I've been trying to push through being sick and get my writing done, but when you have the flu that's hard to do. Your body hurts, your head throbs, and you alternate between having drenching sweats and teeth chattering chills. It's hard to do more than lay in bed and let it have you.

It's Saturday and today is one of the first days I've actually felt like writing in a week. I went out Wednesday and Friday for a little bit, but eventually it took me back and threw me in bed.

So how do you keep working on something you love when your body won't cooperate with you? That's a hard one. Some of us have more tolerance for pain and sickness than others. I can put up with a lot of pain. But when the chills come, I'm in bed. If you can't get up, don't beat yourself up over it and stay in bed. It's more important for you to feel better than to get those three pages knocked out every single day.

But if you can do it, then try. I'm a strong believer in taking care of yourself before anything else. I never got the flu like this until I had Mono really bad when I was twenty. Now I get it bad and more than once a year.

The only other option is to take your laptop to bed with you and try to write between the sweats and chills. If you do that, you're a much better person than I am.

This is what I'm calling my Nanowrimo hangover. I worked and worked to make that word count. When it all seemed hopeless and pointless and I wasn't sure I'd make it, I chugged it out. I sat down and made it happen. That energy and drive abandoned me as soon as December came.

How do you get out of a Nanowrimo hangover? You make yourself do something. For me, this has been a lot of reading (books! What wonderful creations that I forgot existed in the last month), especially in mythology, and I've been watching a lot of science fiction. That means Star Wars, the new Star Trek movie, Transformers, Terminator, and Underworld. I've also been listening to a lot of Shinedown, Muse, and Lady Gaga to get the juices flowing. It's starting to work.

It's hard to go back to a story line you haven't touched in a month (or longer if you're like me and took a month long sabbatical before Nano started). It's hard to get back into the heads of the characters and back into the swing of a driving plot. I'm not one who likes to force myself to work. If it's there, I'll work. If not, then there's no way I'm forcing the plot out of my fingers. My writing stinks when I do that and I'd rather not put words on paper that I'm just going to delete later. So I'm letting myself be inspired.

There's great books out there about Star Wars and mythology. I'm going to the library tomorrow to check out a great standby book when I'm blocked: the Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (thanks NP for the suggestion last year). Sometimes I need to be reminded of the hero's journey and the various characters and steps involved in it.

To break your block, find what moves you. Music, books, movies, a cigarette on the back porch (that's if it's not 32 degrees outside like it is here), a great glass of wine, your dog. Whatever it is. Find it and let it speak to you.

I'm going to watch Optimus Prime beat on Megatron for a little while. Then I might be back in the mood to put some words down on paper.