Sharp Words

I suppose I could even call it six weeks’ of failure, if I wanted to include my utter lack of progress at the second half of March as well.

But basically, I’m not doing too well with the unpaid writing. (The paid-for kind, at work, is at least fine.) I bombed out on my intention to write 50,000 words during March (I managed about 7,000), and of the 30 poems planned for April (NaPoWriMo), I’ve managed the grand total of one. I’ve also written very few blog posts, and I’ve been ignoring Twitter and other social media completely (apart from the evil that is Facebook).

I haven’t even read much this month, either – probably less than half my usual number of novels.

I know I can blame most of this lack on my determination with watching all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. In order. With repeats to listen to director/writer commentaries. The less said about that particular obsession the better, really, but at least I’m about hitting burnout on it.

So, how do I get out of this slump? And more importantly, do I even want to get out of this slump? I’m starting to think that perhaps I’m not cut out to be a novellist (apart from one month each year) even though I do have stories I want to tell. I need to decide what I really want from my writing – what sort of writing I really want to tackle, even – and put some time and effort into achieving my goals (which need to be realistic).

I think I’ll keep with my 2009 goal of writing 52 poems, since that means 3 every 2 weeks from now on instead of 1 a week; and I’m going to add a word count goal (and will include what I’ve produced so far) for the novel-in-progress.

And I’m going to plan out some blog posts and write them in advance, starting with next week… I want to be back in the world!