Everyone goes through ebbs and flows of writing, from loving it and feeling amazing, to hating every word and process in creating a story. Do you have a pattern, a common hurdle?

For me, it's what my husband and I call The Week 3s.

A pattern I've acquired and noticed from NaNoWriMo is that whenever I'm at around 35k words for a story (or Week 3 of NaNoWriMo--when it's easier to notice), I start to get really down on myself. Literally, every year I end up crying to my husband about how terrible I am at writing and that I should just quit. And every year, without fail, he asks me, "What's the date? . . . What's your wordcount?" And it isn't just 35k, it's every 35k--whether I'm at 70k, 105k, and so on. And so every 35k words or so, I hate what I'm doing, then when I go back about 3 days later I decide, "Oh. Wait. Maybe this isn't that bad. I like it." And then I can continue it.

I was reminded of this when I started looking what I've written for Echo Realms and started talking about how much I hated it to my husband. I stopped talking after he asked me my word count. This is the closest I've gotten to overcoming this hurdle, is noticing it and trying to push through. It's like this with every project.

Anyone else have their own version of The Week 3s? Indulge my procrastination with comradery! 

x_X

Blank Page Syndrome. That's mine. It doesn't matter if it's writing, drawing, painting, 3d animation, or code. That empty page is a beast. There's so much potential there for fun and badassery... but there's also so much potential for failure. But marks have to be made on the page or nothing will happen. So far, I've been able to convince myself that outcome is worse than any failure that comes from making the thing. 

My biggest hurdle is that I can't type. It takes me forever to complete a page as I hunt and peck the keys. I think the plus side to it is that it is challenging to get my ideas on paper before I forget them. That keeps me from getting bored searching for the right key.

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My hurdle is how everything I write is Monkey Bangings until I edit it about a hunnerd times.

Ugh. Fuggin' monkeys. 🙈🙉🙊

The rough draft is magic. It's straight up channeling daydreams and euphoria. Even the first edits aren't too terribly bad because I'm often adding new things and getting little zaps here and there.

But the third, fourth, fifth, pass, omg, it's f*cking DRUDGERY. Made worse by the fact I KNOW I need them because I've *always* missed some things, so I can't just let it go. It's just weeks of second guessing and critiquing everything I was once excited about. It sucks. 

Aly Wrote: A pattern I've acquired and noticed from NaNoWriMo is that whenever I'm at around 35k words for a story (or Week 3 of NaNoWriMo--when it's easier to notice), I start to get really down on myself. Literally, every year I end up crying to my husband about how terrible I am at writing and that I should just quit. And every year, without fail, he asks me, "What's the date? . . . What's your wordcount?" And it isn't just 35k, it's every 35k--whether I'm at 70k, 105k, and so on. And so every 35k words or so, I hate what I'm doing, then when I go back about 3 days later I decide, "Oh. Wait. Maybe this isn't that bad. I like it." And then I can continue it.

I face something similar to this. After a few chapters (so probably a few days of writing ~1,000 words every morning), I hit a point where the beginning’s over, but the ending’s not there yet, and I have to figure out the middle. I get lost on how to continue or my motivation tanks, and I usually end up avoiding it or trying to write through it.
Honestly, that’s probably why my first two stories posted here (Twenty Years and Silver Bloodline) have about 20 chapters, and all but one or two greatly move the plot forward—it’s plot plot plot instead of plot fluff plot or any variant thereof, at the expense of the story being shorter because it’s concise.

Randomly coming up with a totally new idea and being all like "Wow, this is so good, I have to put it in right now", only to realize later on that I've spent eight thousand words writing a few unnecessary scenes, plotlines or introducing whole new characters.

I plan my writing. But it's really hard to stick to the plan. Especially if I convince myself that whatever idea just popped into my head is totally worth delaying all the other critical plotstuff.

Aly Wrote: Anyone else have their own version of The Week 3s? Indulge my procrastination with comradery!

