Writing and Fitness and Changing Lanes

Operation Capri Pants: I burned 600 calories yesterday (am TIIIIIRED today) and was only 140 calories over my calorie budget.  Given the excessive working out, I’m gonna say that’s within the realm of okay, which means I’m on a 2 day streak.

I actually did sit down to write last night when I got home from work, but I was so exhausted from the working out that I passed out on the sofa until hubs got home.  I could not resist the lure of the fluffeh puppeh cuddles.  Sadly, despite Claire’s policy of “To nap or not to nap? NAP!” did not leave me with any brilliant insights. I got 54 words.

Guess I’ve got page fright after all.

Round 1 of ROW80 ends on Thursday.  There are (counting today) 13 days between now and the start of Round 2.  I am considering playing with something else in that span, just to get my feet wet.  Either finishing out Riven (which lacks 10-12k) or taking a stab at Dragonbound (which I expect to come in between 8-10k).  They count as productive procrastination, as both are projects I want to get out this year, and my brain has been happily tripping through Mirus-world.  And I’d rather be producing something than nothing, obviously.

It’s funny, really.  I find teenagers SO HARD TO WRITE, yet I have this real yen toward YA fiction.  I’ve read LOADS of it the last couple of years, and I’ve got troops of them tromping through my head at all times.  It’s a challenge.   Most of the time I like a challenge, but I feel like I need to be in the right headspace to do this story justice.  I REALLY want to do this story justice.

A lot of this feels like excuses and justification, which instinctively pisses me off.  Just do it, right?  Ah, such is the nature of page fright.

11 thoughts on “Writing and Fitness and Changing Lanes

  1. I wonder what causes page fright. Is it the fear of not being good enough? I suffer from that pretty often, even though Susan says she can’t believe how I’m not afraid to try new things. LOL

    I can’t imagine writing about teenagers. I just don’t think I could. But I do like to read YA if it’s really good like Susan’s and Stacey’s. And I know your YA work will be good, too, because good is the only thing you write. :0)

    1. For me I HAVE to write SOMETHING every day. I’m not one of those writers who can take several days off and then just pick it back up again. It’s like I forget how to do it when I’m away for more than a day. Which is one of the reasons I’m so big on consistency and establishing good habits. Because that’s what I need. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

    1. It is a favorite of mine. I have little free time to just “waste” so as long as I’m doing something PRODUCTIVE during that time, it’s not the BAD kind of procrastination.

  2. I’ll borrow “productive procrastination” too. And thanks to ROW80, I’ve discovered how much I crave routine and need to write every day. Kait, as always, your post is a joy to read.

  3. Congrats on the exercise…you are way ahead of me this week! Probably not page fright though, possibly something just needs to shift slightly. It might be something in the story or something in your world. You will know when it falls into place. Good Luck!

  4. Writing teenagers is what comes most naturally to me. I’d have a harder time writing a really serious adult voice. I think my personality stopped maturing at 16 or something. It’s been my life’s mission to keep this a secret from the rest of the world. Writing YA fiction is the only advantage of it that I’ve found so far.

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