Day 1 summary
I am a little underwhelmed at my production today. I wrote 1911 words, which is enough to be on track, but I was hoping with a day of basically nothing to do, I would knock out at least two or three days worth of words.
There are several reasons I did not get as much written as I wanted to:
- Distractions. Oh, the laundry needs to get done. Oh, I wish that loud woman would stop yelling about her soup. Oh, look at that weird brown pattern in my carpet. This always happens with writing and you just need to get over it or budget the time for it.
- Lack of creativity/lethargy. Several times throughout the day, I just felt uninspired. Unlike a couple of days ago, when my mind was literally on fire with ideas, today I whimpered along, occasionally finding bursts of creative insight. Enough to get me to meet my necessary goal but not nearly what I expected. However, when I really hit that wall, I would shake something up. Walk away, watch a movie, read a little, change venue. Let my mind wander and it would find it’s way back. However, if I have more uninspired writing days than inspired writing days, I am in trouble.
- Plot. Once you start writing, it is hard not to think ahead and I’ve realized just how little story I have. This is where having Chris Baty’s book is awesome, because he sends a clear message that is a good mantra: forget plot, just write. I did, however, spend some of the day working out more major plot points and solidifying my ideas a little more. I consider this time well spent.
- Names. Holy crap I forgot how hard it is to write without names. Keep something—a website, a book, a list—around that has names on it so every time you encounter a new character you do not sit for three minutes banging your head on the table trying to come up with what will always be a lame name.
