I have a cycle of writing. Not a process like other authors talk about. Mine’s a cycle. I go through bursts of being able to knock out three, four even five thousand words in a very short amount of time during a day. It feels great to look back over my word count log and see the progress I make. Then there are other days when I’m absolutely stuck and can’t get to the next sentence let alone move the story forward. For me, these days are beyond frustrating because I know I’m capable of so much more. It’s irritating because as much as I have to write 2000 words per day to accomplish my daily target, on these days, I’m lucky to scratch out a thousand. These days usually only last a day or so. But lately, I’ve been stuck. I’m sure it’s not a lack of motivation, as I’m pretty damned excited that my agent has got me on the submissions schedule for this month. If anything should be motivating at this point, that should be (course, you’re talking about the girl who still gets goosebumps when she thinks she even HAS an agent but that’s another story). So what gives? I think, more than anything, I’m tired. At the end of the night, I’ve been going for 12-15 hours. I’m simply tired. I have to make time for physical activity, as my weight is a nearly constant challenge. I find myself frustrated that I can barely knock out 2000 words when in days past I was able to write so much more. This is a reality that I will simply have to accept: I have a real job and real responsibilities, I can’t sit and write 50 pages in a day until after I retire. So fatigue is part of it. Another part of it is that I’m just in that slump that I have in every project. Right about the 50,000 word mark, I usually hit a what the heck happens next slump that I struggle through. In this case, this slump happened to coincide with regular fatigue, exacerbating the problem. Inevitably, I’ll pull out of it. I’ll get a burst of energy or a spark of renewed vigor and my work pace will take off again. So I won’t panic about the writer’s block until I go weeks and weeks without writing. Then it will be time for a major reassessment. For now, I think it’s time for a nap.