Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Nanowrimo: Too much to do + Writer's Block = not enough words
You may have noticed that I stopped writing. The reasons are many and varied, but all boil down to two facts: one you know - November is the worst month for me.
The second is that I stopped caring about the story that was developing, even though I liked the individual parts and I loved the premise. I think I actually got writer's block, something I've rarely experienced.
The diagnosis of writer's block is not simply the inability to write. Most of the population has that, including such luminaries as Dan Brown, William Shatner, and Christopher Paolini. Clearly such a lack doesn't necessarily stop one from creating novels.
Nor Writer's Block strictly a lack of ideas. And it certainly isn't laziness.
Writer's Block requires that a story already be in progress, and the author is working hard on it, but has been unable to write more of the story. This usually means that the author has taken a wrong turn somewhere. The solution is to find out where things went bad, erase it (even if they love what they had written before, and start over from that point on.
So that is what I need to do. Hrm... I guess I could still count all those other words in my word count. I don't think that will work though. Not for me, anyway.
The reason this is the first time I've experienced true writer's block is because in every case except this, I always know my endings and my main characters very well. In this case, I didn't. The idea simply hasn't cooked enough in my brain. It is good enough to be a novel, and too much to make into a short story. I thought of it just a couple of weeks before Nanowrimo began, and that isn't nearly long enough. It will probably end up being either the second or third novel I write (unless the other two end up needing more than one book which is a very good possibility.)
So rather than stumble through it and make myself confused, I may write more ideas down for word count but I will be focusing on rewriting the contest piece I recently finished and outlining the novel I want to have finished by next June. ¶ 8:10 PM
You may have noticed that I stopped writing. The reasons are many and varied, but all boil down to two facts: one you know - November is the worst month for me.
The second is that I stopped caring about the story that was developing, even though I liked the individual parts and I loved the premise. I think I actually got writer's block, something I've rarely experienced.
The diagnosis of writer's block is not simply the inability to write. Most of the population has that, including such luminaries as Dan Brown, William Shatner, and Christopher Paolini. Clearly such a lack doesn't necessarily stop one from creating novels.
Nor Writer's Block strictly a lack of ideas. And it certainly isn't laziness.
Writer's Block requires that a story already be in progress, and the author is working hard on it, but has been unable to write more of the story. This usually means that the author has taken a wrong turn somewhere. The solution is to find out where things went bad, erase it (even if they love what they had written before, and start over from that point on.
So that is what I need to do. Hrm... I guess I could still count all those other words in my word count. I don't think that will work though. Not for me, anyway.
The reason this is the first time I've experienced true writer's block is because in every case except this, I always know my endings and my main characters very well. In this case, I didn't. The idea simply hasn't cooked enough in my brain. It is good enough to be a novel, and too much to make into a short story. I thought of it just a couple of weeks before Nanowrimo began, and that isn't nearly long enough. It will probably end up being either the second or third novel I write (unless the other two end up needing more than one book which is a very good possibility.)
So rather than stumble through it and make myself confused, I may write more ideas down for word count but I will be focusing on rewriting the contest piece I recently finished and outlining the novel I want to have finished by next June. ¶ 8:10 PM
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Just wanted to touch base with you and couldn't find your email. Are you still on to host the PGR next Sunday?
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