My misplaced mojo

It’s that month again, the eleventh in the year, and the month a challenge is set to try and write 50,000 words in those thirty days. It seemed a monumental thing, and I’d been thinking about it for several years until in 2013, eight years ago, I saddled up the writing pony, checked its harness, checked my stirrups and set off; what started as a canter became a gallop and I raced home before the thirty days were over and then carried on to write another twenty thousand more! How on earth did I do it? It was a story I’d been considering for a while, not planning, but thinking about, and when I wrote the first words, ‘I knocked on Paul’s door…’  the rest just followed. When I finished, when the month was over, the challenge thankfully successfully completed, there was a lot of work to do to turn my story into a novel. I did it, and it was published as ‘Radwinter’.

The following year I was prolific – I can’t believe how I did it, but as well as the November challenge, I also completed self-set challenges in April and July, managing over 50,00 words for each. Gosh I was on a roll! The next four years I kept my nose to the grindstone and my finger on the keys and completed each annual challenges, but 2019 for no reason I can put my finger on, everything went onto slow, not just the challenge, but all my writing seemed to falter. I managed barely a fifth of the 50,000, and I admit I felt rather glum – and not only because of that, I just had an all-purpose low feeling for no known reason. Then of course, last year and all the non-writing challenges that set. Somehow I completed the writing challenge though, goodness knows how.

So now, 2021, Day 8 and I should be on my way to 13,336 words to be on target… and where am I? 2550 measly words, 2550. I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t know what I’m doing, if I could quit, I would, but sadly I don’t think there is a way to cancel my entry into this year’s challenge. I know what the problem is (apart from the obviously, lack of inspiration and lack of determination)  I am trying to finish my latest Radwinter book – the eighth since I first started writing about Thomas Radwinter in 2013, and I am also trying to write something else. I think I should stop the something else, concentrate on Radwinter VIII and see how many words it takes to finish it, and if I have time, try to complete the challenge. Yes, that’s what I’ll do, I think, maybe, perhaps… and also I will start looking for my misplaced mojo.

Here’s a link to Radwinter: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KTRNZ8Z/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_EJYKTH63EBD5SC4DXH29