Hit 50,000 words on my novel draft yesterday and it threw me off

I've been working on this fantasy story on and off for about a year, mostly just messing around with scenes. Yesterday I checked my word count and it was sitting at 50,273 words. I never set a goal or anything, so seeing that number kind of froze me up for a minute. It's way more than I thought I'd ever write, but now I'm stuck on where the plot even goes from here. Anyone else hit a weird milestone like that and not know how to push through to the end?

2 comments

2 Comments

park.tara7d ago

Do you ever notice how hitting a big number in anything, like miles run or days sober, can make you freeze up even if you were doing fine before? I've seen it with friends training for marathons, they get to a random distance and suddenly feel the weight of the whole thing, not just the step they're on. Maybe your brain just needs a few days of writing whatever dumb scene comes to mind without caring if it fits, just to shake off that weird pressure.

king.ruby6d ago

Really feel this one... there's something about crossing a milestone that makes your brain switch from "just doing the thing" to "oh no, this actually matters now." Happened to me with a project I was working on, was flying along until I hit the halfway point and suddenly every word felt like it carried too much weight. It's like the number tricks you into thinking you're further along than you actually are, and then the pressure just snowballs. Your idea about writing random scenes without caring is smart, even just giving yourself permission to be bad for a few days takes the heat off. Sometimes the only way out is to stumble through until your brain forgets it's supposed to be scared.