This week has been difficult. I have been utterly exhausted. I found myself taking mid afternoon naps. I procrastinated. A lot. A migraine on Wednesday did not help. The result – I have not reached my planned target.
Was it writers’ block or just avoidance? It was possibly both. I tried some techniques to get the words flowing. I left the manuscript alone and wrote about something else (blog entries). I tried to stick to my schedule. The unpredictability of school holidays made that more difficult. I set a deadline to finish the chapter. I rescheduled the deadline to finish the chapter (to Friday.)
I read some library books on writing. As instructed in one book, I took a step back and look at the big picture. I completed some writing exercises about my story. I discovered a most scary thing – the ‘one sentence to describe my story‘ and the ‘125 word blurb.’ Ayee! I don’t even want to contemplate ‘the synopsis’ right now.
Even Writers’ Race had me floundering for something to add to my manuscript. I did manage to write Thursday’s blog entry (800 words) so it was not a total loss.
Thursday: Finally, the house was quiet. I was determined to get something – anything – down on paper. I turned off the computer in an effort to curtail all distractions. I grabbed my pen and paper and sat, pen poised expectantly, waiting for the flood of prose. It was like pulling teeth. I re-read the chapter so far then added some more paragraphs. It took hours to finish the second scene with some pretty ‘ordinary’ words. At least something had been extracted from my brain. Any words – to revise, rewrite and edit in the future – are better than none. Or so I am told.
Friday: Mischief managed! The first (very rough) draft of Chapter 3 is done – just shy of 5000 words in all. Phew. At this point I often leave my work, allowing it to mull over in my subconscious for a few days, before revising the work. However in this case, I will leave it alone for a while longer and move onto the next chapter, in an effort to return to a daily writing routine. A week or more space may give me a new slant on the clumsy words produced in the past few days.
Having left the quagmire of chapter 3 behind for now, I got a start onto Chapter 4. A tragedy looms…
Manuscript Word Progress:
Total Words:
Revised Words:
At 1st draft only: