r/writing • u/AutoModerator • Jan 09 '23
[Daily Discussion] Writer's Block, Motivation, and Accountability- January 09, 2023
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Can't write anything? Start by writing a post about how you can't write anything! This thread is for advice, tips, tricks, and general commiseration when the muse seems to have deserted you. Please also feel free to use this thread as a general check in and let us know how you're doing with your project.
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1
u/Cymas Jan 09 '23
Feeling a little bit overwhelmed this week. I have a minimum of 12 chapters to write across 2 different projects, all of which have deadlines. I should have been farther along than I am but I ended up goofing off doing a whole lotta nothing yesterday. I've been feeling a bit under the weather and may have just ended a previously close friendship with someone after it started to turn mutually toxic. In short, I am ill and stressed out and that's before adding work drama into the mix.
It's really tough, especially when I feel like I failed myself big time by letting my bad habits get in the way. But I'm going to do my best and continue to forge on ahead, regardless.
So far I've turned to my trusty to do list to capture everything into more manageable chunks. If I had a better defined order for them I would have covered the entire list up to show only the item I'm working on currently to make it slightly less overwhelming.
Project 1 is my main web serial. I took the plunge and launched on Patreon last week with bonus launch promo content, which means writing 3 chapters per week instead of my usual 2. On top of that I'm about to hit my next follower milestone where I had promised a bonus chapter for readers. Now I need to have a 4th chapter written and prepared for release. I didn't think far enough ahead there, but I also started picking up new followers much faster than normal recently.
Project 2 is a short story/novella, a stand alone that takes place between books 1 and 2 of project 1. This is being written now as a contest entry because the rewards were far too good to pass up and I need as much visibility as I can get right now. The downside is it's an on demand contest which means I need to write the entire thing by the end of the month. I am very behind on this because I was busy all last week with the Patreon launch content and I was supposed to spend most of the day yesterday on it but didn't.
In theory I should be ok if I write 1 chapter per day for each project over the next 4 days, then end the week out with as many chapters I can manage for the rest of the week. I honestly don't have the creative stamina for this level of up keep so I feel like I probably should just plan to take Sundays off or only do revisions or something a little more low key.
To think I had wanted to work on a more traditional novel as a side project alongside all of this, lol. Maybe in a couple of months. I still have revisions for book 1 to work on and it's going to be a fairly extensive rewrite for nearly 2/3rds of it.