So, things today went better today than last week. In short, I wrote more today than I wrote in the entirety of last week. (Yes, that’s how bad things were going.)

One of the things I found helpful was focus@will’s new setting “Cafe focus Beta.” A few months back, I reported that researchers released data indicating that writers are more productive in cafes than sitting in a quiet office at home. Well, I guess the folks at focus@will read the same study, because not only can you use the site to enhance your creativity with baroque or ambient music — or to white noise — you can now listen to a re-creation of a busy cafe full of people.

And yes, I did indeed find it helpful.

I also relied on the advice of other writers today in order to increase my productivity. One of things I usually do before I start to write an episode of my serial is to read the previous episode. But on one of my writers’ forums recently, someone recommended re-reading a piece you wrote particularly well when you’re in a writing slump.

Since several people approached me in the last week to tell me how much they were enjoying my serial, I settled on reading not just the immediately previous chapter I’d written, but to start from the very beginning of the serial.

I felt more confident once I saw that it is actually pretty good. Maybe I feel like I’m fumbling along, but it doesn’t read like that.

I got to hear the narrator’s voice in all its freshness, saw all sorts of tantalizing bits from the beginning that I really should refer to now that I’m on the final chapters. I thought of a new twist to the ending, something I’ve been looking for. (Now I have to convince the editors to accept the change.) I saw a couple supporting characters whom I liked so much, I dragged one in a scene to lighten up the bit I wrote today.

I think it’s a little early to declare myself over the hump, but I’m starting to feel the end is indeed in sight, that G-d isn’t going to abandon me at the finish line with inspiration, leaving the readers with no decent ending. I think I have to trust Him, and trust myself (because He put me in the position where I have no choice but to keep writing, so I must have the resources to pull it off).

What a relief.