Feeling hot hot hot

I can’t really speak for my fellow authors, but I believe the following to be generally true: you might love writing, but that doesn’t mean you love writing all the time.

Shocking, I know.

Some people seemingly can write all the time, and I envy them. Some people have the time and energy to sit down and fire off manuscripts left and right. On Facebook, I will occasionally see an author celebrating three releases within two weeks. How in the world do they manage to pull that off?

I’ve had it pointed out to me that many of the most prolific authors are those who routinely produce novellas. This doesn’t make it any less impressive. The fact anyone out there has the time, talent, and drive to produce that amount of material is damn near mind-boggling.

Personally, I can’t keep it up forever. I might be on a hot streak for a few days, even weeks. Then I take one day off and suddenly a month’s flown by and I’ve relied on the “I’ll write tomorrow” philosophy. Tomorrow comes and I’m more interested in reading or surfing the net than doing work. Ultimately, I pull myself out of it, but once you break a streak, it’s annoyingly difficult to get back on track. Like exercising. You go strong for a few days and then decide to skip your 30 minute workout, and suddenly your NordicTrack hasn’t been used in months.

Getting any writing done is an accomplishment. Be it 100 words or 10,000 words. Of course, you’re allowed to take breaks or decide you don’t want to worry about it one night. My suggestion, though, is if you’re on a hot streak, try to get a small amount written every day just to keep the juices flowing. Don’t take such bouts of inspiration for granted, ‘cause all good things come to an end. That’s not to say it won’t come around again, because it will. There’s just no telling how long it’ll take.