Why do I say that? Because I’ve now had a little success as a writer, and there are times when the last thing I want to do is write.

Sure, once I fire up the word processor, that goes away. The trick is to be more interested in firing up Focus Writer 1.3.5.1 and getting to work, than I am in, say, seeing what comes up when I type laser spine institute into Google.

Of course, such distractions can sometimes compliment the writing task. For example, when I wrote SHADA, one night I got bored and not that motivated and I somehow got it into my head to find out what they called the sort of scientists who studied beetles.

I found the term and that led me to William Kirby’s Wikipedia entry and before you know it, I had my head filled with that stuff. So I integrated what I’d learned into making Willow a science nerd who’d like to speak to William Kirby, a man who died long, long ago.

But more often than not, distractions are no more than that: distractions. What more can I come up with to put off clicking on that handy word processor icon?

There’s no easy answer to that. A person just has to ride out such ennui, usually by clicking on the word processor icon and getting to work. There’s not much else that works.

It’s a nice step that shows that MOST LIKELY is nearly done and ready to debut. I have a group of beta-readers and an editor who read like almost an all-stars list of who’s who on Kindleboards.com. Quite pleased with the group that agreed to give me feedback. I’m hoping they find the weaknesses I’m blind to, so I can fix them before I unveil the book to the world at large.

I’ve been busy already, since Shabbat expired, signing up for a CreateSpace account so that there can be a print version of MOST LIKELY available. I’m also working on cover candidates and considering hiring out some help on that if I don’t love what I come up with myself. Stock photos can only get you so far, after all.

While some writers like to bask in the glow of an accomplishment like this, I’m raring to get going on the next project. As a full-time writer, I don’t have a lot of time to bask in accomplishments; I have to keep producing the next big release, and that’s exactly what I intend to do, even if taking a week off and trying out some adapexin-p to drop a few pounds might be more satisfying.

Some of us are morning writers. Early risers by nature, we’re at our best when well-rested and clear-headed. We have energy to spare and it’s best to bottle at least some of that into our fiction-crafting efforts.

That’s not me, though. I’m the opposite.

I’m a night-writer. (And no, my word processor isn’t named KITT.)

Whenever I try to motivate myself to write in the morning, that’s when I feel the most muddled. It’s when I produce work that needs the most surgery in the rewrite process.

No, I’m at my best when the bulk of the day is behind me and the house quiets down and I can sit in front of my computer screen and type without any worries about walking the dog, or how long it is before I need to leave for work, or whatever else gets in my way during the daytime. (I’m not going to list them all off specifically, obviously… but it’s the stuff of daily living.)

So, yeah, I do my best writing at night. Then, creatively satisfied after a good writing session, I almost always fall asleep right away.

Whatever works for you works for you. But for me, night-writing is definitely the more productive path. It’s just how I’m built.

However, I sometimes wonder if writing about subjects as varied and obscure as locating the best blackhead remover really helps my novel-writing. I’ve sort of decided that it does.

Here’s how: When I’m working on a novel, writing more than 1,000 words feels like a really productive day. If I do that three times a week and end up with 3,000-plus words of forward progress, I feel as though I’ve really accomplished something.

But then I’ll sit there with a lot of blogging to be done and in a one or two day period, I’ll churn out 20 to 30 blog entries over my collection of blogs. The average word count on these entries is rather high; I average at least 120 words per post, and it’s not unheard of for me to get on a rant and churn out entries that are between 250-500 words.

So at minimum, I am producing 5,000 to 15,000 words of blogging in the course of a couple days worth of effort, two to four times a month. That’s a lot of writing.

So that shows me that 3,000 words in a week is really no big shakes. I’m capable of a lot more.

Then again, blogging is merely tossing down whatever I’m thinking about in a given moment. There’s no characters to understand and portray, no motivations to fathom, no plot twists to craft believably. It’s more like a journal entry.

And that’s OK. But if blogging has taught me anything lately, it’s that I could push myself a little bit harder as a novelist, even with all those extra considerations.

It’s enough to make a person wonder if an online nursing degree might help me diagnose my condition better. Probably not. I suspect I’ll be over this by the time I’d studied that much.

Anyway, I’ve written less than 1,000 words so far this week, so I’ll need a productive weekend to really get past all this and meet my goal. You can follow my struggles more closely over on my author’s blog.

Oh, and I hear there might be good money in an online nursing degree, even in this economy, so younger writers might take heed of that if they’re not that serious about writing.

The real question there is whether it would be a solid option, or whether I’d be robbing myself of a print-publishing contract. And to be honest, I think it could work even better for my fiction than for my religious writing.

Why?

Well, there are TONS of mystery and suspense fans out there. The market is HUGE.

Whereas for my religious writing, the market is thin, admittedly.

The comparison is like a couple sit-ups next to full, 20-minute ab workouts.

And there are stories of authors who landed agents and book deals off the exposure afforded them by digital publishing.

Worthy of thought…

Now, the fact that my novels will feature a Messianic protagonist rather than a conservative rabbi is one element of uniqueness; however, it must go deeper than that.

For one thing, I would want my novels to still be a bit lighthearted. Sure, a series based on a Messianic rabbi is going to be a bit more sober than a series focusing on a crime-solving pizza delivery boy with a ghostly sidekick, but that doesn’t mean the novels have to have a strong theological tone; people read mysteries, I believe, to get enthralled with characters, not to hear a Torah commentary.

So, Messianic rather than conservative? Check. A bit funnier? Hopefully. Wrinkle treatments? Huh?

A good start?

Not yet…

Yet for complete comfort, I am still lacking one thing: I need a more comfortable chair for when I’m at my desk. The chair I’m using is OK, but isn’t comfortable for long stretches of writing. It’s a plain, wooden, straight-back chair that lacks even a cushion.

I’m hoping to save up a bit for a cushioned office chair that doesn’t cost too much. Maybe by May?

I started this current novel over 18 months ago, when I first learned my mother was stage four in her cancer and we’d be losing her soon. I suppose it was a bit of an escape, as well as a way of coping with the looming loss.

Which is odd because the novel doesn’t really deal with grief directly, and its theme is actually rather light and breezy, even though death is a major part of the novel – it being, of course, a mystery novel.

I suppose in some ways, enough time has gone by that I am coping with Mom’s death better these days and the novel is less therapeutic than it started out to be. But I really do hope to get back on track soon; considering why I started it, I’d love for this project to turn into my first published novel, so I can dedicate it to my Mom.

It’s been rare to have either, let alone both, lately. Yet that is certainly the way I’d most like to spend my time in the evening when my wife and I go to our corners to wind down before sleep. I’m spending a lot more time lately in the evening with my father and my wife, and I love it; but in the late evening hours, I do want more time to write, and a PC that doesn’t hold me back from doing so.

Is that too much to ask?

Trouble is, I’m really full of ideas for my novel right now; but with my laptop as slow as it is and my desktop constantly in for repairs, it’s just hard to find the time.

Of course, I’d have more time to write if I didn’t take time to pray; but my prayer life has to come before my writing life, or the writing I do becomes worthless to me.

Yet I do quite look forward to digging back into the world I’ve created for this novel. For those interested in suspense, there’s a lot of tension; for those interested in a supernatural touch, there’s a haunting; for those looking for disability appeal, they’ll be interested in Zach’s parents. There’s a lot to like about the cast of characters I’m assembling.

I just wonder if they’ll mind having the holidays off?