Writing for me lately has been like pulling teeth. I’ve been told time and time again that you can’t wait for your muse. See that time I saw my fave Nora Roberts talk at the Washington Post. You just have to practice BICHOK aka “Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard.”
I know this; I practice this. But even when I write 1000 words in 45 minutes, it doesn’t feel like it’s flowing for me in the past couple of weeks. I THINK or HOPE it’s because I’m a better writer now. The first time I wrote my book in 2013, I pumped out 50K words during the infamous Nanowrimo in November. And man my hands just flew across the keyboard. It all came so easily.
Now I agonize over every decision. Is there enough conflict? Are the characters following their growth arcs? Are they showing attraction to one another too soon for my current primary trope? Don’t forget the setting and the weather. Make sure the opposing hero/heroine is in the room in some way, they need to be together more. More white space in my dialogue, people don’t talk like my brain. What physical intimacy level should they be at now? OMG, I am going to make myself crazy.
With knowledge is power. Hopefully, my writing is sooo much better. But at the same time, I can’t write with the freedom I once did. My brain is in the way.
Regardless, my accountability partner and I had our weekly call this morning, and talked about how we were going to “get after it” in November. That we wanted to co-commit to a specific writing time. I created a document that captured all the guidelines we are agreeing to follow in the upcoming month and named it “No Nonsense November”. What I have to remember is:
I mean, given, the whole reason I’m rewriting a book that I already wrote once, and edited into a Frankenstein version, is because it needs to be better. But I’ve maximized (my #2 strength) the hell out of this book for the past year, and so at some point I have to let something be “good enough”.
So anyhow, here’s my updated progress chart. Keeping on with the transparency. I’ll just try to share a few times through November how it’s going! And also I have a little writing weekend planned with a fave writing friend at my fave place (I watch this whenever I need to transport myself to some peace), so hopefully I’ll take a big chunk out then!
Slow and steady wins the race? ?
*Happy to give credit for all memes featured on this page–could not figure out original creators!