Alright...this is for our authors out there who have a whole lot of talent...talent for DAYS...but, as we all know...life sometimes gets in the way. Trust me, I know.

Sometimes we get busy. Sometimes we get sick. Sometimes...every day is not a happy, happy, day and we need time to heal, grieve, or recharge. It happens. Hell, sometimes we just catch a hint of the 24 hour ‘slacker flu’ and want to play couch potato every now and then. Hehehe, I’ve definitely done it myself on a number of occasion, and why waste my breath apologizing for it? It’s GOOD to unplug every now and then and stop staring at a screen for so many consecutive hours in a row. If any of you guys need a break, then take a break. It’s cool! It’s not like fireballs are going to drop out of the sky and destroy all of humanity if you decide to walk off the job every now and then to keep yourselves sane!

(Ummm...unless your job is to keep fireballs from dropping out of the sky and destroying all of humanity! In which case...yeah, we kinda need you to stay put!)

A decent break, even an extended hiatus, is needed every now and then. You can’t write your way through fatigue. You just can’t. A lot of people simply don’t understand how mentally and emotionally draining it can be to write a well crafted story. Even PHYSICALLY exhausting, sitting in the same chair, often with bad posture, trying to pour your heart into the lives of fictional people with the hopes that anybody out there will care when you’re finished. And, you know what? Sometimes they won’t. And even if they do, they probably won’t say anything where you can see it. So what’s the point, right?

When that kind of thinking starts to invade your mind...it gets easier and easier to find excuses to not write anything at all. Instead of feeling like you’re sharing something special with a thankful audience and possibly working towards some sort of reward for your efforts...you begin to think about how much work you’re going to have to put in. You start thinking about nasty comments, or being ignored completely, or how you’ve got better things to do with your time...and, like most humans would, you take the road of least resistance...and you end up putting it off until later.

When is ‘later’? It starts off as a few hours. Then a few days. Then a few weeks. Then a few months. And before you even realize what had happened to the drive you had towards the story that you were once so eager to write and share with the rest of the world...you end up tossing it in a random corner of your mind to get cold and moldy without ever going back to it again. And you know what? That’s a shame. It really is.

I speak from experience when I say that I have countless stories that I wish I had pushed myself to continue and finish while the ‘iron was still hot’, as they say. And I’ve made plans to continue those stories and really working hard to get them to blossom in the way that I had originally intended...but it will never be as spontaneous and inspired as a project like it was when I first shot off like a rocket and tackled it head on. So many missed opportunities. And even now...I’ve got so much going on in my real life and with the stuff that I’m doing online, I highly doubt that I’d have the time to really make those stories what they could have been years ago. I doubt that I’d have the courage to take the same chances, or make the same literary choices that I would have back then. BUT...I’m not leaving any of my stories unfinished if I can help it. And I am attacking them with a fury that I’ve never had before. It feels pretty good to honest.

Here’s the thing...

When I first started writing, I was crossing my fingers in the hopes of maybe getting a few replies here and there. Just something to say, “Hey! I put myself out there, I did my best, and some folks really liked it!” Obviously, the responses that I began to get from that one story began to overwhelm me within the first few days. And as I wrote more chapters, and then other stories as well...they just kept coming. I was baffled by this, but I had sooooo many ideas that I wanted to turn into stories of their own, that I was filling up whole notebooks with stuff that I had in my head. But what really got to me was when I started answering all of the emails that I was getting at the time.

Some of them were so young, you know? Boys just like me when I was their age...just wishing that I had stories like the ones I had seen on Nifty or had written myself. I mean, the responses weren’t just, “Omigod! That was so hot!” Many of them were more like, “Thank you! I wish I had a boyfriend like that!” They were from people telling me about how they grew up, some of them my age, many younger, some older...and things grew from there. Even though I was treating the earliest stories on my site as donations of slightly ‘elaborate porn’, there was a growing majority of people who saw it as much more than that. I began to talk to them through email, made some life long friends, and I began to realize that I wasn’t just creating jack off material online. Teens were reading my stuff and coming out to their friends and parents, some found boyfriends, some older readers found companions online, some were passing the stories on to others so they could enjoy them as well and maybe benefit from them as well. And that truly meant a lot to me. You have no idea.

