The Sword and Laser discussion

No matter what year I've done NaNoWriMo, the second week has always been the toughest. Most years I didn't finish, it was because of week 2.

This year I was out guns blazing in week 2. I was astonishing myself with the number of words. The story was telling itself. I felt like I was sitting down to watch my favorite TV show, every time I wrote.

Then week 2. Sometime Saturday the effect wore off. My word count dwindled down. Now I', pushing myself to stay ahead of the average I need. Mostly just sheer determination not to lose the lead I built up is keeping me going. That and the task list item I want to be able to check off honestly.

What do you think causes the week 2 blues? How do y'all deal with them yourself?

I doubt there is any one reason.

One thing I suspect is that by the second week the excitement has worn off and the work has settled in. It really is important to get in the habit of writing every day (not just during Nano) and meeting word count goals. There is a 'runner's high' and I think there is also a 'writer's high' that happens after the initial excitement has worn off and the time at the keyboard has long felt like work. For me that 'writer's high' happens when the story takes me over and the characters become real. When I am there, and I can avoid distractions, the words flow and flow.

So... this isn't just me then?

I feel like every word that comes out is forced. I reach my word count goals, but I don't feel like anything I've written the past couple of days is any good. I pretty much blame everything that's going on around me for the week to blues. Oh, my kids are sick, or they're too loud, or they seem to need me whenever I sit down to write. Of course those things would make it more difficult to write. Never mind that my husband said that he would keep them busy for a couple of hours after dinner. By then I'm too tired to write! These are just all excuses.

And I suspect it's because of what Thomas said, that the 'writer's high' has kind of just worn off. Once I realized this was happening, I just kind of forced myself to sit down for an hour to write. Just putting anything down that comes to my head. I know it isn't good, but hey this is the first draft right?

Dinging the word count bell isn't that much of an issue. My problem is that I've lost faith in what I am writing. This is an ongoing challenge for me. I get an idea, begin extracting it from the ether of my imagination, and then everything falls apart, it's not shiny any longer, it dries up and blows away like so much dust. When this happens, I begin to doubt, shoulder slump, mouth thins, and I begin wallowing in self-pity. Losing faith in what you're writing really blows. I find it quite difficult to retain objective clarity when I start getting down on myself. I can still bang out 2000 words on any given day, but they lack life, and they end up just laying there on the page, not breathing.

Alex wrote: "Jennifer, read this from Chuck Wendig for a bit of inspiration. It's all about sucking and being allowed to suck.

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/...-..."

Thank you, I seriously think I needed to read that!

I lean mostly on the discovery writing side of things so I'm not worried that my writing sucks. Of course it is going to suck at this point.

People who can write perfect sentences and stories right off the bat must be so sad. What have they got to look forward to? No editing or rewriting for them. No, for them they can only send it off for immediate publication and instant adulation. There is nowhere for them to go, they are stuck at perfect. (Really, no matter how much they deny it while spending their giant advances and trying to find more room for their awards, those amazing perfect right off the bat writers are just very very sad people - deep, deep down inside.)

So I get up an hour early each morning and write, then I write for an hour at night. I'm usually somewhere in the 2,000s by the end of each day. No binge writing for me, just steady as she goes. Somedays it is easy to start and the words flow by. Somedays I grind it out and usually by the end of those two one hour sessions things flow and stuff happens to my characters. Most of it is probably terrible and will get re-written, but to get to the fun stuff of re-writing and honing I need to make the first draft.

Oh, and at the very end of the day I click on acedtect and see that the fricking bastard is beating me in word count! One of these days I'll catch him!

Ah, distractions-- what was that? Oh, yes. Distractions. I have no solution for this, but I have discovered an end run, if you will.

During the part of my day that I am not writing (or being distracted from writing), I carry a notebook and jot down lines that come to me. Thus allowing my writing to distract me. Giving myself permission to let ideas for my book come at any time seems to help keep the tank topped off. When I can sit down to write, I can get into the flow of things quicker by starting with the notes I took during the day. This helps pare down the internal distractions--now to keep the cat from jumping on my lap every five minutes.