Tag: word count

Word Count: Struggling to Find My Rhythm Again

On By John d'AndrioleIn The Weekend Redirect

The consistently excellent J.C. Cauthon (J.C.’s for life, yo!) writes about my own Achilles heal: getting into the rhythm of writing.

Specifically, she writes about trying to find the groove of writing again. You know how it is: thousands of ideas, mere minutes of free time. Life intervenes. A move half-way across the country is intervening in mine. But once you start down the dark side of not writing, forever will it…

Damn, I am SUCH a nerd.

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Not So Much Writer’s Block More Writer’s Freeze

On By John d'AndrioleIn The Weekend Redirect, Writer's Advice, Writing

In the latest post on LionAroundWriting, the subject of “writer’s freeze” is addressed.

Specifically, this refers to a total writer shutdown when panicking about word counts and trying to keep your subject as brief as possible without cutting everything interesting out of a story.

 

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LionAroundWriting's avatarLionAroundWriting

writers freeze chemistrydotabout

…ANYONE ELSE GET THIS? Maybe this terror of going over a word limit began at university with 2000 word limits on essays. I get the freeze when I’m writing a short story. Maybe freeze isn’t a great word for it but I’ll explain. Sometimes I will be writing a piece and I’m so conscious of word count that I end up writing lazy sentences, freezing up; instead of describing the world and filling in those all important details that bring a story to life, I’ll write stubby sentences, providing a skeleton but little else as a result of being way too mindful of the number of words. It’s some form of mental block.

And if I plan to write for a WordPress post, I’m always trying to keep it snappy, under about 5-600 words, and the freeze begins again. I’m so habituated to strive for 500 words online…

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