I think it has to do with the cooler weather. I hate to be hot--which is a pretty inescapable fact when you live in the South. You would think after 29 years of living, my body would have finally acclimated, but no...it hasn't. I would gladly move to more northern climes in order to escape the sauna that is South Carolina in the summer. But my husband is allergic to any place above the Mason-Dixon Line. Sigh.
One thing that I do not like about fall (or spring, for that matter) is the inevitable onset of allergies. I have had a particularly rough time this year due to moving to a slightly different environment--meaning a whole new host of irritants to send me into fits of sneezing, coughing, and wheezing. Feeling bad certainly impacts my writing. My brain is befuddled and it takes a lot out of me to forumlate something out of the fog. I launched into November, determined to participate in NaNoWriMo, but my word count has been sadly truncated due to the allergies that just won't quit. I'd much rather go home, get in bed and read Edith Wharton's The Bucaneers or watch Ringer (otherwise known as my new guilty pleasure.)
It doesn't help that I am in the part of my new novel where I am still setting up characters and places in preparation for more dramatic scenes. I hate the set-up; I either put it off or race through it so I can get to the juicy bits. And then I have to go back and do some heavy re-writing, which is never fun.
I have no other profound thoughts for you today. My sleep was seriously disturbed when I woke up at 2am this morning in need of some ibprofen. Of course I had none, so I went to the store. And promptly got pulled over by a cop because my tag light was out. Yes really. Oh the joys of living in a small town!
So what about you? What part of your novel is the most trying to write? How do you motivate yourself to get those parts done?
Sorry to hear about your allergies! My husband is also afflicted at the moment but he's on a lot of antihistamines it's not too bad.
ReplyDeleteI tried to approach NaNo with pushing myself to get through the set-up, but in order to keep getting the words down, I've had to skip ahead. I just can't make my brain tell me everything I need to know for the beginning, at the beginning. I hate having to go back and fill in the gaps, but that seems to be my process. On the upside, writing so far has been all about the juiciest scenes, and new juicy scenes popping into my head, so I'm having a good time (when I get time to squeeze it in!).
I am not looking forward to the next few weeks, because I'm running out of juiciness and the muse is having trouble catching up. If nothing else, I'll have made a good start even if I don't "win".
I thought about jumping ahead too, Charlotte! Maybe I should do that this weekend since I'm probably going to be in bed. :-(
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe that there's no "right" order in which to write--but you're correct, skipping ahead does mean more rewriting later. But hey, it's better than plain ol' brainstorming in terms of putting words on paper, right? Good luck!
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