I always find my writing speed ebbs and flows. The end of last week and beginning of this one was hot - big word counts every day. Then, as I've moved toward the end of the week, the word counts got sluggish - barely scraping past 500 words. There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, because stress. I haven't the time nor the inclination to go into the detail that is the stupidity of our local sewer utility. But having a company on the other side of the country handle billing for a vital utility is probably never ever ever a good idea.
Secondly, some scenes are more difficult than others. For any number of reasons. Higher stakes, more characters, more action, more emotion. You get the idea. Some of what I've been working on the past couple of days sets the stage for the rest of the book. (Yes. The super-secret side project has somehow morphed from novella length into a novel. Just as soon as I figure out exactly where the plot is going.) And the Spider-thief story is still just a short, but has a lot going on.
Thirdly, the little things. In between the big and difficult scenes are frequently smaller and absolutely necessary scenes that at first seem a little... boring. You know the ones, the introspective ones, the traveling scenes, the every day life of your characters. They have a slower pace, they give the reader a chance to breathe and get to know the world and people who live it a little better. But they are still absolutely vital. Because otherwise you'd just wind up with a big long adrenaline spike. (And that's not always a bad thing, but sometimes it's fun to jump out and say BOO!)
So, here's to the days where the words flow like water and here's to the days where they creep along. Balance is a beautiful thing.
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