I often catch myself obsessively dividing word count goals down into daily increments. 30 pages of writing due each month means one page or ~250 words a day. Structured this way, it feels so manageable.

Despite my best intentions, my creative output is never this linear. My process is more like a bear in the wilderness, scavenging for ideas, hibernating for a while, then awakening into a productive spurt. It’s less like the diligent beaver, building and building.

Squaring my tendencies with the relentless demands of an MFA program is tough, y’all 😮‍💨! Two days before a recent deadline, I was ten pages short. After sending despairing voice notes to a few writer friends to muster moral support, I decided to edit and submit an existing short story to meet the page number requirement at the eleventh hour.

Submitting a revision felt like a cop-out—like I had failed my goal of generating 30pp of new material. In the end, my advisor reaffirmed the instinct to switch mental gears and work on a revision as a creative refresh.

Now that I’m on the other side of the deadline, I’m reminded of how valuable it was to switch things up, reach out to my support network, and let go of trying to brute force outcomes.

PS — what animal is your creative process like?

Happy writing this week,
Jamie

📝 This week’s writing prompt: Brute force

Reply to this email to submit your writing. Submit by Saturday evening and see what everyone else wrote for the same prompt.

Last week’s submissions: What’s real, what’s not

Did you submit last week? If so, click to view the other submissions 👀 

✨ Writing inspo of the week

Enjoying Creative Juice? Please share with a friend.