Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Word Count Wednesday & I'm Struggling

Well, last week I told you all about my plotting problems.  This week hasn't been much better.  I'm having a hard time sitting down and really focusing, mostly because I've had a lot of mom things on my plate, but partly because my motivation is pretty low right now.

Sometimes being a writer is hard.  It requires energy that can be hard to find.  Yet, at other times, I can hardly contain my excitement and the words just flow.  If only I could tap into that second one more often.  I think about it a lot, but maybe I just need more action.  Here's some quotes that I'm using for motivation today.

"You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind." - Gordon B. Hinckley

"When we feel stuck, going nowhere, even starting to slip backward ... we may actually be backing up to get a running start."-Dan Millman

“The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us.” – Marianne Williamson

"Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away." - Charles Colton


How was your word count this week?

12 comments:

rebecca h jamison said...

Love the quotes. I'm in the middle of a rewrite, trying to make my mc more likeable. I probably got around 500 words to substitute for all the deletions. I've had a mom week too. Broken down car, stomach flu, pinkeye, etc.

Debra Erfert said...

Because I didn't have anything else to do but check my inbox for edits that haven't come, I was able to write over 6,000 words this week officially putting me midway through my work in progress. I can visualize the rest of the book, so I feel blessed that I don't have the plot blocks in my way.

Jennie Bennett said...

Every writer has felt this. I can only tell you what I've learned and that is that it will all come again! great quotes :)

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Rebecca, glad someone is in the same boat as me! :) Congrats on the word count.

Debra, you amaze me all the time. Seriously.

J.A., thanks for the encouragement. You're the best!

Charlie Moore said...

Hi Julie,
Probably 1500 to 2000 words and I'm still wording today. Finally motivating myself after an extended dry spell. This story may not be Whitney worthy, but it is important to me. So I have got to finish it.

Janice Sperry said...

I was writing and then I had to look up flying squirrels. (Really.) Then I checked Facebook. Sent out birthday party heads ups because my son keeps forgetting to send out invitations. Then I checked Pinterest. Found some useful garden tips. (Who isn't planning their gardens now - am I right?) Then I checked Blogger... Oh yeah. I was looking up squirrels for a reason. Back to work.

Gina said...

I added about 6,000 words this week, but 4,500 of those came from #WriteClub. Honestly, I don't know that I'd ever get anything done without #WriteClub

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Charlie, good for you for sticking with it. It's obviously a story that needs to be told.

Janice, those flying squirrels get us every time!!

Gina, I need a write club. How do you get into yours? Should I start my own?

Gina said...

#WriteClub is Friday afternoons/nights on twitter. If you follow @FriNightWrites , they lead us through 30 minute sprints with 15 minute breaks. It was started by @MeganWhitmer and has since spread to the UK and west coast. It starts at 5 PM London time and ends at 11 PM Pacific time. It's fantastic, one of the other guys tallies up our group word count. #WriteClub wrote 115K words last week.

JOIN US.

It's what all the cool kids are going.

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Fridays! *Julie whines and kicks some rocks* That's a tough day for me usually with family stuff. If I'm ever free, though, I'm there! Thanks for the heads up. You're the best, Gina! :)

Gina said...

Stalk the #writeclub hashtag. There's OFTEN people doing unofficial sprints, particularly on the weekends. I bet if you started doing unofficial sprints during the week, you'd become sort of famous.

Jon Spell said...

Yeah, Julie, do that and I might even start using Twitter again. ;)

I wrote a 1,000 word short story that got rejected by my editor for being too "out there." I agree, certainly, but thought that the subject matter would be entertaining enough. Only minor adds to my WIP, mostly revision/edits along the way.