Monday, November 28, 2011

NaNoWriMo Burn Out

One thing I learned this month is that I am capable of writing four thousand words a day - not much more than that.  At the 4000th word, I get loopy and my story starts going in strange places.  And then for two days I don't want to write.  And there's no amount of encouragement or positive energy anyone can throw me that will make me want to write. 

It's kind of like eating a quart of ice cream in one day or at one sitting (not that I've done that).  I would enjoy it while I was eating it, but there's no way I would want to have anymore for a very long while. 

I definitely prefer writing at a pace of a chapter a day, 1000-2000 words.  That is definitely more sustainable for me. 

4 comments:

  1. I know what you mean. Sometimes two. Or, sometimes I do chunks of time 3 hours of marathon writing, then a couple hours of housework, another 2 hour chunk of writing, then off to the grocery store...this is how my days off are like. The days I work, I get out about two hours of writing.

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  2. Alex - Very true.

    Shelly - That's great if you can write for two hours on days you work.

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  3. NaNo can be really good for showing us what we're capable of doing and what we're comfortable doing. I can push myself really far and write a TON some days, and then other days I'm good getting out a short amount. But those days when I write and write and write, I do feel very loopy by the end of it!

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