I think most writers have this one to varying degrees. Even an author like Neil Gaiman whose got a quote on it. I have this issue at the very beginning. Often my first chapter one day one feels like this, but by the time I get to day two or three, that feeling disappears. Sometimes it crops up for a day or two in the middle of my stories, but quickly goes away again. Like you, what I thought was total crap based on those feelings NEVER turns out to be true.

Aly Wrote: Everyone goes through ebbs and flows of writing, from loving it and feeling amazing, to hating every word and process in creating a story. Do you have a pattern, a common hurdle?

For me, it's what my husband and I call The Week 3s.

A pattern I've acquired and noticed from NaNoWriMo is that whenever I'm at around 35k words for a story (or Week 3 of NaNoWriMo--when it's easier to notice), I start to get really down on myself. Literally, every year I end up crying to my husband about how terrible I am at writing and that I should just quit. And every year, without fail, he asks me, "What's the date? . . . What's your wordcount?" And it isn't just 35k, it's every 35k--whether I'm at 70k, 105k, and so on. And so every 35k words or so, I hate what I'm doing, then when I go back about 3 days later I decide, "Oh. Wait. Maybe this isn't that bad. I like it." And then I can continue it.

I was reminded of this when I started looking what I've written for Echo Realms and started talking about how much I hated it to my husband. I stopped talking after he asked me my word count. This is the closest I've gotten to overcoming this hurdle, is noticing it and trying to push through. It's like this with every project.

Anyone else have their own version of The Week 3s? Indulge my procrastination with comradery! 

x_X

I'm the exact same with 35k. LMAO

Knightraveness Wrote: But the third, fourth, fifth, pass, omg, it's f*cking DRUDGERY.

^MEEE

Literally always write an incoherent mess for my first draft but have a complete blast doing so...and then I go back and edit and refine it into the chapter I post and hate every single second of it.

Edit: Its to the point that editing kills my motivation to actually write so I have to make sure I write a whole bunch of garbage in a row and then go back and edit a whole bunch of it in a row.

Bluelightning42 Wrote:

Knightraveness Wrote: But the third, fourth, fifth, pass, omg, it's f*cking DRUDGERY.

^MEEE

Literally always write an incoherent mess for my first draft but have a complete blast doing so...and then I go back and edit and refine it into the chapter I post and hate every single second of it.

Edit: Its to the point that editing kills my motivation to actually write so I have to make sure I write a whole bunch of garbage in a row and then go back and edit a whole bunch of it in a row.

That's a kindred spirit right there! lol. The rough draft chaos is so freaking fun it's ridiculous. I actually shaved a week off my schedule because of it, but now I'm staring down the barrel of 90,000 words to be edited over multiple passes in three weeks and...
I DUN WANNA  HALP!

Knightraveness Wrote: The rough draft is magic. It's straight up channeling daydreams and euphoria. Even the first edits aren't too terribly bad because I'm often adding new things and getting little zaps here and there.

But the third, fourth, fifth, pass, omg, it's f*cking DRUDGERY. Made worse by the fact I KNOW I need them because I've *always* missed some things, so I can't just let it go. It's just weeks of second guessing and critiquing everything I was once excited about. It sucks. 

I feel ya here. This is where I get into a dark space on a story. "The work" really is the tidal wave of going over my words for a 4th- 5th- maybe 7th time, all tweaking and clever and "fresh"...

ARGHHHH! BEGONE, I DECLARE!

It's the burden on the burden. Creativity is FUN! 

Not much after that, though. I need a vacation. :)

Staying focused is a big one for me right now. I can go for about an hour before I need to do something else and then return to writing. It doesn't help that I'm kind of a slow writer, I can only do about five hundred words an hour. I have been taking typing lessons though, so that might improve.

Silencing the voice inside my head telling me that I suck and I should just return to being a read-only person.

This feeling starts to disappear when I sit down and get writing, but it's rough when I'm doing something else. I just get really insecure.