Wednesday, August 29, 2012

#ROW80 - Breakthrough

I picked it up this week, as you'll see in a moment. It helps immensely that I got past some mild writer's block. I don't really like calling it that. I never really feel blocked. It's more like writer's-spinning-his-wheels-in-mud. I keep writing and writing the awful feeling of not getting anywhere pervades my thoughts. Then, BAM, breakthrough. Usually I'll go back and winnow out the crap, but more often the spinning my wheels feeling was just in my head. Looking back, I can see that my subconscious was setting me up for the big reveal. Or something like that.

Anyway, the goals:
  • Lesson Learned - Brain needs time to chew on things. So it is. So shall it (likely) ever be. Often times the best way out of the mud rut is to give your brain leave to digest.
  • WIP Progress - 7/5 pages this week! Yep, that's two extra. Also I finished Chapter 3. Working on page 73, ~25k words into the novel. That's probably about a quarter done. Rock on.
  • Blogging - Only 2/3 here, but 4/3 on the gaming blog and I wrote a few football articles this week. Plenty of words, says I.
  • Reading - Finished Wise Man's Fear. Reading is on hold for the rest of this round as I will focus on writing. I knocked off two books. After football ends is when I'm going to pick up a new one... if I can last until then.
Words always flow easier after a breakthrough. A couple of the story pieces came together in a neat way, too, so I'm pretty enthused about writing it (always a plus). Not that I wasn't enthused before, just that there always seem to be ups and downs in any long project. The ups are nice.

Here's the word count:
  • Since last check-in: 6,814
  • New Fiction: 2,250
  • Round 3 Total: 45,215

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like your analogy about spinning the wheels in the mud. I know just how you feel... not blocked, but like you're not really progressing.

Matt said...

Yeah. I mean, I've experience writer's "block" as well. It's just a rarity for me. I'll refer to the famous line: "You can't bullshit a bullshitter." That is to say, I'm a bullshitter. Not that I consort with bulls overmuch.

I'm pretty sure I could write 100k words in the same scene with characters just sitting around... and then all their eyes start bleeding because even they are bored to death.

My blocks usually only occur when I'm emotionally exhausted. And since there's a very clear link to exhaustion, I realize that I just need rest and don't really freak out about it.

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