The Wall

Beasley · Nov 10, 2013

Anyone else hit the wall in their nano project yet? I feel like I'm hitting it especially early this year, usually it doesn't hit until about half way but I'm floundering.

I've got a strong outline but my characters are flat, especially my main. All my scenes have been about 700 words (which is too short, even short for me who writes shorter scenes). I think I know how to get past it, but right now I'm just slogging through, making the daily word count and hating it.

Maggie Maxwell · Nov 10, 2013

Yeah, I'm definitely there. Clawing forward a little bit at a time, having a love/hate relationship where I both want to keep going and want to stop. I'm already 1000 words behind, probably gonna lose a whole day today, and just keeping up has been a struggle. Feels like I'm flailing around just trying to keep my head above water.

whatsupbuttercup · Nov 11, 2013

Add me to the list of hitting the wall. My WIP is becoming more of an enemy than a friend. I'm trying to figure out how to rework everything to find my passion in the project again but it's becoming hard.

NellaFantasia · Nov 11, 2013

I hit the wall on the second day, lol. I chucked the story I started on and began working on an already existing WIP. It's going a little better, but I'm 10k behind.

TNK · Nov 11, 2013

I have a nice comfy lead, I still love my novel, but I've got what I've been calling the 'blahs'.

I just don't want to write.

djunamod · Nov 12, 2013

I haven't hit a wall exactly but I am way behind in word count. Part of that is because I couldn't decide which of 2 projects to work on for NaNo and so I wrote in both of them for the first week until I finally settled on one of them. So even though I wrote about 10,000 words total, my current WIP for NaNo is only about half that much because the other half was written in the project I abandoned.

I am still loving the novel and finding the characters and story intriguing.

Djuna

Gena_Skyler · Nov 12, 2013

I'm not hitting a wall, exactly, but am definitely struggling. And I'm seeing that struggle reflect in the rest of my life, too. I'm more irritable. It almost feels like I'm PMSing, even though I am not. It's bizarre.

meowzbark · Nov 12, 2013

Gena_Skyler said:
I'm not hitting a wall, exactly, but am definitely struggling. And I'm seeing that struggle reflect in the rest of my life, too. I'm more irritable. It almost feels like I'm PMSing, even though I am not. It's bizarre.

Uck, I know exactly how that feels.

My pmsing doppelganger has nearly ruined my marriage a few times. Apparently, she doesn't like my in-laws.

Becky Black · Nov 13, 2013

A bit. I have slowed down the last few days. I blame sex.

Once the characters start having sex it seems to slow me down. Those scenes are the hardest to write. Must just crack on though. Week two is nearly over. Week three ahoy!

Kevans · Nov 13, 2013

For me the first third was slow, just hitting par day by day. Today I finally hit my stride, and the story is swinging gibbering through the trees.

Regards,
Kevin

WendyN · Nov 13, 2013

Today I'm feeling the wall. I'm at almost 60k, and I've got about two chapters until the climax in which to build up the tension and line everything up to work out just so... and I'm just not feeling it. Hoping it's just an 'off' day and that tomorrow I'll wake up invigorated again.

Gena_Skyler · Nov 13, 2013

Becky Black said:
A bit. I have slowed down the last few days. I blame sex.

I read this and thought, yep, if I was getting some I'd probably stop writing, too.

Sunflowerrei · Nov 13, 2013

I'm ahead in word count, but yeah, I definitely feel like it's harder to get the words down the past couple of days. Some of that is because of work, but also that I'm getting more easily distracted. Still excited about the story and my characters and everything, but I'm having this "What do you mean that paragraph wasn't a thousand words long?" feeling.

Chris P · Nov 13, 2013

Becky Black said:
A bit. I have slowed down the last few days. I blame sex. Once the characters start having sex it seems to slow me down. Those scenes are the hardest to write. Must just crack on though. Week two is nearly over. Week three ahoy!

I always slow down on sex scenes in the name of researching how other writers describe things. Yeah, that's what I'll say. In more serious news, I find them hard to write because they either read like medical text books or sound childishly vulgar.

I'm coming to the wall. I'm to the point where the easy stuff is done and continuing with the main plot is going to take more research. I don't want to fill it with scene descriptions or explanations of the sci-fi technology, so it looks like I'm going to have to come up with a subplot.

