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Hitting the Wall

Day 11; 14,500 Words

I'm closing in on 15,000 words, which is good. But my original goal was to have 22,000 words by now. That's seeming a little beyond my reach at this point. The word count chart in Chris Baty's book, No Plot? No Problem! says I should be at 18,300 words by now. And that's if I don't take a single day off. But I seem to be topping out at about 2,000 words a day. I'm just not sure what else I can do to break through that wall.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi G:

I can't imagine how hard it must be to write 2,000 words a day. Anyone who has written for a living knows that that is a lot, A LOT, of words, especially every day, and from scratch (your own imagination). However, I have a suggestion or two or several, which you might try:

1) If you're on a roll, try exceeding your normal time; that is, if you're feeling good on some days, continue writing--go for one more scene or chapter than usual. Don't push yourself to do it every day.

2) Add a novel-writing session wherever you can fit it in--just before bed, during a break from your (paying) work. Even a few hundred words here or there could help boost your count.

3) If you have a laptop, consider changing settings. Go somewhere new and stimulating to write. Is there a good cafe or library you could use? See if that helps spur more writing.

4) Consider writing scenes or chapters out of chronological order. If you're stuck on a certain character's actions, skip to a different character, introduce him or her, write some background for him or her. You can slot it in properly later, after you've achieved a breakthrough on the troublesome section. In other words, try to make this as easy on yourself as possible.

5) Think of writing as a treat, not a chore. (This works for exercise, too, by the way!) Reward yourself with working on the novel, instead of dragging yourself to it after much procrastinating. Actually, you don't sound as if you're having much trouble with this one--so, brava!

Anyway, kudos to you, especially for recovering from the major computer-glitch setback. You're doing great and (so far) the book is a good read.

:) rcas

November 11, 2004
Katie said...

Hey Gienna,
Who wrote that nice comment about your writing? That was very sweet. Hey are you too busy with Sammy to be blogging? I have a great book to rec. to you.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Very cute and informative!
Katie

November 12, 2004

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