVER, and it was much needed. My husband worked from home, so I had someone to talk to and then I got more writing done via dictation in bed. Once the kids were home, I was able to pull myself together, take my youngest to gymnastics and go grocery shopping on my own. It was a good way to end the week.

Saturday, I was starting to feel better so I got all my chores done in the morning and took the rest of the day to work. I dictated on my novella and then I wrote TWO blog posts for this week! They’ll be upcoming on Tuesday and Thursday. Then I worked on the scifi word count in the evening.

As I wrote to my friends on Facebook this morning, “If 2016 has taught me anything about myself and my work, it’s that I’m most creative in the late morning and afternoon/evening. I am just not a morning person. I struggle to even think before 10am. Yes, I’m up every day at 6am to deal with kids, school, etc. so I’m going to start using that time to do things that take up my time in the afternoon/evening like cleaning the kitchen, meal prep, etc. (I already exercise most mornings by getting out for walks or heading to the gym before 10am.) I need to shuffle things around and be more productive in 2017. I thought I could mold myself into being creative in the mornings. I just can’t. I’ve gotta work with what I’ve got.”

I’m going to take this as my mantra to get all the afternoon work done by 10am every day. So meal planning has to happen so I can chop veggies or even load up the InstaPot in the morning. I have to get my exercise in too if I’m not walking and dictating. In the afternoon, I usually let the kids have a snack when they get home, we do homework, reading, etc. and then they’re allowed personal time after that until dinner. During their personal time in the afternoon, I’m usually feeling pretty creative, and I’d like to be writing then instead of cleaning the kitchen and prepping for dinner. We’ll see if this works! I hope it does. I’d like to make better use of my time in 2017.

What else happened this week?

We got our Christmas tree on Sunday! It’s nice to have it in the house. Really brings the Christmas cheer.

We saw some lovely sunrises this week!

This week was also about FOOD and lots of CARBS.

A much-needed drink.

So far I’m really enjoying writing on two projects at once!

Fortune cookie wisdom at its best.

So, coming up this week on the blog a post about dictation and another Book Chat in which I had A LOT of books to talk about! Yay! Have a great week everyone!

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Sunday Update – December 4, 2016

I can’t believe it’s December! But I’m sure I say that every year now.

December 2016 Goals

One more month to go in 2016, and thank god for that.

What Happened With November’s Goals?

Participate and win NaNoWriMo. DONE AND WON! I’m super proud of myself for achieving this goal with everything I had pushing against me this month. It was hard what with the election and the Thanksgiving holiday, plus I was on vacation for a whole week, but I came through strong and finished a day early. I noticed that this year the FB group I help administrate had its lowest ever performance. People started out the month strong and many gave up after the election. It was a rough month all around.

Get my Nogiku Box Set on Kobo. Done, but I haven’t done anything with it, and I haven’t sold any either. I think I need to go in and update all my books on Kobo so people who read them know the omnibus is available. We’ll see.

More knitting. I got a very small amount of knitting done this month, mostly because I was kicking butt with the writing.

More exercise. I did not meet this goal in Runkeeper but it’s possible that I met it anyway with the walking I did around Charleston and didn’t track.

Business Goals For December

Finish the NaNoWriMo book. This is the first book in a new series I’m writing so I’d like to finish it and set it aside so I can brainstorm on what Book 2 in the series will be like.

Finish a Daydreamer Novella. I started a Daydreamer novella last spring but only got 5k in before stopping. I’d like to finish it and give it away to my mailing list before the end of the year.

Personal Goals For December

Fewer giving of fucks. I changed up my online social media presence and have now greater reason not to give a fuck about what other people say or do online. I’d like to give fewer fucks in December and channel all of my fucks into writing.

More knitting. Let’s just say this may be a permanent goal from here to eternity. Lol.

More exercise. I set another 70-miles goal for the month. With dictation back on the table, I can dictate and walk at the same time. I think I’ll meet this goal easily enough to raise it in January!

And that’s it for my goals! LET’S DO THIS!

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The End Of NaNoWriMo 2016

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2016! I have good news! I won yesterday! Yay!!! My husband asked me, “How do you ‘win’?” You write 50,000 words in November. That’s it. And that’s exactly what I did. I wrote 50k of a brand-new scifi series I’ve been wanting to write for the last year.

Is the book finished?

No. Not at all. In fact, I left my heroine yesterday in a huge predicament. Man, she has gone through a lot in the last month, and she’s become a full-fledged real person in my mind during that time. To think that she didn’t really exist, not even in notes, until this month is kinda crazy. And the world she’s inhabiting has also taken shape over the past month too.

Will I be taking a break now?

Heck yeah. I’m sitting on the couch right now, my charged-up Kindle next to me, and a book to read all ready to go. I haven’t had a day off since November 9th when I was on vacation! And looking back on last year when I wrote two books in a row and got burnt out, I don’t want to end up like that again. Taking breaks is important. I also need to rest my arm. I tripped the other day, walking the girls home from school, and landed on my left arm. It’s fine. Just a little sprained (thank you very thick wool coat!). But it needs some epsom salt baths and rest. Thank goodness for dictation!