GingerGunlock · Nov 13, 2013

I may have. Or I just didn't feel like it today, I'm unclear as yet. I guess I'll find out within the next couple of days! I've been ahead on word count, so I've got a slim buffer, but if more words don't start coming, it'll be a problem.

katci13 · Nov 13, 2013

I haven't hit a wall, but I'm definitely slowing down. I have a few scenes that I've had to go back through and edit a few times. I'm about halfway done with the story though so I'm just getting through that middle drag. I'm hoping things speed back up in a couple of days.

Beasley · Nov 14, 2013

Gena_Skyler said:
I read this and thought, yep, if I was getting some I'd probably stop writing, too.

hahahah! That's what I thought too

Beasley · Nov 17, 2013

I've hit the wall hard, I'm struggling getting 100 words down. My outline is solid, I thought I was excited about it but I'm dragging. I'm trying the whole jump ahead and write the most exciting scene but even that is some what painful. I'm behind but I'm aiming for about 2k a day to make it at the end. I should be able to... I just worry that my passion for this story is dead.

I've been working on everything but this story, plotting out the rewrite that I'm working on and working on world building for a series I had planned.

An idea I just had was to make myself have to write 500 words before I can work on something else so that way I have incentive to get these words down!! I know the story is solid and its good, I just hate everything about it right now! :Shrug:

whatsupbuttercup · Nov 17, 2013

Don't worry I've been having that issue too. I was able to pull off 5,000 words two days ago and now I'm having trouble writing the 1,666 target. I've been trying to add random things I didn't plan for my characters into the story to see if that sparks creativity. So far it's been working out pretty well, but we'll see how that goes.

ZachJPayne · Nov 17, 2013

I hit the wall around 14k. Last year, it was 35k. So frustrating!

Beasley · Nov 19, 2013

I'm still technically behind but I seem to have scaled the wall. This is how I think I got over the wall. I transferred what I had so far into mobi and uploaded it onto my kindle. And then I just read. All the typos stood out to me but other than that, it is solid. It needs a revision but the potential is there and it is better written than I expected. I found a new passion for the story.

So just like a little fish taught me, keep on writing, keep on writing, keep on writing.

GingerGunlock · Nov 19, 2013

Beasley said:
I'm still technically behind but I seem to have scaled the wall. This is how I think I got over the wall. I transferred what I had so far into mobi and uploaded it onto my kindle. And then I just read. All the typos stood out to me but other than that, it is solid. It needs a revision but the potential is there and it is better written than I expected. I found a new passion for the story.

So just like a little fish taught me, keep on writing, keep on writing, keep on writing.

This is awesome, I'm glad!

I've been getting the words in, just. I let myself work on another story if I've met the NaNoWriMo quota

Gena_Skyler · Nov 19, 2013

Nice Beasley! I'm too scared to read mine. I'm afraid it will be full of suck

Chris P · Nov 19, 2013

Big time wall. I'm getting resentful that I HAVE to get a word count to stay on track, and the story says what it needs to say overall. Short of an inspiring subplot, I'll just end up staring at it and getting angry. Time for a night off.

BrentPope · Nov 19, 2013

"The Wall" doesn't get me, but doubt does. All of a sudden, I'll feel like I'm wandering down an alley that the story has no business going. A very boring alley. A predictable alley. Or the wrong Wrong WRONG alley. Fortunately, I've had the time to breathe and think about the story. What belongs where? When? I've spent more time thinking about the structure than I probably should, but once those intersections of uncertainty get settled, I churn on.

The Wall

Beasley

Maggie Maxwell

Making Einstein cry since 1994

whatsupbuttercup

NellaFantasia

TNK

djunamod

Gena_Skyler

meowzbark

Becky Black

Writing my way off the B Ark

Kevans

Fish from another stream

WendyN

8-armed cyborg tree

Gena_Skyler

Sunflowerrei

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

GingerGunlock

paralibrarian

katci13

creative genie

Beasley

Beasley

whatsupbuttercup

ZachJPayne

Beware: #amQuerying

Beasley

GingerGunlock

paralibrarian

Gena_Skyler

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

BrentPope