It's been a slow week on here! How's everyone's writing going?
Told you it would be slow, lol. Everyone's on a post-Backstreet induced anxiety attack recovery.
My streak is still alive at 127 days, but I have literally been writing the same chapter all month and haven't even hit 2,000 words yet on my 25,000 word Nano goal. *facepalm* I don't know what my deal is. I don't have writer's block in the sense of not knowing what to write next. The chapter I'm on is one I've had planned for a while and was actually kind of looking forward to. I think I'm just burnt out. This doesn't usually happen to me in July. July is usually my best writing month of the year because it's the middle of summer; I've had all of June to get into my groove, but don't have to really start thinking about going back to school until August, so I'm usually very productive in July. But I had more momentum going into June this year than I usually do from doing Camp Nano in April, so maybe my usual August slowdown is happening a month early. I just haven't been feeling it lately, and I hate that because then I feel like I'm wasting my last few weeks of freedom. Ugh. Hopefully I'll snap out of it soon.
First, celebrate day 127!
(Or 128! Not sure what you're calling it if you finished writing at 6am, lol.)
I think there's something to be said for burnout; maybe your brain wants you to relax a little? I think part of it could be the feeling that the world is opening up again, so there's things to do besides writing that we couldn't do this time last year. I know that I'm at this stage where I'm feeling guilty telling people I don't want to do things since we haven't been able to do things and can now. Which is also probably bad... I need to remember that hanging out at home or writing are plans, they're just plans with myself. And possibly you all if we all decide to pop on here for a break at the same time, lol. And that 99% of people wouldn't ask for an explanation beyond "I already have plans." Sorry you've been feeling slumpy, especially at a part you were looking forward to.
What usually causes your slumps? Writer's block? Stress? Burnout? Something else? Not sure? What has helped you to get over them?
You know, I have an answer for this because I have been meticulously tracking my word counts since November!
So let's see... When I was first starting NaNo, I had a very low slump in the beginning of the month, but I think this was related to election anxiety. This is really when I told myself "writing something is better than nothing." And, like you, had a low of 5 words on election night. I remember having a meeting then too that crazy people did not want to reschedule, so it was half not being focused on writing and half not physically being able to write. My next dip was right before I started chapter 14 of PNecklace, which would have been a heavy lore chapter, so I think I spent some time in a research rabbit hole, coupled with not knowing how to start the chapter, because I knew the scene requiring the research wasn't going to take up a whole chapter. So I think I did some editing on some PBox chapters that felt related, but needed some work, to get into the right headspace, rather than actually writing PNecklace. My "productive slumps" in November (ones where I still wrote a fair amount of words, they just made valleys) were football Saturdays. My highest peak (5,000ish words, followed by a 4000 word day) happened to fall on a Saturday football was canceled because the other team was wracked with COVID. It also fell after my research stint for chapter 14, so I wrote four chapters in two days. I don't know if I would have written nearly as much if that football game hadn't been canceled, lol.
My December slumps were all Wednesdays, since I was very devoted to our favorite pink crocodile's Masked Singer run. Plus I skipped writing on hubs' birthday, for obvious reasons. My jumps in December were mostly Mondays or Tuesdays, which makes sense because those are typically the days I edit for weekly updates and I would have been editing PNecklace and PBox at this time.
January was about the same. I skipped two days because I was recertifying for a certification at the same time as coaching in a classroom with a myriad of behavior incidents, so I know the first day I skipped was the day I spent recertifying and I was honestly probably just exhausted that next day, which would have been Friday and the end of a long week. This would have been around the time I finished editing the end of PBox as well, so I was probably just all around tired.
The first week of February was another week in that behavior incident classroom, so I was probably just tired. Otherwise, most of my slumps are Wednesdays. This could be a tired mid-week thing or it could be because Wednesdays are update days and it does take some time to update. There was no discernible slump for my first dose of the COVID vaccine.
I had a slump at the beginning of March/end of February and I did have a meeting that week, so that could be part of it. I was working on chapter 28 at the time, apparently, and I did struggle with that one a bit. My next slump was definitely COVID vaccine dose 2 related. And then otherwise my slumps were around Wednesdays.
All my April slumps fall in line with Wednesdays and a PD I was taking on Thursdays as well as a health thing I had at the end of the month. May same thing Wednesdays and Thursdays, plus the end of the month, but that would have been the end of the school year, so I think I was just exhausted in general.
June was more spikey, but that was also when I wrote the last five chapters of PNecklace, so it was huge spikes for the last few chapters and then kind of slumpy the rest of the time. The end of the month with my new story was very slumpy. Kind of the doldrums of a new story, I suppose.
This has been a very scientific look at my writing, lol.
What has helped you to get over them?
Edited to Add: I realized I didn't address this part of the question. I think what helped me get over them in the past was letting my mind wander where it wanted. I've been pretty stringent this month that my July streak goal must have some words from my new story. But before, I would count any old thing. I think one day of May or June was about 175 words of my current story even though I wasn't working on it at the time.
Or, honestly, and it sucks to say it for the streak, but taking a break. I think I've had more slump days since the streak has been going. And the mid-week slumps have been a lot smaller of a word count. Now that could be because I'd been working on the story for about six months at that point. I think if it gets to a point where it all gets slumpy, then a break isn't the worst thing.
I hope everyone else is having an easier time! Tracy, did you figure out an ending for Take Me Home yet? Dee, how's your new story going? Rose, have you written any fanfic lately? Mare, have you written anything lately? Anyone else who reads this, feel free to chime in too!
It is going? I saw your "writing during depression" thing down the line and that's been me this week (not the depression part, just the writing a little to keep in the habit part). I write for five minutes no matter what, then either keep going or stop. Like you, I've also hit a bit of a slump this week. I have a headache I can't shake that gets better when I eat, but then comes back later. I'm not sure what is it, because outside of feeling a bit hot, I feel fine. I'm staying very hydrated though, so that's a plus, lol. I woke up today feeling good, but now it's back, so... This is probably a sign to visit the doctor this next week.
I don't know if my slump is new story related or what, but I think there's certain parts I'm enjoying writing and certain parts I'm not, so it's all a mixed bag.
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