Hello! I decided last week that I would give a weekly update on my writing and progress for the week and then set myself goals for the upcoming week. Of course the week that I decide to do this, I have not been very motivated to write. Between 22nd March and 28th March, I only wrote 215 words.
The concept of writer’s block is something I have always struggled with. I believe that the only way to get over writer’s block is to write through it and somewhere along the way, the horrible mess of words will turn into something useful, and with the help of editing it will turn out great. These last couple of weeks, however, I have just not been able to write anything. I have showed up to my laptop multiple times and pulled the document up and stared at it for a couple of hours and then closed it down again.
I am currently writing a Rapunzel retelling, and my goal was to finish the first draft before non-essential shops open in the UK again on 12th April. A few weeks ago, I was doing so well, that I thought maybe by the end of the month I would have finished it, but we are three days away from the end of the month and it is looking unlikely.
I had set a goal for this first draft to be 80,000 words – though I had expected it to go over. I am currently at just over 74,000 words. I still believe that I can reach my goal of finishing the draft by 12th April, and if I get back on track, I can hit my goal of 80k before then.
At the beginning of this project, which I started the last week in January 2021, I committed to working on the project everyday with a word goal of 1,000 words a day. Some days I met this goal, and some days I exceeded it. I also was writing in the morning, whereas the last couple of weeks I have been trying to write later in the day. This week, I am going to try to get up earlier in the day and start writing earlier on too. I am also going to aim for 1,000 words again.
I am also going to introduce writing sprints into my routine too. I find watching live writing sprints very useful for the days I need a boost in my writing. However, when I am just writing and there aren’t live sprints happening, I tend to just write. To get out of this slump, though, I think I will try setting my own sprints so that I keep focused and with an intention of writing.
This week was a little bit of a hiccup in my writing, but hopefully I can get back on track this week. On Thursday it is the start of Camp NaNo April, which I as intending on starting a new project for. I had intended to use Camp NaNo April as a way of moving away from the finished draft of my Rapunzel retelling so that in a couple of months I could return to the Rapunzel retelling with a clear mind for edits. However, as I haven’t finished it, this isn’t going to be a useful tool. I think I will still keep the plan of the project and with a hope that I can still work on it on the second half of April.
I was hoping my Camp NaNo April project would help me fight a burn out, however I seem to be experiencing a little bit of one. I’m going to keep writing though. The words probably won’t be any good, but eventually they will be.
Let me know if you are planning on taking part in Camp NaNo April! Hopefully, next week I will have a more positive update for you.
Kira Jeanette 
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