Sorry to hear you've had a bad week, Lucius, and that you've caught the big C again. My advice: rest and recover. Bad writing weeks (or months, or even years) happen and for all sorts of reasons, and slapping ourselves around when they do isn't of any use. You'll bounce backIt's Monday afternoon where I'm at. I'm ill. I failed.
I started working on a short-story on the 26th of July. The deadline was today.
In my defense, I've been very busy with work the past week. Rather, administrative obligations have been placed upon me, because some people just can't make up their mind in time whilst others simply don't care. This gave me just a couple of hours of writing-related hours to make do with.
To all of that coco jamboo, I got Covid. It's not as bad as the first time I've had it, in 2020, but it still sucks. The bright side is that it's going away, slowly but surely. I would expect to be completely fine by Thursday at the latest.
So here I sit, bummed, whelmed, and quite a bit discouraged. Considering that I joined this challenge hoping to maintain a solid pace, I don't know what to do. Do I finish my story? Maybe, but I won't be able to sub it. The submission guidelines where specific, especially regarding theme. I won't be able to sub it to another publication, at least not in its current form.
The positive part of this little journey is that I've had a great deal of fun researching some historical facts which have completely eluded me in the past, not for a lack of trying, but quite honestly for a lack of interest in the subject. Never have I imagined that one day I'd be looking into 19th century railway publications or reading about currency rates from the same time period. Even if I failed my goal, I have come out the richer for it.
If any of you can offer any advice, it would be much appreciated. What would you do in my position?
Whether you keep plugging away at the story or whether you put it aside for a while and work on something else is really only a decision you can make. But it's not one you have to make right now