Spring Block

I don’t know about other writers, but there are time of the year that I find better for writing and times that are worse. For me, Spring is the worst. I don’t know why, but I find I can’t concentrate, and any story I am working on seem to drag on. And no, I don’t mean that the story is dull, but that I only get a few hundred words in at a time, when at other times of year I can get a couple thousand.

So I’ve dubbed this as Spring Block. I’m fighting it, as I’ve fought it for several years. I am determined to not stop writing. I will persevere. But it is tough going. Oddly enough, this year is going better than last year. Two years ago I wanted to write two short stories in preparation for a novel, and struggled to reach 20,000 words in five months. Last year I again barely managed to get two short stories written but I didn’t get to the second one until June (technically after spring and at the start of the more productive part of the year). This year I wrote a short story, a novella, and am in Chapter two of my next novel. Better, but still not the level of progress I want.

I can hear some people saying that every writers needs some down time. There are books to read, manuscripts to edit, that sort of thing. But it should be up to me when I take my down time. I just don’t get why during this stretch of months, January through May, everything seems to drag. Distractions are more distracting and time seems to get away from me for every little thing. In many ways I have the least going on this time of year, but I get most of my writing done during the time of year when I have so many other things going on. Last year I managed to write two novels between July and November, and get two remodel projects done, and watch a lot of movies and TV shows. Could it be that I’m not busy enough in the spring? That is about the only thing I can figure.

In any case, my Spring Block is almost over. May is almost here and after may is June, one of the best writing months outside November.