You’re six days into the NaNoWriMo and MBTWriMo writing marathon. You started out great. Thousands of words flew from your fingertips and onto the computer screen. Your writer friends envied your massive word count.
But today, the cursor on the blank screen taunts you. The blink-blink-blink flashes your zero word count to the world. When you finally force words to come out, they resemble your “See spot run” sentences of your first grade reader.
Ahhh… to be a writer.
Okay. Sit back, take a deep breath and relax! It’s all good. Your creative juices come in waves just like the tides in the ocean. Sometimes they come crashing in with the force of a tsunami and words flood your work in progress. Other times you’ll walk a mile just to reach a trickle.
You can’t hammer out word count every hour of the day. It’s unnatural. Unhealthy. It wouldn’t be wise for you to any more than you should eat constantly for all those hours. Your body has to have time to process what you’ve consumed. So it is with your word count.
When words won’t come and the contest pressure is sucking the life out of you, these things will help you get back on the right track:
1) Walk away. No seriously, get up and go outside, or at least in another part of your house. Changing physical locations does wonders.
2) Do something bizarre or unusual. If you normally cook gourmet meals, that won’t do. For me, I don’t dance, so a jig in the middle of the living room to a 60’s song really works. Don’t run unless someone is chasing you? Then run around the yard, the block or neighborhood.
3) Get away from words. Don’t read, answer emails or piddle on social media. Go watch a short television program. If it’s really serious, take time to watch a movie in a completely different genre than you’re writing.
The key is to give your creative mind a recess. Whatever that means to you, make sure it’s different enough that your brain feels like it had a break.
NaNoWriMo and MBTWriMo is designed to encourage you, energize you and motivate you to writer farther than you’ve ever written before. It’s not intended to stop you dead in your writing tracks.
Give it whirl. Give yourself a break and make sure to keep it all in perspective.
Happy writing!
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