Hey novel-writers.  I’m curious about something.

I was reading Eugie Foster’s LJ where she’s posting her novel wordcounts.  She’s got daily counts like 150 and 800. Go Eugie!

But I’m wondering — is there anyone else who tends to write “all or nothing”?  I rarely add 150 words in a day.  It’s 0 or 1,000+.  Sometimes as high as 4,000+.  But there’s a whole ton of 0 days to even that out, so my progress isn’t much faster than average.

My pattern seems to be this: sit there, fume and rage, hate everything about the novel, stare at the clock, panic and say “holy crap I have to type SOMETHING,” then (at the end of my allotted time) pour out tons of words.  And then I could keep typing for a long time, but I’ve got to stop for something else.  And some days I just never break out of that first part.

Not exactly healthy, but it’s what I do.  Wish I could convince myself to start typing as soon as I sit down… but somehow, that “silent” period seems necessary.  Maybe I’m working it out subconsciously.

I think it’s the hallmark of perfectionism, which I’ve struggled with my whole life.  (And not the good kind of perfectionism, which you cite as your worst quality in job interviews.  I mean the life-ruining, mental-health-destroying kind.)

Anyone else do this?