No Energy

Blah.

Blah blah blah.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

Some days, that's how we feel. No motivation to write; no excitement. That's me today, on the 3rd day of NaNo.

I don't even feel like writing this blog post, but I still have a word goal to reach. I'm discovering the varying types of writing days: good days that go downhill, bad days that go up, some that stay the same, and the rare, golden writing day when the words seem to flow effortlessly.

This is not a post telling you how to get a rare, golden day. This is a post for getting over road blocks with. What's keeping you from writing?

1) Time

Time is one of the biggest factors in writing progress. Writing takes time. And if you don't have much of it, there's not much time for words. I've often read on Twitter that writing takes the time you make for it; it lives in the handful of minutes scattered throughout your day while you juggle fifty billion other things.

2) Enthusiasm

I think this one's blocking me today: there's no excitement for what you're writing. You just don't feel like it today. And somedays, I'll give myself a pass and say "tomorrow." But all too easily that turns into a string of tomorrows and no words written. This is the time to eat the frog, as my dad would say. Eat the frog and get it over with so later you can have chocolate.

(Don't actually eat a frog guys, at least not raw.)

3) THE UNIVERSE doesn't will it

At least, that's what we think, that the entire Universe is conspiring against us and that no matter how much we want to write, everything is standing in the way of you and your computer/notebook/fancy-speak-into-and-write thing.

How do we combat this?

I'm all in favor of a change in scenery; sitting at a desk/on your bed for hours at a time looking at nothing but a computer screen gets pretty boring after while. Go for a walk. Ride your bike. Take your kids/spouse/pet/someone out of the house and out into the world. It's a different set of stimuli to refresh, focus, and pick up where you left off. A few days ago, in dear old October, I shuffled to my desk, ready to shackle my hands to my notebook and focus solely on NaNo prep until I fell asleep. I could hear every word of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie my littlest sister, here known as G, was watching in the living room.Then my dad asked if I wanted to go to the gym with him for a change in scenery.

At first, I thought, no way. It'll be smelly, loud, and I'll never be able to get anything done. But I'd been spending so much time trying to prep for NaNo that I'd been neglecting my family. So I went, sat down at a round red table, and wrote for a solid two hours while Dad worked out.

Discovery? Football games make excellent white noise. Movies? Not so much. The gym was also a lot cleaner than I expected and smelled rather nicely of Febreeze.

A change in scenery is one option; another one I've heard of is Taking A Break. This, dear readers, is when we pry ourselves from our desks and Do Other Things until we feel ready (ish) to get back to writing. Constant writing or forced writing without a break or two is a good way to start the path to burnout and guilt because you want to write but don't have the mental energy.

I think I'll go change my scenery and Take A Break; the AP European History homework is really piling up.

Then I'll sit down, get my head in the NaNo game, and make up for the four hours of nothing this morning.