Writing Resolution: Week 5

My New Year's Resolution was to write. Preferably for a novel, but any creative writing will suffice. I must have my butt in my chair behind my desk for two hours each night to write. The time frame I set up was from 6-8pm Monday through Friday. Weekly posts will report on my progress and keep me on track!

Week Five Results:
Did I write all five days for two hours? YES
Word count for the week = 1012 words

What I Learned This Week:

1. My word count was abysmal, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  I still worked on writing stuff like plotting and research (which I don't count towards my word count because it's in notebooks, not typed). But as you probably saw Behind the Story post... this was a rough week.
2. To solve my plotting/setting issues, I did something I hadn't done before.  I kind of did little synopses for each possible plot/setting combo with what I'd do if I chose that option.  It helped because I wasn't going over it all in my head.  After doing this, I saw the pros and cons of each option and which option fit best with my overall themes.  
3. I really think stress and personal life has an impact on creativity. The reason I had such a bad week was likely due to stress at work. When you're worried and stressed about other things, it's hard to get your brain to change directions. I wonder if there's like a stress chemical hormone in the brain that has to do with blocking creativity receptors.  Hmmm.

I hope all the black of the new layout doesn't bother anyone.  I was absolutely bored of the old one, and wanted something with either typewriters or owls (as I love both).  Plus I wanted my blog and twitter to match because I'm a goober.

How was your writing week?
Do you think stress negatively impacts creativity?