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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39517
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Depending on the length of the thing you're writing, there are plenty of tasks that are not composing sentences. Perhaps you need to map out exactly how your characters are getting into and out of some critical situation that you have envisioned only at a high level. Perhaps you need to double check how long the train from Rome to Florence takes, or what unexpected weather conditions are likely to be a problem in the area where your story is set. Perhaps it's a good idea to sketch out someone's backstory that you'll be revealing in glimpses over the next few chapters.

If you can do these somewhat mechanical and less creative tasks while you're upset, you will have what you need to hand later, when you're not upset, and are ready to compose sentences. This will make all that go faster.

You may even find that settling in to do the research, the mapping, the listing, the double-checking actually improves your mood so much that you're ready to compose sentences and paragraphs. But even if it doesn't, you're getting work done. Important work.

Original score: 4