[PHOTO NOTE: What I got after doing a search for “oops.”]
Welcome back. I knew I’d have a flop at some point. By flop, I mean a low turn. After writing and trying to cook up new material with a considerable amount of success during the past four weeks or so, I finally hit a dry patch.
The more I record these productivity ups and down’s, however, I get more of a feel for why I might be experiencing them. In this case, I went from writing something that truly excited me and got my attention to something I “thought” I had to write. Once a scene becomes “work” to me, it can often prevent me from moving forward, or at least be willing to do so1. I’ve been developing ways to try and break through such blocks. My most common ways of doing so include delaying writing the scene and moving on to another scene, radically reordering or rearranging some of the events in the scene, drastically reducing the length of the scene, or simply cutting the scene altogether. I find the last option often can be the best for eliminating unnecessary scenes and speeding along the story. If I’m finding it boring, I have a good feeling people will thumb right past it.
There are two particular stories I’m working on currently, other than my blog posts. I think in the case of one, option two might be the best choice, while with the second one, I might cut it from where I’m planning on putting it and place it somewhere later in the book. We’ll see what happens.
Now, I said all that, but the stats for last week actually weren’t bad compared to what I’ve been doing. Here they are.
Writing statistics for the week ending 22 July 2023:
5,881 words written.
Days writing: 5 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 4 of 7 for 180 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.
Normally, I’d be over the moon with those numbers. But I’m finding I’m not just satisfied with my minimum expectations. I want to keep going.
Take care, everyone.
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Footnotes:
- Also, the Women’s World Cup started last weekend, but I can’t just blame it for the next three week of being unproductive. ↩︎