Lately, I've been really flat when it comes to writing. My stats for the month are terrible - less than four thousand words so far. I think I'm going through a general Isuckitis phase due to tiredness.
But I realised, the other night, that the real reason I've not written particularly on Jesscapades all month is not only due to a lack of time, but also to the fact that I've been avoiding it. How? Why? I think the problem is that I've lost faith in the story. I'm not sure I believe it's good at the moment; I hit that big wall at the end of Feb, where I nearly gave up on the project because it turned nasty on me. I figured out what I needed to do, of course (see pretty diagrams here), but it's going to be a lot of work. So between that, and the fact that I've lost faith, I've been avoiding it. And I'm not sure what to do to regain my faith in it, either, other than just sit down and write the horrid thing. I loathe drafting so much :S
However, the good news is, I've been doing a bit of work on short stories. Thanks to a couple or fabulous crits, I've fixed a couple I had in edits (Ice Wolf and Murder) and sent them out again. I'm also making progress on the new short, Death and Foxes. It's going to be long at first draft, maybe 5k, but I can probably shave at least 1k off that in edits.
Which brings me to my point. For the first two thirds of the month, I'd completely forgotten about this. It's an article I wrote a few months ago, titled 'Always Do Something'. In my avoidance of Jess, I'd been writing altogether, and we all know that habits snowball: the longer I didn't write, the harder it was to write.
So, I have a new goal. It's to write something everyday, on something. It doesn't matter what it's on, even if it's the start of a new story or just a creative description or something, as long as I'm exercising my writing muscles for at least 500 words a day. Muscles need to be exercised, or they atrophy, and I'd hate to lose all the progress I've made over the last year.
And this, I think, I can do.
7 comments:
You and me both Inky! In some ways I'm stalling with II, I guess because officially it is a 2nd draft, even if I am writing it from scratch with some elements of the previous version remaining.
Plus, I too am trying to write more each day.
Yes, Inkles, keep writing! Even if it isn't on your alpha, work on a beta or a gamma. (I thought the alpha word would go well with your short titles. ;))
Have you ever tried writing out goals and setting deadlines? Normally I am not a deadline person. I get stressed and everything freezes. But I've found that I'm not that way with writing. I actually work a lot better with clear goals and deadlines. Especially when there's a lot of work to be done. :D
Good luck!
Of course you can follow through, Inky! You're doing well, and you have a lot on your plate. Don't pound yourself down! You have a great novel. Give it time to breathe. :)
A good goal, Inky. :) I still think you just need to relax and recover before tackling Jess, so shorts and plain random writing every day should help keep you in shape. ;)
~Merc
Yuna - yes, you were part of my inspiration :)
Windsong - Yes, I used to be very big on setting goals each month. However, it can be counterproductive for me: I missed too many of my goals, even though for legitimate reasons, and I started getting all depressed about it. Goals = pressure, and at the moment, it's pressure that's stopping me writing. So I can't afford to add any extra pressure to it.
Except that /not/ setting goals hasn't really been working, either. Hence, the 500 words per day, which will hopefully have more success??
Glam - much as I might disagree, thank you :)
Merc - thanks. Though these days it seems 'rest and recover' is the one item on my to do list that I'll NEVER be able to cross off!! o.O :)
Lost faith in Jesscapades? I have say when you posted that small snippet several weeks/months ago I was reluctant to read it. It just didn't seem like my type of story. But I did read it, and I was glad I did. What's even better, it left me wanting to read more. So you'd better finish writing it, so I can finish reading it. :P
Don't lose faith in Jesscapades!
You need a break. A vaca to have time to just relax, and take a break from writing. Maybe keep Jesscapades on the shelf for a bit longer, don't think about it, then make a notice on your phone that will remind you in a month that you need to go back to it?
*hugs* Keep writing those short stories!
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