Hey, you know what breaks a writer’s momentum?
The black plague.
OK, it was a really bad cold but it felt like SARS. (Remember that one?)
I got through Wednesday last week before every night ended with Nyquil. And I write in the morning. But with Nyquil, I wake up long enough to get a shower, make breakfast, and maybe grab a coffee on the coffee on the way to work. Thursday, my ex-RN wife ordered me to stay home. I managed to make it until 2 PM before fever and medication made that impossible.
I did manage to eek out a scene on Friday at lunch. But Saturday was family day, and the bug still managed wipe me out by four o’clock. Sunday, when I’m writing this, I got through most of the day fine, but did no writing. And now the stepson has it, and the mrs. is fighting it. She took some preemptive Nyquil to avoid anymore days off.
So it’s basically wake up early and start writing again. If I still lived alone, I don’t think this would have gone much better. My brain would have been good for little more than zoning out to Netflix. (Fortunately, the new season of MST3K dropped Thanksgiving weekend. And I’d probably have made it through Nightflyers or at least far enough to bail if it doesn’t improve soon.)
Sometimes, the brain needs a break. I’m not on a deadline, but while I want this done quickly and all of the Compact Universe into revision phase, it does not good to force myself to work unhealthy. Had I done that, I could have worked from home all last week.