This past week, writing has been hard. It’s after November, so the post November writing slump surprised me yet again this year.
The goal was and still is to write “The End” in the novel I started in November by December 31st. The plan was to write 1.5K-2K a day until finished.
But last week was rough. The joy of writing toward a goal with friends in November was gone (the competition always seems to dry up in December). I reached the approximate middle of the novel (the muddy middle). Writing began to feel like a chore.
“I’ll do it later” was the excuse I told myself almost daily. “I’ll slog through it after work between 11pm and Midnight.”
I missed the goal on the 3rd of December and that set me off on a spiral of “Ugh’s”. But, despite missing the 1.5-2K goal, I did make just over 1000 words.
So rather than giving up and slogging through a larger goal, I gave myself a boon. I allowed myself to write 1000 words or approximately 30 minutes instead of my 40-45 minutes per day. I was gentle with myself, allowed a small break for a week, and the results were staggering.
After that week, a new inspiration came. A new drive to get to the end of the novel and make December the best writing month in years. I made it through several middle scenes that were intimidating, I added in a new plot I was playing with but uncertain about, and I made it through a few chapters at a more leisurely pace.
But, in order to make my goal of 50-60K for the month, that means I’ll have to write a little more in the next upcoming weeks and push myself a little further.
The new plan is 2K a day, or 60 minutes of writing broken up in 15 minute chunks throughout the day.
Thankfully, the little break motivated me to keep pushing forward and helped me find more joy in the project again.
It looks like this year, I will make my goal of writing 365 days a year. The excitement is palpable as we all reach the finish line.
See you next week!