Tag Archives: sleep

Morning Pages Entry – July 06, 2014

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I don’t quite understand why it is that I need to sleep more when I’m up here at the boat. Getting up at 6am every day, seems like such a struggle. Perhaps, it’s because you spend too much time on the computer, and perhaps, because your not getting to bed early enough, and perhaps it’s because your not working out as much as you should, and perhaps it’s because your getting too much sugar in your diet with the extra fruit and lara bars you’ve been ingesting. Yea, and I wonder why you can’t seem to get your but out of bed as early as you were at home. I’m sure, that everyone of those things is interfereing with your sleep patterns. Sure, you may need a bit more sleep because your outside and expending more energy, but in reality, your getting all that other stuff wrong as well. It’s time to be a bit more disciplined and fix all that shit. I want that feeling that comes from having 5K words done before noon every day. Perhaps, before 10am every day, if I get going by 6. That would be even better. There’s no reason, to let this shit get out of control. And, yes now the family is coming around for the next week and a half, and yes it will be doubly hard to get that writing in, but you need to find the discipline, and find that routine. You know you can do it. So, the next few days could be sort of busy. You want to get the dinghy ready, which means finding the slow leak in it, and getting the engine going. That could be a bit of a challenge, so you need to get on it as soon as you get home. The bad gas in the carbeurator could be a bit of a problem I suspect, but we’ll flush it out and see what happens. I should check for manual for the engine here before I go, or perhaps online and see what it says. That could be a help. I did have a feeling yesterday, working with the MRCs, but not allowing the MRCs to totally control what I was writing about. Or maybe, it was just not overthinking them too much. Don’t let that inner critic take control. And it was more enjoyable writing. Take the MRCs as a guide, and then just go. Let your mind wander and be creative with the idea from the MRC, but don’t let it be caged by that idea. Jump around if you want to. Throw other totally different ideas into the mix. That’s what worked well for you before when you had just the point form notes your were working from. There’s no reason why you can’t don that again. If need be, you could even create a more MRCs from ideas that percolate through your brain while your writing. Don’t be afraid to just throw those out there. Either in the scene your working on, or a different scene. It’s going to be an interesting next few weeks, with everyone being around. And with trying to get back into a better routine. That’s the big thing I really want to fix. Even if you only paddled for an hour every morning, say from 6 till 7 … then from 7 till 11 you got your 5K words in, that would be pretty good. I should grab my watch from Jennifer and wear that when I’m out boarding. Give me a great wristwatch suntan I’m sure. Ahh, I could always just alternate between arms … if only all my problems were so easy to resolve. Get going on that will you. Yes, paddling from 6 till 7 and then doing some writing would be a good start to any day. We’ll definitely have to work on that. But, it does need all the good stuff I’ve been doing before I started working from out here. All the good habits you had going on at home is what is really necessary. That will translate into what you need to happen on the page. It will translate into more books, and more fun writing, and more paddling, and more sailing, and more enjoyment from all aspects of your life. Focus on the little shit, and the big shit will take care of itself. That’s where you need to be going with all this. Certainly something you should shoot for, and something that is achievable.

TIGERBLOOD: yea maybe DAILYMOOD: pretty good LOCATION: boat bayfield WORDSWRITTEN: 1500 or so PUSHUPS: 3:00 wall sit TODO: boat stuff … go sailing TV: big miracle BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: beach walk WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: sausage, veggies SNACKS: orange, lara bar, grapes, smoked salmon ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:00 AWAKE: 8:00

 

Morning Pages Entry – June 18, 2014

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Well, this is sort of cool, it appears, that my editor Emily has finished editing my first novel. She had a bunch of feedback as well as a bunch of edits. She was mostly doing a proof read, and not a content edit, but that’s what I wanted. The review she sent back was pretty good I think. It wasn’t too long, but definitely pointed out few issues with the novel. I only skimmed it late last night, so I’ll have to give it a proper read this morning. I’ll have to give some thought to how many changes I want to make to the novel. While it certainly could use some rewriting, part of me just wants to get the thing out there, while the other part of me, wants it to be as good as it possibly can, even if it’s the first thing I’ve written. I would obviously, like for it to make some real money for me, and the better it is, the better that chance. Given what I know now, about how story structure works, it could take quite a bit of writing to get this thing up to snuff, although, I’m sure it’s well worth spending at least a week, maybe two, making it better. You know, there where things you wanted to do, even before sending it to Emily. Maybe, with her feedback, you should make some better changes. Perhaps, I think more motivation and dramatic reasons for why the characters do what they do would be in order. I really do, need to go over what she wrote again, and I will, just as soon as I’m done with this. I’m kind of excited actually. I really want for this novel to be out there. I’m also thinking, that I may want for it to be broken down into two books. And, then have a third book written as soon as possible. If I could release the three books spaced a couple of weeks apart from each other, that would be pretty cool. Then keep releasing something every two or three weeks after that as well. That seems to be a formula that’s working well for a number of other writers. On another note here, I really do need to get to bed earlier. I’m getting into some bad habits of staying up much too late, like past 12 and almost to 12:30. I’ve still been getting up around 6:30, but that’s really not enough sleep for me, and I have been dragging my ass around these days. Gotta stop doing that. These next few weeks are sort of important, if I’m going to get this novel out there, and I would like to have both first novels out there before the brothers show up in a few weeks. If you published one right away, then you would have a few weeks to get the next one out there. It’s certainly a goal worth shooting for. If you spent a week rewriting parts of the first 20K of the novel, and a week with the second half of the novel, you could have the second one published by the time the boys visit. I need to look at a calendar, and see where this all fits. I need to get the next novel outline as well, with a little more care given to structure and story, I think, I could crank out a much better novel the next time. Your going to need to give Emily time to edit the next one as well. I’m going to have to give some more thought to this scheduling thing. I’m not really sure, if it will all fall into place in the timeline I would like it to. Better to get it right, then worry too much about getting it out there before the boys get here. A release schedule is sort of important. Maybe, you should concentrate on getting more of the next one outlined at least before you worry too much about the whole scheduling thing. Maybe you want to have it completely outlined before you get going. That’s the thing to do I think. Once you have an outline, then you can schedule some time with Emily. As long as you edit while you create your first draft, then I’m sure I can get it done much quicker. Each subsequent novel should be about 200 pages or a little more I think. Even if you can make each following novel an extra 25 pages the readers I think will appreciate it. It’s time to really get to work.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: tired LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 2:00 wall sit TODO: rewriting TV: game of thrones, orphan black BOOK: It Starts With Food GAME: 2048 – new high score! EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: spaghetti squash SNACKS: orange, grapes, one chicken finger ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:30 AWAKE: 6:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – April 06, 2014

