Today was a hard writing day -- one where everything felt hard to turn out, and the substance of it wasn't quite working. This happens, and I still actually got a lot written in spite of that, which counts as a win.
A few observations on the days like these:
- You can, and will, fix it later.
- The output of the bad days and of the good days is much harder to tell apart later than it seems at the time. It's often more psychological/physiological than anything intrinsic. (It's not coincidental that writing was hard on a day where it's 29C, the pollen is kicking my face off, and I'm tired and grouchy from the impact both those things had on my sleep.)
- There are tools that help. For me, format-shifting is always good. Getting things down on pen and paper feels a little freer and less formal, and it looks much scrappier. It give itself permission to be bad, and you know you're only going to improve it from there as you shift what you've got to another format.
- Seek clarity about what you're trying to do. Take a step back. What's the story, beyond whatever narrative techniques you're using to tell it? Do you understand it well enough and have it loaded into your brain? How does that flow into whatever narrative units you're using? What does the unit you're working on right now need to actually accomplish? If something's still not working, why isn't it? Are the motivations clear? The characters', the player's, yours?
- Write what you can, omit what you can't. Stitch it all together later.
- Take the rest when it comes.