I Didn't Hit My Writing Goal, but I Have So Much to be Proud Of

I'm back at Write Doe Bay for a writing workshop retreat.

Hi, it’s me.

Welcome back to my Wednesday newsletter, coming to you on a Friday. I crossed the water again! Another ferry ride through the Salish Sea to an island in the Pacific Northwest. Back to Write Doe Bay, an artist retreat where I hope to be inspired and figure out how to finish writing my book.¹

When riding a ferry to a magical island in the Pacific Northwest, I try to leave my inner critic behind me on the boat dock.

I have a confession to make: I haven’t worked on my book draft very much since January.

It’s April now, the month I was aiming to finish a shitty first draft. I wanted to check that box by the time I crossed these waters again so I could relax, regroup, and celebrate what I had accomplished.

But I ran into a hiccup on my way to that goal. After starting out strong for several months, I got sick and struggled for over a month with lingering fatigue and brain fog. During those weeks I dutifully came to my writing desk and… stared at the screen. I fiddled and fidgeted, read and reread. I occasionally made notes about what I should be writing. I reviewed my past notes in search of inspiration.

I kept showing up, but it didn’t matter.

“Welcome to Doe Bay,” said the lonely heron.

At my day job I do a lot of writing, and then I write my book on the weekends and sometimes weeknight evenings. I’ve spent almost every day since last November writing or working on writing-adjacent things without much of a break from looking at a screen.

Finally realized I was burned out and made a decision to let go of my hard core writing schedule until after this writing retreat. I would go to the island, be inspired, and come back ready to finish my draft.

The view from my cabin.

Even though I didn’t hit my goal of a completed first draft, I’m still proud of how consistently I wrote and how far I got. I stopped talking about writing a book and actually started writing it! I’ve written just under 20,000 words so far, which is maybe half of a reasonable word-count target. However, in many places I’ve written things like, “put the story about visiting Stuart’s grave here.” These notes to myself reference stories that have been verbally told over and over again through the years, so once I get past this burnout hump, I think the finish line will be close.

A physical artifact of my hard work.

Our workshop retreat includes several hours of personal writing time, so I printed out my entire book draft to bring with me. It’s time to lay it out on the floor and figure out where the holes are and how it flows. I brought colored pens and sticky notes and noise canceling headphones to accompany me on this task.

I may be burned out from stringing sentences together, but I’m super excited to finish outlining my story so I know where to begin again when I’m ready.

If you have a story about not reaching a goal and how you worked through that, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. We have so much to learn from each other.

Thanks for reading, and for following along with me while I write this book.

Until next time,

Jen

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A few memories from March that I collected:

1. Here is a recap from last November after attending my first Write Doe Bay:

Five Take-Aways From My First Writing Retreat