To Sprint or Not to Sprint

I have a love/hate relationship with writing sprints.

The pluses are many. It gets me to make an appointment to write. With my ADHD, I'm not good at getting myself started, but if I'm committed to meeting up with other writers, I'll be there.

While I'm a slow writer, the sprints also force me to focus on getting my words. I'm easily distractable (ADHD), and having a sprint period helps me remain on task.

Sprinting with other writers also is more fun because in the breaks between sprints, we talk.

The sprint appointments also get me moving in the mornings. I am a dawdler and can spend forever drinking coffee and playing the NYT Spelling Bee, Wordle, Connections, Strands, etc.

The downside for me is when the time is up. Many times, I've just hit flow state, and the words are coming fast and furious and I'm totally in the zone. And then the writer keeping track of time will call the end of the sprint and I wind up frustrated because it takes me so long to get back in that state.

We've expanded out the length of the sprints, many times going over an hour, but when I'm in flow, even this isn't enough time for me.

But despite all this, the positives far outweigh the negatives. I like having an appointment to write and this works with my brain. I'm going to keep sprinting.

Wired and Tired

Wired: Getting in the flow and the scene writing itself so easily that even an hourly check in with the sprint group is too many interruptions.

Tired: Spending the next writing day staring at a new chapter and none of the characters want to talk.

I had both happen. I had a writing day where flow was intense, the words were coming faster than I could type them, and I started to get crabby about the sprint group check ins.

I ended up just writing and writing until the chapter was finished and had one of my best word count days in a long time.

And then two days later, the next day I had free time to write, I went to start the new chapter and nothing.

I know the suggestion is to never stop writing at the end of a chapter or scene, that it's best to begin the next one. I did do that!

The problem was that on the day I was so busy that I couldn't write, I realized that what I began the next scene with wasn't going to work. I needed to cut it and start somewhere else. And basically spent a few hours writing and cutting. Over and over.

I hate days like that. I guess I need to spend more time with my notebook, trying to figure things out.

A Possibly Scathingly Brilliant Idea

I maybe had a brilliant idea today for how to organize the supplies I use all the time in my planners, my notebooks, and my writing notebooks.

Rolling craft cart!

Okay, so I have one rolling craft cart already. I'm using it for knitting and crocheting stuff. I also made an error in judgment and ordered the deluxe craft cart with the hooks on the side and the rollers for like wrapping paper. I use those for vinyl for my cutting machine.

The problem with the deluxe cart is that those side attachments, particularly the hooks, are dangerous. They also fall off constantly.

When I had my light bulb moment about using a craft cart for my notebook supplies, I immediately thought of moving all my knitting and crocheting stuff somewhere else and using that cart. And then I remembered the hooks and other side attachments and went, yeah, no.

I found a regular rolling cart on sale today and with a coupon for $3 off and decided to give it a try. It's possible this idea isn't quite as brilliant as I believe it to be, but I'll give it a shot when it arrives. One of the features to this cart that I like is it has a handle to allow you to push the cart where you want it. This makes me believe it might be easier to roll than the deluxe cart I already have.

I like doing my notes and planners at my kitchen table, but I'm so tired of pens and stickers and rulers all over the place. This cart gives me hope I can corral everything on it, including my caddies with my notebooks and planners.

Hopefully, this will be easy to roll out of sight when someone comes over without me needing to make multiple trips back and forth to my office with arms full of office supplies.

Walking Vietnam's Coast - Virtual Challenge

After spending 434 days on the walking the Amazon challenge, I decided to take the short route for the Coast of Vietnam challenge.

For those of you who are newer to the blog, I enroll in virtual challenges where I can earn racing medals. There are two companies I really like, but one of them requires many of their challenges to be done in one session and sorry, I'm not doing a marathon.

The other company has long challenges that you can set your own timeline to complete. For example, the Amazon River challenge had two options--a short route and a long route. I opted to take the long route which is why it took me 434 days. It was more than 1600 kilometers long (Just short of 1000 miles.) As this challenge went on and on for more than a year, I wished I'd chosen the shorter route. :-)

That's why I chose the shorter route for the Vietnam challenge. I didn't want to spend another year walking the coastline.

This one seemed to fly by after the Amazon: 56 days to walk 160 km.

I like earning the medals. I signed up for my first virtual race in 2021 after I had surgery. I wasn't allowed to exercise, lift weights, go to the gym or anything for six weeks afterward and I was worried it would be hard to get back in the swing. I thought earning a medal might encourage me.

It did and I keep using the medals as encouragement.

(BTW, I received NO compensation of any kind for this post, and I've always paid for my own races/medals.)

Organizing Books on Apps

Okay, as I was writing last Thursday's blog post, I had something pop into my head and decided to write this post right away before I forgot all about it.

How in the world do you organize your eBooks?

I have a major disaster on my hands and literally spend forever trying to find which book to read. I have so many books on multiple reading apps (Kindle/Kobo/Book Funnel/Etc.) and nothing is categorized or organized.

How do I sort things when I've been collecting eBooks for years and haven't organized anything? How do I even start to sort out this mess?

The other night, I had some free time, and I wanted to read a book. I knew I had just downloaded a couple that were intriguing, and I'd been excited to read. Then I went into the app, and I didn't know which ones they were. I kept opening book descriptions and reading them, but I never found any of the stories I was looking for.

I'm sure everyone else must have a system in place. It must be only me with this chaos.