When writing the dreaded first draft, be glad for the bad days

I’ve often noticed that when I write a first draft of something, good days are followed by bad days. I’ve noticed this countless times, especially at the start of a novel or short story. It’s almost like I need those days of stuckness and stagnation to get to the good days. But it’s easy to get discouraged on those days where nothing flows, not the story, not the dialogue, nothing—everything you write seems like garbage.

The best strategy I’ve found against the inevitable bad writing day is to suffer through my designated writing hours. I might attempt different angles to a scene, or write down those things that really bother me about the plot or character or whatever. I don’t get discouraged about my word count. Actually, I don’t even count words on bad writing days any more. I might decide to write a small or simple scene to keep things moving along; that scene might end up in the story or not, but mostly, it serves as a clarifier, something I use to see what works and what doesn’t. Often when I come back to everything the following day, things flow.

On bad writing days I accept the suffering as part of the process. This makes it easier to get through because you know that nothing lasts forever—not even bad writing days.