Congratulations on finishing your seventh chapter! Hitting over 23,000 words while juggling work and daily life is a huge accomplishment, and dedicating Wednesdays to hitting your 2,000-word goal sounds like a great structure to build momentum. Since you mentioned feeling bogged down by research and wanting to find the joy of writing again, one approach that many historical fiction writers use is writing a sandbox scene. This is a scene meant entirely for you, with no intention of putting it in the final book. You could drop your 1465 nobles into a completely mundane or ridiculous situation, or write a scene focusing entirely on their inner emotional state without worrying about a single historical fact or timeline. It can help strip away the heavy research and remind you of the core personalities you created. Another angle to escape the research-heavy feeling is to focus purely on sensory writing for your next session. Instead of worrying about the politics of the French noble houses or the exact maneuvers at the Battle of Montlhery, you could write a few paragraphs just about the sounds of the camp, the smell of a sudden rain, or the physical weight of a wool cloak. Grounding the writing in the senses often brings back the juiciness you feel is missing. Your upcoming Stanford Fiction Workshop sounds like the perfect environment to reset, too. Being surrounded by other writers and dissecting the craft from fresh perspectives is a wonderful way to catch the writing bug again. Sometimes just hearing how others tackle their messy first drafts is exactly the permission we need to let our own writing be imperfect and fun. Enjoy the class tomorrow, and happy writing on Wednesday!