28 October 2021

 Song mood: Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette.

It’s been a sluggish week for me. I had sleep issues Monday morning. My alarm didn’t go off and so I started work an hour later than I usually do. I tried to multitask while being a zombie, which lead to burning rice on Monday. First time ever. It was a wretched smell that lingered for days. Monday was also my father’s birthday. I thought about him and realized that’s been a couple of years since I went out for his birthday. Usually I go get some greasy steak hoagie, something he would have liked and think about him. These days, I’m trying to eat healthier, and so don’t eat real greasy food that often.

It rained hard on Wednesday, as it had rained for this whole last week. One of the days, I walked at the mall with my face mask on.

Every year, about this time, I experience a total drain of power. I think it may be that I’m further away from the sun. And the cure for that would be for me to live in the southern hemisphere for half a year. I can be like Persephone and then avoid winter all together. But the flaw to that idea is that I really like Autumn. Especially in Korea and Seattle. The leaves shift in colors and there is an eerie fog that rolls around.

I’m still listening to Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman. 

When I’m not walking, Productivity for Authors by Joanna Penn. I’m listenig to her talk and I’m thinking yeah, she’s definitely from England. I can tell, the accent. Then she talks about how she found a writer’s group in Brisbane and goes to writer’s conferences in Sydney. So then I go, wow, I was really off on the accent. Then I looked at her bio to see she’s actually from Bath but lives in Australia.

Anyway, she recommends dictation as a means to be more productive as a writer. Through dictation, she says she can write up to 5,000 words an hour. When I was working on the last rough draft I wrote, I could write up to 1,200 words an hour. So I’m looking into dictation. It was something I scoffed at. And now I’m looking into it.

From what Penn recommended, I bought these two ebooks: Dictate Your Book by Monica Leonelle and Fool Proof Dictation by Christopher Downing. Fool Proof Dictation has exercises writers can do to make the writing session flow.

Then I also bought this ebook: The 8 Minute Writing Habit by Monica Leonelle. I really want to write these stories that have been rolling in my head for years. And right now, these self-help books should do the trick.

It will be something for me to look into. If it works, I can build up my supply of material to edit and publish. Then maybe I may be able to self-publish 10 books a year. It’s a thought.

I’m thinking of what I would like to do next with my videos. I know I will do the 100 word shorts. And I will do the Dot and Echo story. Though that may be pushed out if I decide to spend a couple of months writing the fantasy series. And then, I would kind of tie in Echo and Dot to the series to the series I that fantasy series.

A lot of things to think about.

So now, I’m heading into weekend mode. I will watch mysteries. I will read books to improve my writing production. I will do a lot of hiking as the weather will be perfect, 40’s and 50’s all weekend. I will do my usually weekend things.