Writer's High

I'm in withdrawal now from two weeks where I was soaring every day on a writer's high, trying to finish up a good draft of my forthcoming chapter book, Annika Riz, Math Whiz.  I have come to realize that there is nothing I love better than when I have a tight deadline on a children's book writing project, so that I am actually required to spend hours a day writing, writing, writing. 

In my twenties, I had a brief period where I was a runner.  That is hard for me to believe now, but it's true.  At the time I was working in New York City for Four Winds Press/Scholastic, commuting fifty miles each way from my little rented room in Princeton, NJ, so I had to do my running early in the morning, and on weekends.  I started each day with a run, and as I progressed as a runner, the runs became longer and longer.  It became easy to run five miles, and once I could run five miles, I felt as if I could run forever, if only time permitted, though I never tested that theory by training for a marathon or any similarly grueling distance.  But once I got past the two- or three-mile mark, the endorphins kicked in, and I could ran and run and run.

That's how I felt writing during the last half of July.  Once I reached the midpoint of the book, and I knew I was on the right track, I felt as if I could write forever.  The day after I finished the book and sent it off to my editor at FSG, I wanted to start the next book, Izzy Barr, Running Star.  But I couldn't, as alas now I have to do every single other work-related project that I neglected while writing Annika's book. 

I still get some small high from every project crossed off my to-do list, and fortunately, the more I dread a project, the greater the surge of exhilaration when I finally face the darned thing and DO it.  But the high of crossing off a Loathsome Task (LT) isn't the same as the writing high, or the running high.  After crossing off an LT, I don't think, oh, wouldn't it be lovely if I could cross off LTs forever!

So note to self: start Izzy's book as soon as you can.  Izzy loves to run the way you love to write.  Won't it be fun for the two of you to share that high together?