The Diary of a Writer is my day to day musings as I work on my novels and other creative pursuits. Unlike my blog postings that have been carefully crafted, this diary will chronicle my writing progress–insights and experience. Hopefully, it will resonate with other fellow writers.
January 1, 2019
The first day of the new year and I thought I’d finally update my website with what has been happening lately . . . it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated my page with anything and there is a reason for that: I’ve been concentrating all my efforts on my books. Yes, books plural. I was finishing up my sequel, but then got derailed by another book that I have been longing to write. I am excited about this book and have been giving it my all, but. . .
Now, midway through, I’m stuck. And I heard that happens a lot with writers–you get to about 20,000 words in and you start questioning the whole thing, which is what I have been doing now. I am stuck, but forcing myself to forge ahead and make words appear even if I don’t like the direction. This holiday season I’ve had more time off from work than I typically do. I had high hopes of completing a significant chunk of my book (I am now 30,000 words in) and it has been painfully slow-going. So slow that it has literally affected my mood. All my typical sense of motivation has gone by the wayside. Usually January 1, the day of New Year’s Resolutions, I am right there proclaiming my goals, psyched up, and motivated. Only today, I am once again unmotivated . . .not a good start to the year.
You see, finishing this book was step one of my master plan, this website being another step (I have something up my sleeve for it). I am a person who always had to have goals. But, I am also a person who is impatient and now being stuck in the messy middle (what now seems like quick sand) has been downright and literally depressing.
Is this normal?
There has been several writing techniques that I have discovered in this process.(Mental Note–I’ve always had a hard time with the “process” of creating things–did I mention that I was impatient?) I will share these techniques later in another posting. Right now, I will get back to my book and try to pound out another 500 words before tackling the rest of the many things needing to be done. Oh how I wish I had a magic wand. . .