I've Come Unstove!

A bit ago I talked about how I was in a real funk when it came to writing fiction. That I had essentially not written anything of note. If you saw yesterdays post about my 12 Week Year , then you will have some added insight there as well.

I am happy to report that I’ve ‘come unstove!’

Last week I was able to get about 1100 words a day done, Monday through Friday. And this week, the same is currently happening. The dam has broken, and the words are flowing again. I’m going to be real vulgar for a second, but the closest thing I can compare it to is laying in bed after having just orgasmed after weeks of not having done so.

Try not to think about that image as you read my books.

So what broke me loose? In a word: Atticus.

I bought Atticus during Black Friday, or Cyber Monday last year. I got it because it’s book layout software, and I have been planning to redo the insides of all my books, really add in a bit of the ol' razzle dazzle. Can’t do that in Word (my current method), so I decided to give Atticus a try. And so far, I really like it. I haven’t used it to format an actual book yet, not to publishing at least, but I did use it to whip up a nice little thank you 50 page ebook for some of my fans.

But the thing about Atticus is that you can also use it as a word processor. And as part of that, you can put in your word count goal, a due date, and your writing days. Once you do, it will show you each day how many words you have to write to hit your goal. That sort of stuff? Yeah, that’s intensely motivating for me. I don’t know why, but I am a firm believer that the word count tracker on the NaNoWriMo website is largely responsible for why I was able to complete it all seven times I attempted.

So yeah, I threw what I had written of Crimson Horror 2 into Atticus, then put in a date/word count goal. And it’s been telling me I need to write about 1100 words a day to hit my goal. And you know what? I’ve hit it every day.

Brains are weird yall.