It’s an author journal episode!

Transcript (still editing!)

0:01
Hello, listener. It’s a brand new year, at least since the last time you heard from me. Sorry about that. I really need to stop podfading. I had an episode recorded and set up, and I’ve been editing it, but before I could finish, I stopped and then forgot about it.

0:26
So this episode will not have any notes. I had notes back in like October or November when I recorded this, when I recorded what I thought was going to be Episode 4. But now I do not, and the stuff I talked about was, I mean, uh, yes, it’s still relevant, but it’s weird hearing it now in March of 2023.

0:56
So what have I been up to? Well, I don’t know if I talked about this, I’m sure I did, in my blog.

1:08
I’ve been tracking my word count. I’ve been trying to be more productive. That’s the thing, I guess, right? In every profession, especially writing.

1:23
I’ve been tracking my word count and trying to get better every month. And I did, actually. So let’s see, November, my word count was over 11,000 words. December was over 12,000 words. And again, this is not going to be much compared to the other more prolific authors out there, the ones doing this full time, but it’s a big deal to me. Because I have historically been a really slow writer.

2:04
It got better in January this year. So I did almost 26,000 words in January of 2023. 

2:17
Not all of it made its way to Wattpad and Patreon, which is where I’m serializing my current story, Fake-Married to My Billionaire Boss.

2:31
About half, I guess half of it got published there. The rest was sort of an experiment I was doing. I’m still sort of working on it now, but it’s going to be done soon and it’s not been published. 

2:39
So I I’d rather not talk about it. So, yes, almost 26,000 words in January. In February, well, it wasn’t as good because almost 15,000 and a half words in February. 

3:08
I mean, it’s 28 days, it’s two or three days shorter than all the other months, but still, that was a dive.

3:24
It’s still better than my previous record. I mean, the previous year, like I said, my record last year was over 12,000 words in December. So 50,000 words, and change in February was not that bad, just not so good compared to January. Now we’re in March. It’s March 21. as I record this, and I have gotten I’ve written

3:57
I told you, I have no notes. So I’m gonna have to consult my spreadsheet.

4:02
Which I have a spreadsheet for this, I had to make one. Scrivener doesn’t let you see an overview of your word down of all your manuscripts, just, you know that particular project, depending on which file you’re looking at, so yes, March of 2023 14,300 words,

4:27
which is, which is great. I’m doing better than February, not all those words were in, went into fake married to my billionaire boss, but a considerable amount.

4:41
And yes, so 14,300 words in in March, if I keep going at this rate, I’ll probably get go over 21,000 words by the end of March, which is pretty good. For me. Your mileage probably varies

5:01
I’m thinking maybe April will be tricky since I will be traveling for those two months, I will be at my aunt’s house in Cebu because my mother is flying into town, and we’re gonna hang out.

5:22
And I don’t even know where I’m supposed to be recording this podcast when I’m there. I’m probably just going to take a walk out in the garden.

5:34
In nature or whatever, I hear it’s nice.

5:39
I haven’t lived near a tree in a while. I remember one time when I was in Cebu at my aunt’s house, I woke up like, “What is that noise?” And it was birds singing.

6:00
I was like, “What? Oh, okay. Yeah, birds singing. I guess they do that.” I think I can definitely keep writing because I don’t really need much. Unlike podcasting, I do not need a quiet room, I do not need time for myself, I do not need to be isolated. I can write anywhere.

6:27
So I think I can keep this up for the next two months. Podcasting may be a problem, though. We will find out because I do intend to continue this podcast. Just because working out isn’t the most important thing ever to an author. But it’s sort of a measure of how productive you’ve been or how much focus you’ve been able to dedicate to your manuscript, or whatever it is you’re writing. I’m only talking about fiction. These are my word counts, monthly word counts for fiction. I’m currently working on a nonfiction book. So basically books, these are the words I’ve written for books.

7:26
This does not include the stuff I’ve posted on my blog. Because I’ve also been trying to write more things.

7:39
I’ve been trying to post more things on my blog.

7:45
So will I get past 21,000 words in March? We shall see.

7:53
Another thing I want to talk about is my problem. My problem right now is very specific to me.

8:09
I’ll start from the beginning: To See Fake Married to My Billionaire Boss, or like I said, I call it Fake Married, was kind of an experiment on my Patreon. It was supposed to be interactive with my readers. At the end of the chapter, I post the poll and then list down two or three things that might happen in the next chapter. My readers will get to pick one. Now, I can’t just pull these options out of my ass, right? Each of them has to be viable plotlines, and I have to work out how they would fit in the story. I can’t just put random things like “ninjas appear” or “someone gets arrested” (although I did one time). Luckily, no one picked that option in the poll.

9:23
Not all my readers got to vote in the poll, just my community on Patreon. The thing is, I have to give them time to vote after each chapter, so I can’t just write two chapters in a row or three chapters in a row. I have to first post the chapter, post the poll, and then wait for the results before I can write the next one. I give them about two or three days to vote. So because of that, the fastest I can update that story and write a new chapter is once a week, or around once every five days. At that rate, the most I could write is six chapters in a month. Six chapters a month would be around 10,000 words.

