Thursday 1 August 2013

Cruel side-effects





About three months after I started writing, something happened. I tried to write a novella of about 22.000 words in a month for JanNoWriMo, a similar site to NaNoWriMo (for those that don't know, you have to write at least 75,000 in November to pass). Despite being at my inception, I managed to do it, but afterward, I felt so depleted that for the next two month I only wrote a flash fiction piece.

I felt tired and depleted whenever I wanted to write. Actually, my whole energy went away and lacked it for almost five month. Quite a lot, I know.

And now, I am a little glad that I encountered that because it made me stronger as a person. It made me want it more. During the break, I read blogs, tips and books on various subjects which made me discover some things about writing and the writing business and I may not have had the time to do it while I was writing.
But the most important thing I discovered is that you shouldn't push it right from the get go. Well, unless you feel like you can and it's not really a strain, but I wouldn't advise it.

Nowadays, I trick myself into writing at every step. Whether it is a mail, a message or what I did and ate that day. It all adds up.
Also, I made myself a thing where I write six words a day; two in the morning, two in the afternoon and two in the evening. While sometimes it's annoying because I cut it mid-sentence, it makes me think and write differently.

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