What’s next?

I want to read this book through from the beginning, make some changes, move the mid-point back, change a few names, and do some more brainstorming before I continue. I also want to create a cheatsheet about the forces of the world I’ve made that I can hopefully turn into a downloadable PDF for my mailing list. Then I’d like to pick it back up and keep writing. 1500 words per day until I’m done.

BUT (here’s the big but) I also want to finish a Daydreamer novella for the mailing list and have that ready before New Year’s Eve. So I need to look at that and brainstorm it and start writing that too. 1500 words per day till that’s done. Then a quick edit and give it away. No beta reading. Just go for it! Which I’ve never done before. But since I won’t put it up for sale, I won’t worry too much about it.

So December’s looking quite busy! But today, it’s all about relaxing, listening to Symphony Hall on SiriusXM, and reading someone else’s book.

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Sunday Update – November 27, 2016

No NaNoWriMo update this week since it ends this week and I hope to just be finished with it. I will say that I wish I could stop right now to read and make changes. I’ve changed tacks a few times along the way, and this would be a great time to pause, fix things, read and re-energize for the rest of the project. But I want to “win” NaNoWriMo, so I’m pushing on to 50k. Once I’m done though I will definitely be stopping to re-read and revise.

This week was another busy one! I barely remember what we did. Monday was a typical school day and then my oldest had reading tutoring in the afternoon. I spent the day walking and dictating, getting in words before Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday, I went to Panera to hang out with my buddy, Amy. We brainstormed about her book and got other stuff done too. In the afternoon, I had to take both kids to the dentist. The good news is there were no cavities and everyone was in good spirits. Much better than my own dentist visit the week before.

Wednesday was hectic. The kids had a half day and I had the cleaning ladies here. So I packed up and went to the gym, came home to shower after the cleaning ladies left, then picked up the kids from school at 12:30. They then had piano lessons and tennis lessons in the afternoon. I got in as much writing as I could in between and during all the hectic craziness of the day.

Thursday was Thanksgiving! I got some dictation in on the treadmill in the morning then we drove out to Long Island to see family for the day. I ate lots of great food and loved hanging out with my family for the day. Came home in the early evening, had popcorn for dinner, and went to bed.

Friday, we took it easy, but of course I still wrote. I went grocery shopping in the late afternoon with my youngest daughter. It was nice just the two of us.

Saturday was long and tiring. I didn’t sleep well the night before and then we got up and out of the house early for a charity run together as a family. It was really cold and I was super tired, so the morning was too tiring to get much writing done. Then we went to go see Moana as a family. I loved it! I loved it so much I cried like a baby watching it. Like sobbing. It was a powerful message and a strong heroine, plus hero’s journey everyone can identify with. Still, with the bad sleep, the early morning charity walk, and the sobbing in the theater, I was too tired to get much writing done. I went to bed early and slept like a log all night.

Today, I plan to get off the computer here in a minute, get into my walking clothes and get to work dictating on the treadmill.

What else happened this week?

These guys came to school pick up! I don’t know who they belong to, but they’re cute.

It snowed in Tokyo in November for the first time in over 50 years. NHK Newsline was abuzz with the news!

We continued watching sumo wrestling every day!

Writing for NaNoWriMo continued apace this week. I got work done while out and about, joked about my characters with my critique partner, Tracy, and crossed the 40k mark.

Thanksgiving was full of yummy food.

And dictation happened on both the treadmill and in bed!

Be back later this week with a NaNoWriMo wrap-up, and then I hope to start posting to the blog more regularly in December. I have more posts about Japan to put up, a book chat, and of course my yearly wrap-up too!

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Sunday Update – November 20, 2016

There’s not much to say about this week except that it was both busy and painful.

On Monday, I had a regular six-month check-up at the dentist and it did not go well. I had a new hygienist, who even though she knew I was using toothpaste for sensitivity and I flinched and said “ouch” several times, used a lot of force to clean my teeth. At one point during the cleaning, I started laughing because I couldn’t believe how painful it was. It was probably the worst cleaning I’d had in 20 or more years. Then I was supposed to have one tooth bonded and the other filled at the same appointment, but the appointment got screwed up and they asked me to come back. I went to my car and cried, and man did I need that cry. I had held off crying after the elections, just being angry or numb, but I guess the pain was too great in both my heart and my mouth to hold off.

I came home and took pain killers and watched TV. You gotta understand something about me. I take my job as an author really seriously, and I NEVER turn on the TV at home during the day. I feel I should be working instead. The most I’ve ever done is a half hour of NHK while I eat lunch. So for me to just sit and watch TV for a couple of hours means something is really wrong. I was in pain all the way through Tuesday.

Tuesday, it was pouring rain like the apocalypse. I was going to go grocery shopping and to the gym, but I was still in pain and didn’t feel like dealing with that AND the rain. I stayed home. I wish I could say I worked. I barely had the energy to do that. When the evening came, and I was feeling better, I worked then.

Wednesday, I went grocery shopping and to the chiropractor then I wrote in the afternoon before school got out and then at my girls’ tennis lessons. Now when we leave tennis lessons it’s after dark.