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Ah well, here we are on a Sunday morning at almost 9:30, and I’ve returned home from a swim meet. What’s sort of amazing, is that we finished so quickly and are home so early. Samantha was supposed to swim this morning, but was feeling sick again. She’s just worn down again, from too much work, not enough sleep, and too much junk food. She just stumbled downstairs feeling sort of crappy, and looking pretty out of it. I’m actually writing this upstairs with some music playing in the background, and talking to Sam at the same time. I don’t usually try writing these with someone else in the room, but we’ll see how this goes. I’m feeling pretty good this morning, even though we were at the meet for 6:45 or so this morning. I got up around 6:15, which means, I still got about 7 hours of sleep, so that’s pretty good. This eating super healthy and cutting back on the fruits and the nuts this month, I think, is going to be a pretty good thing, at least for how I feel. I really hope, that I can get the weight down. Which I’m sure I should be able to do. I did do it in September, so we’ll see how that happens. It’s definitely worth a try. This journal is going to be one of my slower ones for sure, given, that I keep getting distracted here. But, let’s for the moment get back to the whole weight thing. I’m felling pretty energetic this morning. Probably because of the super healthy eating, and the fact, that I’m not doing a lot of strenous squash playing these days either. Got out for a couple of good walks though yesterday. Did a 30 minute walk coming back from dropping the van off to get fixed, then did my usual 60 minute walk after supper, which I had quite a bit of energy for. I need to translate this energy into my work as well. That’s sort of part of the game plan. Don’t devote any energy to worrying about shit this week, just put it towards writing writing writing. I have to wonder, if I feel this good at around 173 pounds, how I would feel at 165 or 155 . . . holy crap, that would have to be awesome. Be like a teenager 😉 For sure, that much energy would be pretty cool. My energy level right now, feels like I could tear up a squash court. If of course it wasn’t for my sore ankle, sore elbow, and sore shoulder. I could deal the the ankle and elbow, but the shoulder is definitely a problem. I still have the club championship to deal with this week. Could have to play twice actually, if I beat Dean in the first match. That would be cool, if I could beat him. There’s no reason, why I can’t move like a good player though. Especially, if my energy levels are like they are today. That’s for sure. We’ll see how it goes. Basically, I’ll just be a retriever and be somewhat selective about when I can hit with pace. I would really like to kick Deans butt. That’s for sure. Never played him in a proper match before, so we’ll see how it goes. I certainly, wasn’t that motivated to win my first match against Bob Martin last Tuesday. I was thinking, that I had to go to the consolation round anyways. If I was 155 pounds, instead of 173, and I was injury free, then hell yes, I could challenge at for winning the division, no problem. But not these days. Maybe, next year. We’ll see how that goes. Do I really need to play at all during the summer to keep my game up? Not so sure about that. Actually, keeping my fitness level would likely be the most important thing. Correction, not “keeping my fitness level”, but more to the point would be actually improving my fitness level. Improving my fitness level dramatically. That’s what I’ll be looking to be doing. No more losing to these fucking punks out there, with their horrible shot making crap. Game, Dave, Kieth and David. Those guys don’t have an inkling of the squash strategies that I do. Their just in better shape then I am at the moment. Well, all that is about to change. It’s time to be smart about how I train for this. No more crap in this body, and time to really challenge for a spot on a “B” team for next year.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: happy (except when karen had one of her melt downs again) LOCATION: living room WORDSWRITTEN: 0 PUSHUPS: 2:00 wall sits TODO: walk, plot, eat TV: supernatural BOOK: descent series GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 173 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: pulled pork SNACKS: orange ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 11:00 AWAKE: 6:15