Jack of Many Trades

Writing Wednesday: January Review

Originally posted: 2013-01-31

So according to 750 Words, I wrote about 25k this month. That's just a little bit ahead of my 750 words/day goal, so I'll take it. It includes a lot of half-finished things I expect I'll go back and mine later; I gave up on only counting finished things. I'd have very little to show for this month at all if I did that.

I'm currently working on three pieces: one for the Poetry Fiction challenge that ties together a few smaller scenes with a one of my fictional exercises in exploring the Dragon/Firebird relationship, and two inspired by the Orgasm Circlet challenge that aim to do similar tying-together with other projects I've been working on for too long. Little scenes and the like are easy. It's looping back around and making something that's the sum of its parts that's a struggle for me.

There have been plenty of times this month when I struggled with writing as a goal, and I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew, especially with the Imaginary Beasts deadline. I've also tended to use "I should be writing" as an excuse to put off doing other things, even if I end up sitting and staring at my computer instead of writing. I need to figure out a way to be more disciplined about that.

It will probably involve Zenwriter or some other software that deprives me of distractions...

I'm not sure the problem is actually the buckling-down-and-writing. I can do that when I have to - I do it during NaNo just fine. The problem for me is that I'm not always happy with what I produce that way. In fact, dissatisfaction with my writing is the single biggest problem I'm having in being motivated and writing more. I'm in one of those phases where everything I write feels clumsy and awkward.

I suppose all I can really do is push through it and keep trying to improve, but it does wear a bit after a while.

It's been a while since I did any spellwork for creativity or inspiration, but I'm wondering if that might not be worth the time if it gets me out of this hole.