My husband and I were having a very interesting discussion today. He said this would make a great post and I agree.

Have you ever tried to force yourself to be creative? Isn't that the worst thing you can do? I know some of my worst work has been done under the pressure to perform as it were. Then I go back in edits and ask myself how something so awful wound up in one of my works and I have to write the scene over again.

The whole point of being a writer is to be able to tap into something inside yourself that other people, normal people as it were, can't get into. We keep strange hours and think of bizarre things and make the librarians question our sanity when we check out various reading materials (I just checked out books on depression, infertility, and suicide along with the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel. The librarian looked at me like I needed help until I told her I'm a writer, then she seemed much more comfortable). It's not like writing fiction is a job with set hours (nonfiction might be different, but I don't know about that). That's the whole point.

Last night I got home from my part time job and wrote until after midnight. Then I got up this morning at 7 and wrote two more pages. I'll probably go home tonight and write two more. But that's only if I feel the need to write. If I don't feel it, I won't do it until tomorrow. And that's what this post is about.

I know I harp on writing three pages a day. Three pages a day, five days a week. That equals fifteen pages a week. You do that for ten weeks and you have 150 pages. If that's single spaced pages, you have a book right there. Prophecy was 152 pages single spaced before chaptering, and it's 440 now. After editing and formatting, you'd be surprised how long a book can be.

The biggest thing you can do for yourself is keep writing. Just keep writing. If you don't feel inspired, step back for a little bit. Listen to some music, watch a movie, read a book, take a walk. Then come back refreshed and ready to take on the world. But don't force it. Stifling your creativity is a bad idea.