The last two days have been the first where I have had to struggle to write. I have a long list of things that need to get done for everyone else, and they are important, but they are taking away writing time. I have officially hit my first writing roadblock of the month. I sat down the last two nights to write and felt, blah. i was pretty discouraged thinking it is only the first week and this is already happening.That was kind of why I had that message in my e-mail last night. I had to remember good writers go through this to, and they keep writing.

My key to getting out of it was Iwent on Jabberchat. Ana, aj, and squid helped me get going again with a word war and fun chatting (thanks guys).

Have you hit a road block yet? What was it and how did you get around it.

I hit mine about the same time. I have a lot planned for my novel that can't happen just yet and I'm not sure how to fill the interim pages. Meanwhile, I'm going to school and had worked a few extra hours and my sister moved back from college (and we're having to share a room!), so my mind was blah as well. I ended up watching a movie (The Heat) which helped to clear my head and broke one of my personal rules by jumping ahead a little in my writing, just to get some writing done. Of course, I'll have to deal with that again tonight; maybe I'll figure out the missing pieces before then.

I haven't managed to work through mine yet. I was getting really frustrated with how uninspired I've been feeling, and how long it's taking me to get to the actual plot of my story... But as it turns out, I've had a good reason! It appears that the exhaustion I've had the last couple days isn't just allergies and NaNo frustration, after all. I'm actually fighting something. I discovered this today when my mom came into my room to make sure I was alive because I hadn't gotten up yet at 11:00. I stayed in bed until 11:30, got up long enough to eat breakfast and shower, and then... went back to bed. Which is where I've spent pretty much the whole day. And I need to hurry up and get better, because I've got a crazy work day tomorrow that I can't get out of because my co-worker is apparently even more sick than I am.

All very NOT conducive to novel-writing... Can't really even say I've done any goodponderingfor my novel, because I spent all my lying-in-bed time today thinking about what happens three yearsaftermy novel takes place. So... also, not useful.

And now... I need to go be horizontal again. What a lousy time to get sick.

I write by the seat of my pants. This is because if I try to outline anything before NaNo officially begins, the temptation to start writing just becomes too great! And I know I can't do that until the First of November.

Because of this, I really lack much organization at the outset. So I have to both organize my writing and write at the same time. Since I can't really do both at exactly the same time, I have to take breaks from my writing to do all this organizing.

What I find is that if I get too far behind in my organizing, I don't know what to write. So at that point I work on organizing, even if it costs me a day or two "in the red." The following day, though, I am all fired up and ready to take on all comers in word war!

My friend and I had this agreement where, to motivate me to write, she agreed towatch an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic every time I hit my word goal. That was great motivation for me for a while, but now she's watching them of her own free will!Whatever will I do now?Haha!

When I hita roadblock, it usually helps me to do one of two things: Start a new scene, or literally interrupt the current one with someone or something that comes by and demands attention. Occasionally I will resort to writing prompts, but, honestly, those moments are few and far between.

I was so stuck last week Wednesday that I gave up: I declared it a day off, and spent some time working on my outline instead, since I went into this NaNo incredibly under-prepared. And sure enough, I ended up getting in a thousand words before bed, because I'd finally figured out how to unstick the scene I was working on.