Getting back to it
It’s really not going to shock any of you that I didn’t write much last week, mainly because most of what I write is out in the open, and y’all didn’t see much of that stuff last week. The reasons are, unfortunately, personal, but suffice it to say I didn’t feel like doing much of anything since Tuesday night, and that included writing.
I still don’t feel like doing much of anything, but I have to get back to writing sometime, and I suppose tonight is as good a night as any. Besides, I promised I’d finish up the current Twitter Novel project this month, and no matter what, I will.
Of course, six days is not the longest I’ve ever gone without writing. At one point, I went nearly a decade without finishing anything. I’d love to blame writer’s block, but the first couple of years of non-production was due to drinking, and the next several, laziness. I’ve tried to make up for it with an insane production schedule since about February 2009, and I think I’ve done all right — I’ve completed eight books in that time, and you folks have seen five of them. The current Twitter Novel will bring that to nine.
So, question for today — what’s the longest you’ve gone without pursuing your art (writing, painting, photography, film, etc.)? What was the reason you fell off the horse? How did you eventually get back into it?
47 Echo 
I’ve gone a decade too. Mostly out of the fear if I started and failed it’d be over. As a dream I could talk about becoming a writer and what I’d do without having to show and prove.
Yeah, I fell into a similar trap.
I went a few years without any real production during a time I cared for an ill relative and then taking care of a health issue of my own. During that time, I still wrote short stories and other things, but production on novels became sporadic.
Since I started writing novels, my average output is a book every few years; in large part, due to the times I’ve only been able to focus on shorter things. It’s something I’d like to increase, but I don’t knock myself for the times I didn’t write as much as I wanted. Looking at those times, while I wasn’t writing novels, I was still producing other things.