keep your eyes open

I have a daily wordcount that I make myself hit. right now, it's 2k a day, but when I have less of a workload I find 1k more realistic and manageable.

as for the struggling: first, you have to let yourself write like crap. is the sentence bad? are you talking all stupid? who cares, it's better than nothing, and now you have something you can come back to once your first draft is complete. that last bit is important. don't beautify your writing until you have something roughly complete, otherwise you'll get stuck tweaking the same three sentences for a year.

and secondly: you might be struggling because something about what you think you need to write isn't flowing. maybe you're not interested enough, make you don't know enough, maybe it isn't working, whatever. so instead, find something you do want to write about, and fill that daily word count. this might mean writing the climax of your story before the beginning, or writing several long descriptions of the antagonist's living quarters instead of anything that moves the plot along. that's great! even if you eventually have to throw it out because it doesn't fit anywhere, it's still great! and the more you write, the stronger your muscle memory will get, and the easier it will be.

Shatterpoint + Test of Metal + Blade of Tyshalle + Revenge of the Sith

MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI

House of Leaves (2000);