I’ve been pretty burnt out lately. Words have been few and far between. Even revision, which I can normally do anyway when new words aren’t coming easily, has come to a complete standstill. It don’t know if I can really call it writer’s block–it’s not like the ideas aren’t there, or that I don’t know what I want to do. I just…don’t want to do it. Writer’s burn-out? Too much bad stuff over the past two years, for sure.
So, because logic apparently isn’t my strong suit, nothing else has worked and I’m desperate, I’ve signed up for NaNo this year. I have no idea if this will work or not. I have a half-dozen ideas to prep, to see which one I might be able to take to completion. It’s going to mean outlining, which will be a new skill for me, and one that is fraught with peril. I tend to lose interest in a story as if it’s already completed when I do an outline.

To combat that, I bought a copy of a book called Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland. I haven’t gotten too far into it, and so far she hasn’t actually talked about outlining, but what she has covered has been practical and good advice.

I’m thinking again about getting one of those giant pads of paper to do brainstorming on, so I can stand up and work on it with markers. Maybe even do the whole outline on it, and hang it on the wall so I can reference easily when I sit down to write.

It’s going to be fun scheduling this, too, since 1667 words a day is tough for me when I firing on all cylinders. I might have, at most 16 hours a week to do this in, which means being ready to go as soon as I sit down.

This won’t be easy–I’m under no illusion about that. The likelihood is that I will not ‘win’ NaNo, but since getting to that 50K isn’t really my goal, I’m okay with that. The point is to get writing again. I’m tired of staring at the screen and accomplishing nothing.

And I have hope. Once I signed up, I think a heard a few gears whirr into motion. My brain has started poking at ideas. That’s a good sign, right? 🙂