10:25
Now, I want to write more than 10,000 words in a month. So, my only option was to write another story, which is something I’ve been thinking about.

10:38
And my problem is, I do not want to write another contemporary romance for now. That’s all I’ve written. Mostly, every book that I’ve successfully completed was a contemporary rom-com. And I want to break out of that. I want to do something different. Still romance, of course, because I love it.

11:10
I don’t want to write anything else, basically. So thriller, romance, but different, different subgenre, different themes, different tropes. And I can’t decide which one, not because I don’t have any options, but because I have a few ideas. And I can’t pick one. Mostly because they’re not anything I’ve ever done before or I’ve tried them and have failed spectacularly. So, it’s kind of scary. And really, the safest thing to do is just write another contemporary rom-com. But I don’t want to.

12:00
Though, the funny thing is, I barely read contemporary rom-coms these days. I think the last one was a Jackie Lau book. And it’s mostly been murder mysteries and urban fantasy, urban fantasy/paranormal romance. Now, I’ve never written a murder mystery. And I have attempted an urban fantasy, which kind of failed. So, those are two options.

12:36
You know, it’s hard.

12:39
There are other options. Again, nothing I’ve tried. So, I am scared. Those options are scary, too. So, you can see my problem here, right? I can write the same thing as stuff I’ve written before. But I don’t want to. And if I try something new or something I’ve failed at, it’s scary.

13:08
So yeah, that’s my problem. That is the thing that is keeping me up at night these days.

13:15
What I’m hoping is that I just wake up tomorrow and decide, “Alright, I’m gonna do this thing,” which is nothing I’ve done before. And I’m just gonna go for it. So far, that’s not happened yet. You know, I’m hoping any moment now it will. But so far, no. And I’ve been mulling over it a lot. In fact, I’ve already started two or three Scrivener documents for possible story ideas. And I think I wrote a scene in one, and I still haven’t decided. I don’t outline; I haven’t outlined anything because for one thing, I don’t outline.

14:08
I don’t outline before I write. So, what I do is I usually make a book cover, maybe a blurb, the sales description, and characters. I do have, like, the main principal characters of one story idea already marked up with bags and stuff. I have their names. I really liked their names. I’m gonna keep them, but I still haven’t decided yet. I tried writing about it in my photo writer journal. But I just got annoyed. So, I thought, “Oh, I’m just gonna ramble on about this on my podcast.” So there you go. You’re welcome.

14:55
Like I said, I will be traveling for the next couple of months. Maybe I’ll… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll find inspiration there.

15:03
Or something. Maybe a change of scenery will be good for me. Like, for instance, my writing habits.

15:12
I’m usually at my desk with my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. And for the past couple of weeks, I just sort of did not want to write in that same position. So what I did was I took my laptop and brought it with me to the dining room, so I could work on my dining room table. Without the usual laptop stand and external keyboard and mouse, I just worked on my laptop. That’s it, which I normally hate because the keyboard is terrible. I think this is the butterfly keyboard that everybody hates. And yeah, I was able to write. That was my–

16:03
If that’s the best I can do if I want a change of scenery, but next week, I am flying out of town. And that’ll be a real change of scenery. Right? And maybe that’ll draw something out of my brain. I don’t know, we shall see.

16:24
Does that ever work for you? I mean, if you’re a writer, does that ever work for you? Like changing your scenery? Or I don’t know, your outfit? Or writing at a different time of day? Has it helped you when you’re blocked or just not in the mood to write? That’s it for this week. Again, not a very long episode, but hopefully, you’ll hear from me again in a week.

16:54
I don’t know, should this be weekly?

16:57
The rate I’m going, maybe I should do this once a month. The reason why I wanted a weekly podcast is that I like it when podcasts come out on a specific day every week. I’ve been a podcast listener for like, I guess, over a decade now, and it’s nice having something to look forward to and knowing the exact day a podcast episode is going to drop. And I wanted that for this one. I wanted that for my little podcast. I didn’t explain this earlier. It’s a change of media, which I think I needed because I’m just writing all the time, even when I’m doing web development or design work. It’s still me with my fingers and my keyboard and my mouse. And while yes, podcast recording, podcast editing has all of those too, but I get to talk, hence the change of media. And I’m talking instead of writing. I’ve been listening to my transcripts of the first three episodes and wow.

18:16
Wow.

18:19
That’s like, I’m sorry. I am so much better at writing things then talking. I’m hoping I’ll get better. Maybe in the future. But like compared to me writing about a thing. And me talking about the thing.

18:38
I’m not a talker. Okay, I am a writer. Why I have a podcast setup, I don’t know.

18:52
I just do. I hope I didn’t miss anything I meant to say in this episode, but I’m gonna try my very best to have a new episode for you next week. Have a great week ahead. Have a productive Creative Writing week. Until next time, bye.