I've already run into trouble.

[betweensunandmoon]

Depression has been hitting me hard lately, so no 50,000 words this year. I've decided to take the advice of one of my favorite writing YouTube channels and aim for 25,000 instead. It's a lot more manageable, but I'm feeling a little guilty about it, just like I felt guilty about quitting my job after one month even though it was too physically demanding. College is on hold until in-person classes come back, so I don't even have that to focus on.

Comments

[igenlode]

I have zero intention of ever attempting either 50,000 or 25,0000 words in a month; aiming for a minimum of a hundred words or so in a day on a work in progress is enough stress, and as the years go by my average speed only seems to go down. And the idea of deliberately setting yourself free by allowing yourself to write badly provided that you write large amounts is completely alien to someone who goes back and micro-edits Facebook posts ;-p

(It's past eleven pm, and I haven't made any written progress today; that's quite enough guilt added to all the other things I haven't done...)

[betweensunandmoon]

You're putting those Facebook posts out there for all the world to see; why wouldn't you micro-edit them? I do the same thing all the time, albeit not on Facebook. I care enough about this book that I don't care if no one but me ever sees it. Writing only little bits at a time until I reach my daily word count instead of trying to get it done all at once helps, too.

Writing well is hard. Writing badly is easy. Writing really badly is still hard because you're cringing so much you don't want to continue. I survived a particularly painful passage by telling myself it was just placeholder text for something better.

(It's past eleven pm, and I haven't made any written progress today; that's quite enough guilt added to all the other things I haven't done...)

Don't feel bad about that. Even the most prolific and successful writers have off days.