Ugh. This week’s report comes with a hefty lesson in momentum, one that I learned a long time ago, but relearned in a painful way. But numbers first, and then excuses.
This week was not good. I was only able to add another 4,098 words to my current work-in-progress, bringing my total up to 41,664 words. I’m kind of upset with myself. No, wait. No weasel words. Strike the “kind of.” I am upset, even though I had a good reason: I got sick this past weekend. Nothing too major or life-threatening, but enough to make me sleep for long stretches and otherwise lie on a couch and read. That’s about all the mental activity I could handle.
While I needed to recuperate, it absolutely killed my forward momentum. I’ve been much better the past three days, but since I haven’t been racking up the words, it’s hard to get back into that zone and habit. It’s sort of an author’s version of Newton’s First Law. An author in motion tends to keep writing. An author at rest doesn’t.
Now in some ways, I did need to slow down a bit. I’ve hit a point in my story where things are really starting to happen, and I didn’t have a definite plan in place for what was going to happen. I know what the end result of the next few scenes need to be (shifting allegiances, promises to help, that sort of thing), but I wasn’t sure how I was going to get to those particular finish lines. Now I’ve got a better idea.
But hey, I don’t want to leave you empty-handed. Here are the tweets from this week’s #WIPJoy questions:
#WIPJoy | Day 8 – Again I have to wuss out. I’m not good on engaging all five senses in a first draft. Whole “character in a void” thing.
— John Otte (@JohnWOtte) September 8, 2016
#WIPJoy | Day 9 Is my WIP inspired by my life? Yes. Directed a play in college & part of my WIP is based on that. pic.twitter.com/SPXDs9fUk0
— John Otte (@JohnWOtte) September 9, 2016
#WIPJoy | Day 10 – Share a line you love about a setting. Don’t have a lot of that, but I do have this: pic.twitter.com/Bza4n5RA07
— John Otte (@JohnWOtte) September 10, 2016
#WIPJoy | Day 11 – My protagonist gets to take over. What’s her biggest regret? pic.twitter.com/6lbCNbDqVp
— John Otte (@JohnWOtte) September 11, 2016
#WIPJoy | Day 12 How does my protagonist really feel about the character closest to her? Well, let’s ask her. Piper? pic.twitter.com/8amNM6gzqh
— John Otte (@JohnWOtte) September 12, 2016
#WIPJoy | Day 13 What is your protagonist’s weapon of choice? Piper, take it away… pic.twitter.com/3NTvvid2TU
— John Otte (@JohnWOtte) September 13, 2016
#WIPJoy | Day 14 What does your protagonist think about romance? Um…awkward… pic.twitter.com/yufomhWDQy
— John Otte (@JohnWOtte) September 14, 2016
See you next week (with hopefully better numbers!).
Writer Bro, you are preaching to the choir…erm, I mean fellow been-sick writer! Like you, not major but majorly interfered with my forward progress. *HUGS* But this too shall pass…with two rounds of antibiotics, reading, music, and rest in between if my experience is the norm (which mine usually isn’t ;___; but it may help others). Hang in there and keep plodding forth with purpose. LUV YA BUNCHES IN JESUS WITH HOPE & PRAYERS! Tonja Condray Klein (TCK) ^___~