Timing Apps

In today’s Journal

* Timing Apps
* Of Interest

Timing Apps

According to the comment of a writing friend on one of DWS’s posts, she uses a free writing app called Be Focused. It enables you to “set intervals for the time you want to write, and … an interval for the break.”

Not my cuppa, but every writer is different. Some of you might need or want this app or a similar one. Whatever works.

Be Focuses has helped my friend “consistently write 2000 words per day” with four write/break intervals set (in minutes) at 25/15, 25/45, 25/15, 25/15. She writes “about 500 words each 25-minute interval.”

Apparently this app is based on something called the Pomodoro Technique. So I assume if you’re interested you might search for “Pomodoro Apps.”

While I was looking to see where you might get this particular app if you want it, I ran across this:

“The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method based on 25-minute stretches of focused work broken by five-minute breaks. Longer breaks, typically 15 to 30 minutes, are taken after four consecutive work intervals. Each work interval is called a pomodoro, the Italian word for tomato (plural: pomodori).”

You can read a review of Be Focused at https://www.educationalappstore.com/app/be-focused-focus-timer.

If you own a Mac, you can get Be Focused through your Apple app store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/be-focused-focus-timer/id973130201.

If you own a PC, from what I can tell you’re out of luck for this particular app, but you can find several similar apps at “7 Android Apps to Help You Stay Focused and Avoid Distractions” (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/avoid-distractions-anywhere-android-apps/). If you search, you’ll probably find a lot more.

Or I suppose you could set a timer on your phone or watch or computer or, if you’re a neanderthal like me, just head down to WalMart or over to Amazon and buy a food timer for anything from $6 on up.

Full disclosure, as I said up front, this is not my personal cuppa. I honestly don’t understand the need for something like this, but every writer is different, and success is success. I’m glad my friend is consistently churning out 2000 words per day, no matter how she’s doing it.

I just love to write, period, whether it’s fiction or putting out this stupid Journal or whatever. Maybe that’s even part of why I keep putting out the Journal. Maybe it’s a way to get my fingers warmed up for the fiction. (shrug) I dunno.

If I could, I would literally spend 24 hours per day with my fingers moving over the keyboard.

When I first learned to type, I discovered a magic I had never known existed. When I learned to trust my characters and serve as their typist while they share with me the exciting stories that they, not I, are living, I discovered a whole new magic.

If I had my druthers, I’druther be a character than a writer. But I’d want to be one who could move among genres with ease.

But back to timers and timing and alternating writing and breaks.

Because I’ve conditioned myself to do so for my physical health (to avoid eye/wrist/back strain), I’m used to writing for an hour, then taking a break. That’s anywhere from 850 words or so on up to 1500 words or so.

Regardless, when I’ve written for an hour, my head gets a little cloudy and the writing seems to lag just a bit. Time for a break.

Sometimes I go up to the house for one reason or another (10-15 minutes). Sometimes I take a walk out back (a half-hour). Sometimes we go to the grocery or run other errands (up to a few hours). And sometimes I just walk 20 feet to the end of the Hovel and back (maybe 10 seconds).

But no matter the length of the break, when I come back, I sit down, put my fingers on the keyboard, read a little to set myself in the story again, and go on typing.

Like sleeping, to me the break is a necessary waste of time. It’s basically an intentional inconvenience. It’s something I do (something I put up with) only so I’ll be able to continue writing over the long term.

To be clear, I DO strongly recommend you take a break however often for the health reasons I listed above. The nature and length of the break is up to you, as is your reason for taking it in the first place.

I actually hope you AREN’T as driven to write as I am or as tortured as I am by the severe limitations of the human body.

To me, the true leader among cosmic jokes is that we are pretty much required to be unconscious for a full 1/3 of our life.

But that’s just me.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “52 things I learned in 2022” at https://medium.com/magnetic/52-things-i-learned-in-2022-db5fcd4aea6e. Story ideas.

See “Sci-fi-like space elevators…” at https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/sci-fi-like-space-elevators.

See “AI Reveals the Most Human Parts of Writing” at https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-writing-art/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 820 words

Writing of Santa Fe (novel, tentative title)

Day 1…… 3877 words. Total words to date…… 3877
Day 2…… 3460 words. Total words to date…… 7337
Day 3…… 2011 words. Total words to date…… 9348
Day 4…… 1050 words. Total words to date…… 10398
Day 5…… 3673 words. Total words to date…… 14071
Day 6…… 2501 words. Total words to date…… 16572
Day 7…… 4046 words. Total words to date…… 20618
Day 8…… 2273 words. Total words to date…… 22891
Day 9…… 2614 words. Total words to date…… 25505

Total fiction words for December……… 8933
Total fiction words for the year………… 223907
Total nonfiction words for December… 3660
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 201740
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 425647

Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 3
Calendar Year 2022 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2022 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 69
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog I have shared my experiences, good and bad, as a prolific professional fiction writer. Because It Makes Sense, I trust my characters to tell the story that they, not I, are living. This greatly increases my productivity and provides the fastest possible ascension along the learning curve of Craft because I get a great deal more practice at actually writing.