3863

That is the total word count so far.

A friend of mine asked me what my stumbling points were when writing. She's having a bit of trouble turning off that inner editor. For me, that's not as much of a problem. My real problem comes later when I need to turn it back on. I find this kind of rush to get it written and plan to fix it later very freeing. At first it was difficult for me, but knowing I don't need to get every sentence perfect liberates me to just get the idea down, which is essentially the point of the rough draft anyway. My extremely major stumbling point seems to be turning that inner editor back on again later to do revision, as I haven't done much of that yet.

For me, I have 2 major stumbling points when writing a rough draft: when I have no ideas, and when I have too many ideas. No ideas can be tough. I don't feel that it is necessary writer's block, just uncertainty. I don't know what is going to happen next, and am uncertain what I should do to make the story progress. In this case I tend to start describing things to keep the word count flowing. I'll spend extra time on the setting, or a random character that may not even be important. Usually something comes up while I am writing. A great professor of mine used to tell me to keep writing and something would come out of it. I am very grateful for that advice because I find it to be true so often.

The other problem is too many ideas. I get frustrated if I know a lot of things that I want to happen in a story, and can't seem to get to all of them fast enough. Some people hop around, creating plot holes to fill in later. I tend to be a very linear thinker and try to write in chronological order. I hope to change that some day, but for now I feel it is working for me. However, it works best when I only have vague ideas of what I want to happen in the middle. For stories I've outlined more thoroughly, well....those are stories I still have yet to write to completion. The other aspect of too many ideas is when I have to choose between two ideas I feel are really great, but will take the story in very different directions. I fret, and I think, and I stop typing and watch something on youtube for a bit. Then I come back and fret, think, and do a Wembley impersonation all over again. Eventually I just need to choose one and go with it. If I don't like where it goes, I can change it later. What I can't do is change an empty page. It is difficult every time, EVERY TIME, but it is worth it. Once I go with the decision, my stress levels drop and the words flow again. For me, I need to get that decision out of the way in less than a day, or I'll just make it worse.

What do you stumble on?