I have been working on a novel for a while now. What aspiring writer isn't? I have been going great guns for a while, having done a lot of development work prior to commencing the actual writing. Writing sessions were routinely producing 2-3,000 words, sometimes more, leaving me feeling quite accomplished. Writers block? Pah!
Today I had a salutary lesson that it isn't always quite so easy. After several hours work, I had barely managed some 400 words. I felt I was almost oozing blood with the effort of trying to get the right words out. I quite deliberately try to write in that first drafting in as spontaneous a manner as possible. However, today that spontaneity just would not come, possible because I was adding in a piece that introduced an important character at an earlier, more effective point, working hard at producing a particular emotive effect.
At the end, when I called it quits and put the laptop to sleep, I was left wondering - was my lesser output a sign of having failed to produce, or was the possible greater quality of the work better on this occasion than quantity? I do not have an answer as yet.
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