If the past three months have taught me anything, it’s that I need to plan ahead.
For example, I spent all day doing a thousand little things, and completely forgot to work on both this post, as well as my Advent fic for tomorrow (which I usually post between midnight and 1AM.) Which is kind of a problem, as now I’m panicking because technically I’m late.
But that’s something that happens when you’re dealing with a decent case of writer’s block and burnout.
Over the past three months, I’ve probably written about 45 fanfics, which total out to over 50000. On top of that, there’s all the blog posts from October, the few from November (due to the burnout), and of course everything from December thus far. That’s a lot of writing.
The way I’m dealing with the fic writing is by making it a bit of a challenge. I’ve already decided what I’m writing for most of the prompts, which means I have a starting point. By giving myself an early posting deadline, I’m actually making it easier. If I miss because I’m busy or I need to wait until later on to write, I’ll be able to because I’ll still have hours in the day. It would bother me, but it would still get done.
This blog kinda took the big hit just because I needed to cut something for a while. It’s been a pretty stressful few months, and blogging didn’t give me the same joy it did during the summer and last year. Hopefully I can make that a better habit in 2022.
But in all honesty, I’m dealing with burnout by sprinting. Yes, I said sprinting. In this context, I’m writing in 20 minute increments. This has actually increased my productivity, as I’m sprinting against other people, which also encourages me to do more. Yes, I have to edit more, as I make more simple mistakes, but I can get through an entire 1500~ word story in just over an hour. It’s a good thing.
Like I said at the top, the main thing I’ve learned is planning things out. It’s helped in ways I can never really describe. This is one habit that will be around next year, as I want to continue to write. However, my goal for next year is to write longer pieces of fic instead of short but fun ones.
My goal for tonight and tomorrow is to get really ahead, so I’m gonna jump back into that. Who knows, maybe I’ll get further than I could have ever planned?
Until next time!
