I’ve been on a roll, and Seed of Chaos is up to about 63,000 words! If I keep this up, I may get just ahead enough that I’ll make up for taking Christmas off. I never expected my wife getting a record player to increase my productivity, but it’s oddly helped add a more effective rhythm to my life. That is welcome, honestly, though we’ll see if it lasts. A couple of other things I’ve tried have only given temporary boosts, so… we’ll see how it goes.
Speaking of Seed of Chaos, the pre-order is now up. It’ll likely be up before the date shown, but I wanted to give myself plenty of time to complete the book and get it edited. I’m hoping to get it out in March, but there’s no way for me to know until I’ve finished the manuscript and scheduled the editing.
Not much else has happened this week. Writing this week has been powered via vinyl records by:
- Linkin Park (Hybrid Theory)
- Evanescence (Fallen, 20th anniversary version)
- T.A.T.U (200 km Per Hour In The Wrong Lane, yes, not a surprise)
- Two Steps From Hell (their live album)
Ancient Dreams 
On the vinyl helping. Why that over something like a playlist/pandora/spotify/etc? Music definitely helps my focus/productivity, but I’m curious on the record player style specifically being helpful.
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I’m not entirely sure, but I *think* it’s because it acts as a timer. I usually used YouTube Music or whatever it’s called, but there the tracks just keep going indefinitely.
With the records, there’s a set start/end for each side (which is more than a single track for me), and they’re generally around 15-20 minutes, allowing me to focus on writing for a period, then there’s almost a… ritual to swapping sides. One that doesn’t interrupt the flow of my thoughts while also giving me a brief mental break.
I’m not sure if that’s what does it, though. It could be the shift from my headphones to the sound system, too.
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I can see that, trivial enough to not break the mental flow, but still a minor break that could refresh things just do to a quick break of other activity.
Sort of a side benefit of a thing like where its always been said to get up and move around every X minutes instead of sitting and using your computer without moving around for hours. You’ll get a quick movement break but likely stay on task ;)
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Yeah, it’s a bit bizarre, and I don’t entirely understand it, but… when my productivity increased as much as it did (I wrote about 20,000 words last week across all projects, compared to my normal 12,500), I’m not about to argue.
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