Which I actually didn’t do until yesterday, or maybe it was Friday. \u00a0I’ve lost track.<\/p>\n
THE DAY<\/p>\n
Here’s the dilemma: when I slow down and the writing’s bad and you feel like you’re pulling words out with a fork, that should be an indication to me that I’ve not thought through where things are headed.<\/p>\n
What I notice is that my head gets a little empty. \u00a0I\u00a0know\u00a0<\/em>what I want to say, but I can’t find the words and the images don’t come either. \u00a0You’d think I’d recognize this by now, and yet I never seem to. \u00a0So I fret; I get frustrated; I start to grump and then EVERYTHING comes to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n I wish I understood this better. \u00a0I think it has something to do with when I’m rethinking a character arc. \u00a0I listened to a tiny bit of an interview of another author today and the interviewer asked if the guy avoided certain books while he was writing. \u00a0Well, he did; I think probably all authors do because you don’t want your voice or vision contaminated by someone else’s finished product which will ALWAYS seem so much better and more polished than anything you’re writing at the time.<\/p>\n I went back to a book I know very well and started to re-read it and thought,\u00a0Wow, this book has heart. \u00a0<\/em>And one of my characters is\/was still looking for his. \u00a0So this book showed me a way in, but it also meant a massive rethinking.<\/p>\n Now the husband is okay with thinking; his opinion is that a day of heavy thinking or planning counts for at least as much as writing, and to a certain extent, he’s right…unless thinking becomes avoidance, which I think it has the potential to be for me. \u00a0The downside, of course, is that if I don’t think, I flounder and when I flounder, I start using a fork to dig out the words, and then everything just goes to hell in a hand basket.<\/p>\n Anyway…before yesterday and today, it was an okay week. \u00a0Sometimes I also think I do myself a disservice by NOT taking a day off once a week. \u00a0But I don’t. \u00a0Getting started again and back in the groove is tough.<\/p>\n WRITING OUT LOUD Day 1: 1000 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 23-26: 9450 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 51-52: 4500 Blog Post: 535 Which I actually didn’t do until yesterday, or maybe it was Friday. \u00a0I’ve lost track. THE DAY Here’s the dilemma: when I slow down and the writing’s bad and you feel like you’re pulling words out with a fork, that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3989,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions\/3989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStay\u00a0Dead (started 5\/05; Days 1-4, false start)<\/p>\n
\nDay 2: 1200 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 27: (novella) 2000 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 53-57: 6000
\nDay 3: 1800 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 28: 2500 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Day 58-61: 10,200
\nDay 4: 1350 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 29-32: 8850 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Day 62-67: 11,250
\nDay 5: 1000 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 33: 3400
\nDay 6: 2000 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0LONDON HIATUS (13 days)
\nDay 7-10: ~4500 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Day 34: 3000
\nDay 11-12: ~5000 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 35-39: 9,800
\nDay 13: 1600 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 40-43: 10,500
\nDay 14: 2300 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 44: 2000
\nDay 15-17: 4450 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Day 45-47: 6000
\nDay 18-19: 4500 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Day 48: 4000
\nDay 20-22: 5220 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Day 49-50: 3500<\/p>\n
\n***
\nWhat I’m Watching:
\nFinished up\u00a0Peaky Blinders. \u00a0<\/em>Well done. \u00a0Then started in on\u00a0Trumbo,<\/em> a surprisingly good movie so far. \u00a0The Olympics off and on. \u00a0I just don’t have the time to devote to them that I would like.
\n***
\nWhat I’m Reading:
\nA gammisch:\u00a0Missing, Presumed<\/em> for relaxation; taking a look back at some Stephen King (and noticing just how\u00a0clunky<\/em> some of this early stuff is, so that gives me hope). \u00a0Have I read anything else? \u00a0I’m sure I have; just nothing jumps to mind at the moment.
\n***
\nWhat I’m Listening to:
\nYou know, I’ve downloaded several books and listened to none yet. \u00a0I’m too conflicted. \u00a0Like…stop, I know you wrote a good book; go away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"