December 26

No writing progress made. I had a family Christmas party and came home with no energy to put into my writing.

December 27

• Project: Inbetween
• Total word count: 21,820
• Today’s word count: 40
• Thoughts: Well, it’s better than nothing, and I am way out of practice. I haven’t been writing much lately. The holidays just throw me completely off track. I’m the sort of person that needs long stretches of time to wind up before I get into my work and make real progress. Having lots of little interruptions throughout the day throws me off track and I can’t get the same sort of flow I would on days I’m completely on my own.
• Tomorrow’s goal: More writing. I want to get back into my writing groove so I can have a fantastic start to 2017 next week.

December 28

• Project: Inbetween
• Total word count: 22,299
• Today’s word count: 479
• Thoughts: Progress! I can’t remember the last time I made this sort of progress in one day. I’m thrilled. I can’t wait to be more productive tomorrow.
• Tomorrow’s goal: Revision time and more writing, I hope.

December 29

• Project: Inbetween
• Total word count: 22,265
• Today’s word count: -34
• Thoughts: I added some words. I took some other words away. Overall it was a fairly typical day of revisions. I’m noticing that revising words written during NaNoWriMo is significantly more difficult than words writing at other times of the year. I think my writing voice is weird when I’m frantically writing a new project. The next few chapters are going to have the same problem. Hopefully getting past the NaNoWriMo part of the novel will clear it up.
• Tomorrow’s goal: Finish up this week’s revisions and get back to writing. I’d like to get a decent number of words in before the year is over, but that might be asking too much of myself.

December 30

• Project: Inbetween
• Total word count: 22,262
• Today’s word count: -3
• Thoughts: Maybe I should start planning for two days of revising every week. It would be the realistic thing to do considering the pattern I’ve been seeing lately. A part of me wants to keep shooting to complete it all in one day. I was able to do it before so I should be able to do it again. I think the NaNoWriMo chapters are just a bit messier than I can handle in one day.
• Tomorrow’s goal: Post the final chapter of the year, write at least a bit and celebrate the start of a new year.

December 31

I got the chapter posted, but I didn’t find the time or energy to do any writing. I hosted a small get-together for New Year’s Eve and just did not have the time or energy to create new words. I had a good time so I think it was worth it. The holiday interruptions should be over soon so I can turn my focus completely back to writing and hopefully stop feeling so lost.

January 1

I spent the day with my family so I didn’t have much of an opportunity to write during the day. Once I got home I was too tired to write. I didn’t sleep until quite late because my sleep schedule seems to have died over the holidays, but I did not have the mental energy left to create new words.

My latest theory regarding my inability to write after social events is simply that I’m very introverted. Spending time with people, even people I love, leaves me so drained that I need to turn inward to recharge. During that recharge period I just can’t find the energy or the motivation to be creative.

Now that the holiday season is winding down, my life should be quiet again. I’ll have plenty of energy to expend on writing again very soon!