Please tell me I'm not alone with this issue. It's now day 5, and I've just broken 1,600 words. I have the whole basis for the story laid out in my head, and had the hardest time finding the starting point. I think it's still a bit rocky, and I'm not entirely happy with it...but I think the rest of the story will pan out nicely now that I've got it going. Has anyone else had this problem?
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2,000 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2007 - 21 14
You're not alone. i just broke the 1,600 count myself (need to update my info) and getting started is the hardest part. Even with everything laid out in your head, things will usually start taking alternate roads. :) It's an adventure to keep up with it! also annoying, but what can you do?
----------Nya?
5,564 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 09 03
It was definitely frustrating to stare at a blank word document for the first 5 days. Which, in itself, probably wasn't helping much to get it started. I guess I was hoping the words would just magically appear on the screen. It took me actually getting out of the house for the beginning to come. Hopefully, the rest of the story will go fairly smoothly now, though. :)
11,180 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 09 47
I was doing pretty well...until Saturday. Had to leave the house around 6AM for work and didn't get home till almost midnight. Yup, that was a lost day, as I was asleep within fifteen minutes of getting home. Sunday, I was sick as a dog -- probably from being in and out of the weather all day Saturday. Yesterday I was still recovering... Felt well enough to sit at the computer, but when I tried to write, it was pure drivel. Hopefully today I can catch up a bit.
And yes, the blank page. Ugh.
Something very very minor that helped me (not much, but every little bit helps lol)... I changed the page color. At least it wasn't a blank WHITE page I was staring at. hehehe Intense scene, change it to a reddish hue. Exposition, light brown.
Like I said, it's a very minor thing, but at least I'm not staring at a white page. =)
- K
----------My Blog, "Stuck, On the Rocks" -- http://kaelem.wordpress.com
When Mister Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend. - Terry Pratchett
23,176 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2007 - 11 05
LOL - I didn't get a slow start, but I did hit a slow spot yesterday.
----------I think part of it has a lot to do with my being emotionally drained yesterday... I just didn't have anything left to put into my novel... so I took a day off. Now I'm trying to make up 3K in one day. Oy vey!
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SF 2008: Daughter of the Blood (0/100 pgs)
SF 2007: Choose the Right (22,079 words) - WINNER!
17,890 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 22 27
This is not an uncommon problem! Even I'm not that far into mine. Maybe three-four thousand words? Oh, We will catch up, won't we though. It's all good though. Don't worry, when you get closer to the deadline, you'll be surprised how fast your hands can move.
57,546 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2007 - 23 12
Slow starts don't always mean that you will stay slow, you said that you had it all worked out in your head, you're right, now that you have gotten past the "hard part" you'll be amazed at how fast things will come! (Oh and the only reason I have such a high words count is because I took off work two days to write, so I guess I cheated!)
91,270 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2007 - 07 06
What's been working for me is getting up three hours early. I just bring the coffee pot to my desk and start typing. I don't get up till I've got 3k words. I had to miss one day with a nasty migraine, but, other than that, right on pace. Now, I don't really know if the story is going anywhere, but we worry about that later.
BTW, I'm NOT a morning person, this is a big-time stretch. I tried the same tactic at the end of the day and nearly broke my keyboard by continuously nodding off and crashing into the plastic...
Find a tactic that works and make it yours.
e
14,010 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2007 - 21 16
Eh, things didn't start slow for me, but I just hit a rough patch two days ago. I'm actually going to go back to how I normally do things and see if I can write it out to get over my writer's block. Hopefully that works. It's just going to be hard getting caught up! My dad and I actually have a bet going to see whether or not I actually do get caught up (and I believe that I will) haha. Personally I'm not too worried about it. When something comes to me I won't be able to stop writing and hopefully that will get me where I want to be. :)
----------They were perfect, they were beautiful.
they met in the middle of nowhere,
in the middle of nothing, and kissed
where everyone could see, no words,
no before, no after, they kissed and it was
perfect, it was beautiful, it was everything,
it was noth
5,564 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2007 - 13 07
Thanks much for all the replies. I still haven't gotten much writing done. I'm a stay at home mom, no job to worry about taking writing time away...but I do have 3 kids to contend with. Just when I think I've gotten everything I need to taken care of, and the kids get quietly settled into whatever they're doing, and I think that I can finally sit down and write for a bit...all chaos breaks loose again. Go figure. Hehe. I have barely over 1800 words written, I'm not even bothering to update my word count on here until I get a bit more than that done. Getting 50,000 words by the end of the month is definitely going to be a challenge. I'm determined, though, so I guess I've got that going for me. I've got the kids distracted again for now, and my story open in Word...so here's to hoping that the phone will stop ringing for at least a few hours so I can get something done with it. Wish me luck! ^.^