I'm in the second half of a story I owe that's... I can't even describe how overdue. But now that I've gotten some summer rest, I am slowly putting down words.
50-100/day last month, now hitting 200.
I'm trying not to view it like a battle with Long Covid, that's negative language. But... yeah.
Last year, the utter fury and rage at just being... too exhausted to do the thing I love more than most things in life... that wasn't fun.
But, focusing on daily practice. I can no longer sprint like I used to, so it's focusing on the long game now. Daily practice.
My big goal this summer is to learn a new trick: small words, in a sustainable practice, every day.
I don't believe you have to write every day, in the past I only did that on a deadline. Otherwise, some days nothing, some days 4,000 words.
That worked for me, a whole career even! But now, if I want the career I had, I have to learn to play a different game. And that's what this summer is all about.
Build my external brain so I can write non-linearly, keep my thoughts around, and write a little every day.
365 X 250/day = 90,000 words
The plan is to pull back to writing 60-70k novels until Long Covid is figured out, so that's 4-5 short stories and one short, short novel if I can figure out the 250/day technique
That sounds like a great plans. I'm sorry Long Covid has taken so much from you, and super impressed by all your strategies. I feel like Long Covid is always hanging us now, and we've all got to be ready for it.
Thanks Tade, you're a good person.
I'm muddling through lol.
Tomorrow I meet my doc to talk about Mounjaro or Naltrexone to help with the fatigue. Fingers crossed
🤞 Fingers crossed that you find a new writing rhythm that fits. And I'm always looking forward to more short stories from you. The ones I read so far were brilliant and I keep recommending them to people.
I write a lot for my job and LC really forced me to restructure how I do it. I'm maybe 8 months ahead of where you are in that process? It's been hard, but between treatment and practice, I have new ways that work. Hope you find that as well