(no subject)
I've been making some excellent progress on the draft of a manuscript started, oh, waaaaay back in 2009. I outlined it that summer, intending to write it for NaNoWriMo, and I think got about 15-17k before getting hit with the worst writer's block of my existence. It got shoved on the back burner for around a year, at which time I started writing on it haphazardly, but it wasn't until early 2012 that I got serious about finally getting it done.
Unfortunately, it was also that year wherein I had no choice but to let it fester, because unbeknownst to me, I was severely hypothyroid, and getting sicker and sicker and sicker with every symptom under the sun, from sinus infections to body aches to anemia to a worsening of my prolapsed mitral valve/palpitations (etc. ad infinitum), and also cognitive problems that ranged from non-existent short term memory, inability to concentrate, "stupors", bipolar symptoms, and specifically to my writing, I was unable to properly structure a story because I couldn't remember from one sentence to the next what I had written and what needed to be written for continuities' sake.
Now that I've been diagnosed properly and am taking homeopathic meds, I feel like my brain has returned from an extended holiday, and went back to work on this story in mid-October after a nearly four year hiatus. I started from scratch, working alongside the rough draft (which is approx. 72k), so that I have about half or slightly more rewritten or newly added scenes in this revised version, while the rest was pasted in from the original document.
This evening I was able to hit 100k on the revised draft. It's... monumental, actually, because I've never gotten close to that word count before. I wrote an old high fantasy story 18 or so years ago that was about 60-70k (IDK for certain as it was handwritten), and aside from this have one I was working on frantically during the worst of my hypothyroid stupor that seems to have hit a brick wall @ 73k.
Suffice it to say I normally don't give much credence to my word counts, but I was inordinately proud today, as it means I'm not just more productive as a writer, but finally feeling better, long-term. Aside from that, my thoughts are clear enough to have straightened out the WTFs and occasional structural issues. I'd never be able to do this when my thyroid decided to flatline. And minuscule as it is, feel like I've accomplished something, or am one step closer to that accomplishment.
Unfortunately, it was also that year wherein I had no choice but to let it fester, because unbeknownst to me, I was severely hypothyroid, and getting sicker and sicker and sicker with every symptom under the sun, from sinus infections to body aches to anemia to a worsening of my prolapsed mitral valve/palpitations (etc. ad infinitum), and also cognitive problems that ranged from non-existent short term memory, inability to concentrate, "stupors", bipolar symptoms, and specifically to my writing, I was unable to properly structure a story because I couldn't remember from one sentence to the next what I had written and what needed to be written for continuities' sake.
Now that I've been diagnosed properly and am taking homeopathic meds, I feel like my brain has returned from an extended holiday, and went back to work on this story in mid-October after a nearly four year hiatus. I started from scratch, working alongside the rough draft (which is approx. 72k), so that I have about half or slightly more rewritten or newly added scenes in this revised version, while the rest was pasted in from the original document.
This evening I was able to hit 100k on the revised draft. It's... monumental, actually, because I've never gotten close to that word count before. I wrote an old high fantasy story 18 or so years ago that was about 60-70k (IDK for certain as it was handwritten), and aside from this have one I was working on frantically during the worst of my hypothyroid stupor that seems to have hit a brick wall @ 73k.
Suffice it to say I normally don't give much credence to my word counts, but I was inordinately proud today, as it means I'm not just more productive as a writer, but finally feeling better, long-term. Aside from that, my thoughts are clear enough to have straightened out the WTFs and occasional structural issues. I'd never be able to do this when my thyroid decided to flatline. And minuscule as it is, feel like I've accomplished something, or am one step closer to that accomplishment.