I’ve been stuck for a while now on my current novel, and that always puts me in a foul mood. I was supposed to be churning out  5-6 pages a day this month, and I’ve been sputtering instead. Stuck.

I’m not sure why I’ve been stuck, unless it’s a bit of burnout after the craziness of the past 1/2 year, ever since my workshop in October, followed by the wild and wooly Zuda competition in November. And working non-stop on my other projects since that time. Plus the day job. And keeping up with the family… Chasing our five-year-old and two-year-old…

Yeah, I could be a bit fried. I got up this morning to type and just stared at the words on the screen. I have a fun scene featuring three werewolves to write, for crying out loud! This is cool stuff here. I ended up reading a short story instead of writing my own stuff.

But I need to write. I get really grumpy if I’m not working on something (just ask my wife and kids!).  So I came up with a strategy — something simple to push and pull me through my morning writing time.

Finish a chapter every two days.

Sounds crazy, but the catch is that the book I’m working on is young-adult, so the chapters are going to be short. And since I’m trying to write 6 pages a day, a 12-page chapter would be considered LONG in this kind of book.

So it’s a win-win situation. Let’s see how it plays out — I’m just starting chapter 12 now, and I want to finish that chapter and chapter 13 by the end of my writing time on Friday.

Hold me to it.