Spinning my wheels
By Jekca
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
Centralia, Missouri
November 12, 2015 5:18am CST
Have you ever tried to do something only to repeatedly get either nowhere fast, or perhaps even go backwards? I've felt like that the last few days with my NANOWRIMO writing. Oh I forced myself to do the word count, but it felt like, well stagnant.
So I realized this morning what was wrong with the writing I have been doing. I have been spinning my wheels. I was fine when I had a clear place I wanted to get the characters too, now I am filling my pages with interesting yet unimportant things. I need to go back to basically and figure out a timeline and some goals to write them towards. I also need to write the ending. I should have done that eons ago, I do better on almost everything when I write the ending first and work backwards. My best poetry is done that way.
Have you been spinning your wheels lately? Why? How did you manage movement again?
15 people like this
15 responses
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
12 Nov 15
That very seldom happens to me, I guess at my age I see things differently.
4 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
all blurry and with lots of yellings of get off my lawn? -ducks with a grin-
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
life lessons with sofs! lol very true
1 person likes this
@sofssu (23660)
•
14 Nov 15
@Jessicalynnt 
I tried writing a poem backwards yesterday and I would say it worked ok.. I guess its fun to do it both ways.
I tried writing a poem backwards yesterday and I would say it worked ok.. I guess its fun to do it both ways.1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
@sofssu dunno why that works so well for me in poetry, perhaps because I have the rhyming words picked out and then can just make a sentence to end with them
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
nothing motivating you perhaps, no real need to write that much right now
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
12 Nov 15
I tend to leap from project to project leaving lots of fragments incompleted - your writing is going well - you can edit later - the main thing is getting all the ideas in place for now
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
yep, stopping for edits is a good way to not get done!
@simone10 (54180)
• Louisville, Kentucky
15 Nov 15
@Jessicalynnt This is true. Now you just have to figure out how to get there.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
I am not sure now if I am going to fully write it out, but I at least know where it's headed.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
LOL then I must be super attractive
1 person likes this
@Bluedoll (16770)
• Canada
14 Nov 15
@Jessicalynnt Keep writing and enjoy it. Terrified?
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
I like these ideas, and you know I did manage to figure out the bare bones of the ending, and I think created an idea for a sequel...which terrified me, gotta focus on the one I am writing now!
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
@Bluedoll bad enough I have one to finish, now I feel the ideas start to squiggle for another one...ones....
1 person likes this
@valmnz (17095)
• New Zealand
14 Nov 15
@Jessicalynnt tht's good to hear. And you're almost half way through November.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
I think so too, I figured out where my ending is going to be, what the general shape of it is!
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
@valmnz on the downhill slide now!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502148)
• Italy
14 Nov 15
@Jessicalynnt Oh, that I had understood. I use the system to read word backwards in my native language to be sure I did not misspell words. It's the only way to spot mistakes, if you read them "normally" the brain correct the misspells.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
@LadyDuck that's actually quite clever, and very true, you wouldn't just skip over it, it would stick out more.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
well I dont mean word for word backwards, just writing out the ending then going back to where I was and working my way to it
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (54714)
• United States
12 Nov 15
Yes, I have been working on my spare bedroom trying to get things organized and it seems that I shall never finish.
1 person likes this
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
12 Nov 15
I get this all the time with my dissertation, there's lots I want to do, but there seem to be lacking a finishing point.. so I do get what you mean.
1 person likes this
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
13 Nov 15
@Jessicalynnt Yep the pivotal points of the entire bit of work is the ending, so I feel. xD
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
@Drosophila It's really rough,but I know where I;m going to land this book at the end now
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
13 Nov 15
I still need to do this, write the ending so I have somewhere to aim for
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
yeah that's part of the challenge to get it done no matter what. I want to be a novelist, if I ever can be that, I gotta be able to push through this
@BethieAnnie (818)
• Dayton, Ohio
13 Nov 15
Hey jessa, nice to see you again!! I have indeed been spinning my wheels, but I know exactly what got me off track. My insane push for perfection! Sigh, am I ever going to learn. I have to remind myself about KISS. Keep it simple sweetie! I am spinning wheels because I am overdoing it. To cure this I rely on my pen and paper. I write down three simple goals for the next few hours. I do each, crossing them off the list. Each goal is a very simple goal, its the three goals together that make a whole. I break it down to small steps and that makes it easier to pull away from my neurotic need for perfection.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
that's actually a good way to get goals done!
1 person likes this
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
12 Nov 15
I've never been able to write the ending first. I'm spinning my wheels right now. I can't work on my manuscript because Dropbox didn't save the current version from my desktop and I am not going to start over from the last stop point. I need to get everything from the hard drive as soon as possible so I can move forward again. I was so hoping to be finished with this manuscript by the end of the month. That is not going to happen now.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Nov 15
I don't think I will really write it out, just a bare outline of where things are headed, I know now though and that is helping
