03-06-2023 Attempting To Get More Done In Our Busy Days

6:45am: woke up. I sometimes have to force myself to stay in bed when I wake up at like 3am after five hours of sleep. I feel well rested and am tempted to do the whole “rise and grind” thing, however, these days I am more focused on trying to live consistent and balanced best practices. So more sleep. More than I think I need. Needless to say by 6:45, I was up and at ‘em. My son was in the bed and had decided to sleep horizontally so I to disentangle myself from his legs. I had feet in my face. Appropriately humbling, but not a reason to stay in bed any longer. Amazingly, he stayed asleep. Not so for Nic who was also waking up and about to start the day.

7-8: Made the kids lunch. Made the kids bed. Did some quick meditation/calming breaths with my oldest daughter, then packed them off to school.

8-830: No breakfast today. Fasting for Purim. Purim is itself a great story. And like many in the Jewish religion features a woman — Queen Esther — as the hero of the story. Bravely and shrewdly maneuvering her way around the King’s evil advisor, Haman (BOO!) who wants the King Achasueverus to kill all the Jews in the Persian empire.

That is until Queen Esther reveals to her husband, the King, at the exact right moment that she herself is a Jew. The tide is turned. Achasueverus orders the Jews not to be touched and instead that Haman and his fellow schemers to be killed for their proposed plot. We fast as Jews to commemorate the fact that before Queen Esther saved us, we were facing death at the ends of the most powerful force in the world at that time: The Persian Empire.

The Feast of Esther by Jan Lievens (1607-74) was a pupil of Pieter Lastman, and a close friend of Rembrandt. In The Feast of Esther c1625 Raleigh NC (see image), Lievens selected the moment when Esther revealed Haman's treacherous plot for the destruction of her people. As she pointed towards the traitor, the king reacted in anger with fists clenched. In his wrath, he ordered Haman to be hanged. Haman, isolated in shadow at the left, responded in fear, with mouth open.

I love a good story.

I like when the underdogs win.

When the long shot prevails.

And I love a good twist.

The Purim story has it all.

Unfortunately, I don’t have breakfast to look forward to. SO as not to make my fast any harder, Nicole makes her own breakfast and by 9, after getting dressed, I was on the road with my son taking him to school.

9:30am: Successful school drop off. My son and I rock out Justin Bieber and the Jonas Bros. Then I head back home.

9 Writing. Wait, writing? Aren’t I in the car, driving? I am. So, what gives???

One of the things I am working on while writing the next book in “The Eddie Ankin series, “The Crew” is the use of dictation. I have long been interested in this and tried it a few times with the dragon software. But as a Mac user, (Dragon is a PC-based software, which I believe it still is) the process wasn’t seamless. It also required that I carry a digital recorder which I often forgot, or brought with me but never took out of my backpack.

However, despite these unsuccessful early attempts, I stayed interested in the sea of dictations.

The last year or two has seen major improvement in the built-n dictation abilities of Macs and PCs. There is no need for a secondary software or additional equipment. And the computer, or as is often the case, my cell phone, transcribe the words I am saying as I speak them. Every so often the microphone beeps off and the computer/cell phone stops transcribing, but it’s usually obvious and I just have to hit the microphone button to start recording again.

I’m not what you would call a “hack gut.” I mean that in the tech sense not the writer one (though hopefully you won’t think of me as a hack writer either”). In this case, I am referring to the idea of dividing methods that shortcut workflow, save time and maximize efficiency.

Dictation is something I’ve always understood practically as a tool that, if mastered, can help me to do more in less time.

I mean I can type pretty fast. But I cannot type as fast as I speak. With dictation I can get more words written in a single writing session. It’s not without mistakes but depending on the headset I’m using, the place where I’m recording (my office; the car), and my own diction, it is pretty darn good.

It’s not getting the words down faster that I appreciate about addiction dictation. It's also that I am a terrible slow editor. One of the part of my editing process is to read the book out loud and hear how it sounds, particularly the dialogue. By doing dictation I am getting a jump on this process. Sometimes a sentence sounds good in my head but does not sound so good when spoken allowed.

Plus, the more I do dictation the better the computer get at understanding me, and I get at not giving in to some of my bad habits as a writer. Most conveniently, I can dictate anywhere more or less. As long as I have my phone and some quiet. Whereas when I am typing I have to be at my desk or maybe the couch, because I am working off my laptop.

Today, in the car I was able to dictate the beginnings of a chapter. Nearly 800 words in 20 minutes. After a revision pass that’s likely to end up around 650-700 words. But still, 650 words in 20 minutes. That means I can get a chapter done in an hour. Maybe less. Unfortunately, I am not yet that practiced at doing dictation. So, I haven’t been enjoying the full fruits of my labor with it since I am still finding my way. It is strange how hearing a story spoken aloud makes it “read” different than when it is written on paper. Or read in a book.

It’s also worth keeping this in mind as I explore the ins and outs of turning my first novel, “The Strange Crimes of Beatrice Clover” into an audiobook.

On the dictation front, a shout out to Kevin J. Anderson who is probably the first author I ever heard talk about dictation as a way to write books and to Steve Higgs, who writes amazing cozy mysteries, who also sings the efficiency and time saving virtues of dictation. Also, Norman Lear, the iconic, prolific, and seemingly immortal television producer who created “All in the Family” who is also a practitioner of dictating his writing. In his memoir, “Even This I Get To Experience” he tells the story of how he used dictation to overcome a terrible case of writers block from which he was suffering.

Now, I’m not nearly so proficient at it…yet. But, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. When I get home I’ll edit what I “wrote” (dictated) in the car.

10am: It’s the day before Purim so the morning prayers run a little longer this morning, but by

10:45 I am back at the writing, stopping to place a couple of work phone calls around noon to people waking up on the west coast.

12:30pm I take Nicole to a dentist appointment on my way to pick up my son. Some more dictation, but this time into “Eddie Ankin” Book One “The Double” for a chapter I am in the process of editing/revising. I don’t usually use dictation for revisions but in this case I know the few spots I wanted to make some changes. I also knew pretty clearly the way I wanted to change them. So, I dictated those changes on the way home.

1p: Grocery shopping. Tough when fasting. I live vicariously through my son who eats Oreos from the pack and drinks a juice pack. He tries the chicken nuggets from the deli counter, but isn’t a fan. My children are particular eaters.

1:40 Head home.

2: After getting my son situated I go back to work. I edit what I dictated early this morning, and I finish this post. In what feels like no time I am back in the car going to pick up my girls from their school. Normally, Nicole will do one or even both of the pick ups and drops off on days when she works from home, but today she had a bunch of appointments and meetings so I handled them today.

2:45 Nic gets home and I head out the doo to pickup the girls at school

3: Make snack for the kids while Nic does a work meeting.

3:30 Play with kids while breaking to bring this post current.

More to come….

(I am trying to be better about consistently updating these daily logs when I write them. The goal is Monday, Wednesday Friday, but life and work has thus far gotten in my way. I am recommitting myself and redoubling my efforts. I believe doing so is not only a useful record of where my times goes…But, also a record of a time in my life I hope to look back on someday and appreciate this part of the journey. Also, because I know how much I enjoyed and found it useful when others who are successful recorded their days and shared it with others. Hopefully, anyone following along finds this at least a little bit useful and entertaining.)