25 November 2008

Stare at Screen. Type Your Name. Delete Your Name. Repeat.

I've been doing a lot of little articles for a variety of clients lately.  The topics have ranged from eliminating anxiety from your life to designer handbag replicas to coffee (my favorite topic EVAH) and even one on animal welfare activists vs. animal rights activists.  Most of the articles have been right around 500 words, so they haven't taken that long to write, and I've been able to do them easily.

I have a set of ten short articles due this week.  So I opened the word document for the first article with the intention of writing it quickly, maybe doing a few of the other articles, then working on NaNo this afternoon.

Apparently, writing so much so fast lately has tapped me out.  I got nothin'.  I've been trying to start this article for about twenty minutes, and it's just not working.

I love NaNo because it reminds me of all I love about writing.  But this is my first year doing NaNo as a full time writer, and  under-estimated the exact amount of writing I'd be doing this month.

Ragh.

5 comments:

  1. It sounds like you've hit a wall. Used to happen to me when I was programming a lot. It's time for some rest and diversion, I think. Usually, if I just did something unrelated for a few hours, and then had a good night's sleep I'd feel better.

    (Of course, I'd almost inevitably dream about programming, but maybe prose writers are different.)

    Hope you're not beyond the point where that helps.

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  2. No, prose writers are not different. Last night I had dreams about my characters and clients.

    I think I'm getting back on track, though.

    Finally!

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  3. C programming equivalent, by the way:

    for ( ; /* EVER */ ; ) { blahblah++ ; }

    Glad you're back in the saddle.

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  4. I knew you'd get back in the saddle! We're almost there, my heart sister - if the horse dies underneath us, we'll just have to finish on foot. And then spend a couple of days looking for new transportation. ;-)

    There will, alas, be very little rest for us.

    I'm dealing with my Non-Fiction Muse staring at me with reddened eyes, saying, "Please. I'll do anything. Just stop lashing me." And my Fiction Muse is giving her whip meaningful little tweaks and saying, "Andale. I get you next."

    mommy.

    Happy Thanksgiving! We'll spend some time catching up together once we've survived this.

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  5. Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to you, too! I have an email waiting in the wings for Dec. 2nd (I'm sleeping Dec. 1st)!

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Add a little caffeine to my life...