“Writing is the flip side of sex– it’s good only when it’s over.” ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Oh, man, how true that is.

I love to start a new project, when the plot and characters are all shiny and new. I love to explore the world, the little nuances that make that story different from every other one I’ve written.

About 3/4ths of the way through, I’m ready to move on to something new. The last quarter is torture. And then when it’s done, there are revisions. Lots and lots of revisions. It can be torture. But writing those two sweet words, “The End”?

Pure, orgasmic bliss.

Nothing feels better than finishing a story, and it’s that feeling that keeps me writing on days when I’m tempted to set aside the manuscript I’m working on and start writing something shiny and new.

Thing is, I didn’t always have the kind of discipline needed to go that extra mile and finish a project. Know what it took to actually FINISH a story? I entered a contest, and when I won, I had to submit the entire manuscript. I did finish, and though that manuscript didn’t sell, I got some excellent feedback from the editor.

And I got the added bonus of getting that I-Finished-The-Story high. Before that, I’d started about a million stories, none finished.

So if you’re like me, you get sick of a project and want to start something new, keep in mind that the words “The End” are some of the most satisfying words ever.

Now get to writing. I want you to write The End.

Go. Now.

If you’re like me, you feel guilty when you don’t write every day — even if you didn’t write because you spent your time doing something writing-related, like research.

If you’re like me, you feel so guilty about not writing that you don’t take time off in order to recharge your batteries, not even when the writing is going badly.

By badly, I mean that you struggle with every word. You’re blocked and you can’t figure out what’s wrong with your plot. You can’t connect with your characters. You spend every waking moment trying to figure out how to fix your story…and you come up blank.

Challenges like NaNo and Sven, while wonderful for productivity, don’t always help with the guilt factor. No, I’m not knocking any kind of challenge that forces you to meet goals and write, but what I’m saying is that sometimes you have to step back and get some perspective.

That happened to me recently. I was doing well on the challenge, getting my 1,000 words/day. Then I hit a wall. I didn’t know where I was going with my plot, didn’t know what was going on with my conflict. But darn it, I had 1,000 words a day to write, and I was determined to do it, even if what I was writing was crap.

But…but…crap is good, because you can fix crap on a page, but you can’t fix an empty page, right? Right???

Er, not always.

Sometimes, forcing yourself to write will lead not to fixable crap, but to the wrong direction, which means you might have just wasted your time and will have to rewrite half the book because you didn’t step back and take the time to recharge your batteries, to get some perspective.

Last weekend, I was at that point. Writing just to get the words but not sure where I was going - and every word was torture…it could take all day to get my word count. So it killed me, but I took several days off. I watched movies, read novels I’d been putting off because I’m on a deadline, and I read craft books.

Once the “pressure to perform” was gone, suddenly, I was bombarded with ideas and directions to take my story. The craft books gave me ideas. The novels gave me inspiration. The movies…well, they gave me a fat butt because I just sat there like a mindless lump with popcorn.

Still…the batteries filled up, and when I got back to the challenge, I was pumping out over 2,000 words in a quarter of the time it was taking me to write 1,000 before the break. I made up my word count in no time.

So if you are like me, someone who experiences such massive guilt when not writing that you push through the word count NO MATTER WHAT, keep in mind that sometimes, NOT WRITING is more productive than writing crap that takes you in the wrong direction.

Recharge the batteries every once in a while. In the long run, your writing will benefit.

“The story is not in the plot but in the telling.”

“The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.”

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”

“Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

“Writing is the flip side of sex– it’s good only when it’s over.”