Oh my god it’s already Day 19 of Camp.
So I haven’t done an update in over a week. Sorry about that. But we are here. Today we’re gonna get this trainwreck back on the tracks and git er rollin again.
But first, let’s talk about writer burnout.
Or writer’s block.
Or just life in general because life has a way of derailing us sometimes.
It’s Been a Hectic Month
The past couple months actually have been pretty crazy. We helped our son sell his house and move out from his townhome into our condo - while simultaneously dealing with home repairs of our own due to a water leak from one of the units upstairs or possibly a leaky roof? Who knows.
Anyway, that was fun (not).
Then we moved a bunch of stuff into storage and put our own condo up for sale. Also fun (not).
Then we sold our condo and combined all our equity with our son and bought a townhome together.
And then we moved in there.
Moving is a lot of work.
But at least it’s a lot of fun (not).
But Wait - There’s More
On top of all the packing and repairing and cleaning and moving and unpacking - I also hit the streets to apply for jobs near my new home.
It’s actually been a long time since I had a regular job where you clock in and get yelled at and all that fun stuff. And it’s even more exciting when you’re doing it for minimum wage or whatever. So I am really looking forward to that.
Plus, I’ll be doing the night shift and/or overnight shift while also driving fam to and fro during daylight hours. So I’ll be lucky to get more than 2-4 hours of sleep at a time before having to wake up and drive somebody somewhere or to get ready for work myself.
Can’t wait (not).
So…Burnout
If you followed my old blog, then you know that writer burnout is a common theme for me over the past 12 years.
Looking at the bigger picture, I guess I had some form of “writer burnout” all my life - long before I was a writer. So it’s probably more of a depression and anxiety problem than something specific to writing.
I have my good days and bad days. But I also go for long stretches of time where my writing productivity just goes down the toilet - sometimes for months at a time.
So that sucks.
And now that I am back to having a day job (at night), I have one more thing in my life to pull my focus and motivation away from writing.
Anyway…burnout, anxiety, depression, laziness, writer’s mono - whatever you wanna call it - I got it.
And this month it is once again stopping me from hitting my writing goals left and right.
But for a moment…here I am writing.
Today, at least.
That’s what writers do, even if they don’t do it as often as they want.
Today, I’m pushing through the mental sludge and getting some words out, so I am gonna roll with it for as long as I can.
Writing Community Helps
One writing strategy or hack that has been helping me (when I do it) is joining in on live writing sprints with other writers on Youtube.
I first discovered writing sprints on Sophie Von Ahn’s Youtube channel a couple years back. And lately my friend Michael (WriterSanctuary) has also been doing live writing sprints on his Youtube channel on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I’m not always able to join these guys live, but when I do, I always put up some numbers. And this past week, literally the only days I have written anything have been Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (today). In fact, I am writing this blog post right now during Sophie’s Saturday livestream.
Hey, whatever works.
Tracking Word Count Also Helps
Another strategy for beating writer’s block that I’ve sometimes had good results with is simply tracking my word count.
It’s such a simple thing, but I can’t even count the number of times over the years that having my word count tracking calendar sitting in front of me at my desk has motivated me to squeeze out some words.
Of course, it doesn’t always work.
Nothing ALWAYS works. But every little bit helps.
But My Best Tip for Beating Writer Burnout Is…
Write one word.
Just start.
One is more than zero.
If you can think of one word, then you can think of just a few more words to put around it in the form of a sentence.
And by the time you get to that end of that first sentence, the next sentence is already forming in your mind. So write that one too.
Before you know it, you’ve written a whole paragraph and it takes only a little more effort to keep it going.
And once you’ve done that, the brain fog begins to lift a little. You start to feel a little better - more confident. Happier. And then you just keep going.
It might take another day or two to pull out of that funk completely. But once the momentum switches from working against you to working in your favor, it’s a whole lot easier to keep pushing.
Granted, life still does its thing.
The world doesn’t stop spinning.
That steam roller keeps right on rolling and threatening to smush you into nothing.
But if you can get out in front of it, you can keep going.
And that’s what I’ve been doing toward the end of Days 12-19.
Today is Saturday, Day 20.
And I am about to hit my daily target of 1,000 words.
So let’s get the next blog post started so I can cross that line and get back on track.
-CD
Camp Nanowrimo is a 30-day writing challenge in April when authors attempt to do some writing every day as they work on their novel. Other writers who don’t write novels (like me) might also join in. I am writing blog posts and articles during this challenge.
Below are links to my Camp Nanowrimo 2024 blog updates in this series.
Click away!
Day 12-19 (you are here)