Friday, November 8, 2013

Writing When It's Hard

So, a confession that most experienced NaNos will maybe relate to: sometimes the writing is hard.  Sometimes, you sit down to get your daily words written, and it's just a grind to get them all done.

But sometimes, you can let yourself get psyched out about it also.

Today was a case in point for that.  Yesterday was tough.  Today I wasn't feeling it; I was sure it was going to be a slog just to get the bare minimum of words in.  I wasn't sure how I was going to face tomorrow and the ISU write-in, other than by hoping that, somewhere in those 6 hours of writing, I'd manage to get a couple thousand words.

BUT, I sat down tonight to write anyway.  I hooked into the UStream link for a virtual presence at the write-in, and I made myself write.  And do you know what?

I did my two highest word-count sprints so far this month.

Not only that, but I also figured out what happens next, other than what I had planned, which just won't cut it anymore because now I know something worse to do to my protagonist.  (That's the beauty of having your protagonist think "I have to avoid this because there's no recovering from it."  Then you know what they think the worst that could happen is, and you can do it to them.)



So, what's the moral of the story?  I admit that some days are still a bit of a slog, but don't just give up because you think it's going to be rough.  Actually sit down and type.  You never know when good things might happen.