And then some days, you do nothing.

Ever had one of those days where you just don’t want to work? I had one of those last night, where no matter what I tried, I couldn’t seem to focus my thoughts enough to get anything done. It’s not writer’s block — it’s simply laziness, I think.

We writers usually have to work day jobs, unless we’re Stephen King or Tom Clancy or Stephanie Meyer. It’s just the nature of the beast, and as I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing at all. I think day jobs give us structure, make us interact with people, and give us all-around life experience that informs and enriches what we write. Day jobs = good.

But day jobs also tend to take a lot out of us. You know, doing someone else’s work for eight hours a day might make you less gung-ho about going home and doing six to eight hours of your own work. I’ve been doing that for the last two years — I even wrote bits of 200 Days every night on my last two vacations.

I think what we writers need to remember is that writing is a job. It’s a fun job, but a job nonetheless. And as such, we need to remember to give ourselves a day off every now and then. And in two days, when 200 Days is finally done, I plan to do just that. And trust me — you won’t see the ending coming.

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