Jeff O'Handley, Author

Jeff O'Handley

The Doubting Writer Finds His Voice

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I forgot to update my NaNo word count yesterday. It will always look to the whole world like I did nothing yesterday, that I’m a slacker, a NaNo pretender. t’s not entirely true–I actually wrote about 300 words yesterday that were intended for my project. I pretty much deliberately took yesterday off, though; after cranking out just shy of 5000 words on Saturday, my brain was somewhat deflated. I do believe it’s important to take time off and let things settle and regenerate a little.

But I went to my writers’ group yesterday afternoon and I wrote those 300 words that actually included to some extent the prompt (not an every time occurrence; I ignore prompts on a regular basis). I was pretty happy with it, too, until I read it out loud. Then, it seemed all wrong. And I think my writers’ group felt the same way: my words landed like a dead bird, thudding on the table. Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

7 Responses

  1. There are definitely days the magic doesn't work! I have to take next weekend off for NaNo so I've been trying to bang out the words early. Those days off are important for me too.
    Good luck with it!

  2. 5000 words – holy crap! I think once in the last 5 yrs I wrote 3000 in a day. Once. Yesterday I wrote 300 words, too. Today, I went out to dinner with friends and enjoyed myself. (No, I'm not NaNo-ing.) Good luck!

  3. Hi, all,

    Yeah, 5K in one day. Had a good writing session early, and another one in the evening. My brain looked like the remnants of a popped balloon on Sunday! Thanks for stopping in, and good luck with your own projects!

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