29 April 2021: Camp Wrap-Up
With one day left to go, I think it's safe to say I'm not reaching my goal of 15,000 this month. But that's okay!
To clarify, I took my rejected words section out of my document so it wouldn't count towards my word count anymore, which brought my word count down significantly. On top of that, I haven't had a lot of time or focus for writing lately, between editing the podcast to meet my personal deadlines and just generally trying to keep up with life.
If I were to count my rejected words, though, I definitely did hit 15k.
In any case, I had a rough time with this story, more so than I had anticipated. Yes, it's historical romance, which is not my normal genre, but I also just had a difficult time writing.
I almost wanted to say I was "out of practice" from writing, but that's not true. I've been writing, taking a few weeks or months off at a time at most, and I've written stories and a full book in the recent past. I've tried writing in various genres, but I keep getting stuck.
I'm not stuck with plot, not with figuring out what's next, but actually just stuck in how to write the words. If I'm unable to get a sentence to flow, the paragraph doesn't move forward and I'm stuck, I can't just move on. I'm sure other writers might call my process "bullshit", and maybe it is, but this is what I deal with. Is it writer's block? Again, I'm just stuck on how to write the sentences, not on what I want the story to do.
Whatever my deal is, hopefully I can push past it with the help of my new Make Me Write! series on Instagram Live, every Thursday night at 7pm PST. Writing sprints and discussion (tonight, I'm talking about choosing WIPs), so feel free to join in to chat or to work on your own projects for an accountibili-buddy!
As for the story itself, I've barely broken into Act 2 and I've been stuck at the beginnings of this act for a while, so it's been very slow progress. Margaret and Caroline are both enjoyable characters, but I'm not making headway like I'd hoped, even with an outline.
Whether or not I continue this story after tomorrow, I'm going to be glad Camp NaNo is over. Yes, I enjoy the event and how much I can write, but I also need some breathing room. Between all my different projects, there's so much going on and I'm still trying to find a balance. I'll get there eventually.