Basically, what I’m saying with this article is...get back on track, you guys! If you’ve given up on your writing...ask yourself if you still have any gas left in the tank. You know? I totally understand if you’re not really the writer type. I understand if it’s less than a hobby for you, and you just had a phase that has passed and you’re done with it. And some of you reading this may have no desire to ever write (Or share your writing) with anybody, ever. That’s cool, and it’s totally up to you. But I’ve learned, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that somebody out there in the world is in desperate need to hear EXACTLY what it is that you have to say! Nobody else is going to reach them the way that you can. Whatever stories and hidden treasures that you’ve got in your head and have been hiding away from the rest of us or procrastinating and claiming that you’ll just do it tomorrow...that message could change somebody’s life. It really can.

Sounds wild, doesn’t it? But it’s the truth. Hear me out...it’s the TRUTH!

What’s the issue? Ask yourself the question and be honest with the answer. If you’re not a writer, that’s fine. But if you really DO want to write, and just don’t? Then why not? Why not? Look at me...hehehe...why NOT???

What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for life to stop and give you a chance to breathe? It won’t. No matter what you do or how hard you work to finish whatever it is that’s keeping you from writing a new chapter, or just a few new pages...life will always be there waiting on you. The Earth won’t stop spinning. Are you busy at work? Work will always be there. Don’t feel like it? Writer’s block? No new ideas? I mean...you know that sounds like a lame excuse, right? Let’s be honest. You’ve had the same stale ideas in your head for how long now? And you won’t type them out. What’s stopping you?

Me, personally...I realize that I happen to be a hopeless insomniac, and I wouldn’t expect that from anyone else. People need sleep. They need to relax sometimes. We all do. But it doesn’t mean that I have any more hours in the day than you guys do. Even when I had a full time job, writing was a discipline that I indulged in. Never too busy, never too tired. I might not be able to FINISH something that I was working on, but only because I was literally falling asleep on the ‘zzzzzz’ button and had to go to bed. ::Giggles::

And that’s what it boils down to. Discipline. If you find your passion lying dormant within you from lack of use or inspiration, then ask yourself why. What made you want to write in the first place? It’s ok if you decide that it’s not for you. No problem with that. But for those of us who really WANT to write and keep strengthening the habit we have to avoid doing so...what are we doing? What’s going on here? Seriously.

So...if this is sort of where you find yourself, and want to make an attempt to get back into writing again but are unsure why you feel stuck or uninspired...try to keep these three steps in mind to maybe get yourself back in gear. Nothing major, but you might be surprised how quickly and effectively these soft pushes can get you to start up all over again. K?

Number one is very simple...read your notes! If you have any, that is. Me, personally, I always have notes that I have easy access to whenever I need them. Plans that I had in mind for the story when I started, where I left off, where I was going with my ideas...character names, plot points, eye and hair color, physical attributes, etc. Not only does it act as an instant refresher of the story itself, but it often reminds me of what got me so eager and excited to write the story in the first place. It works to put me back in the same frame of mind. Now, I know that many of you guys have stories that you might have started a number of years ago, and it seems like it’s been way too long for you to pick them back up now. And it can be disheartening to fall between the cracks of continuing that story and looking at all the hard work you put into it when you started. But just...read through it again. There was a spark of something that caused you to sit down at your keyboard and start writing it in the first place, right? Well...what was it? Find the spark. The fuel is the easy part. Reconnect with whatever it was that you had to say back then, and use that to get those rusty wheels turning again.

Number two? Finish up with all of your other activities! ALL of them! What do I mean when I say that? I’m telling you to relax and remind you that this is your show. You can write or not write whenever you feel like it. But when you pick a night to sit down and make it happen...get all of your distractions out of the way. You want to watch a movie or binge a TV series? Do it. Feel like playing a video game? Do it. It’ll be ok. Go walk the dog, put the kids to bed, spend quality time with your boyfriend, go grocery shopping, cook dinner...whatever it is that you have to do that day...go do it. Have FUN doing it! Even if it’s just watching videos on Youtube or engaging in a healthy stalking of your friends on Facebook...indulge in it and take some time to enjoy it. You see...the thing is...when you try to force yourself to write, your brain goes into this really annoying mode where it comes up with a thousand excuses as to why you shouldn’t be writing right now! Haven’t you noticed it yet? You try to sit down, and all of a sudden it’s like...’Well, as soon as I take out the trash...’ or ‘I should really wash the dishes first’ or ‘I need a cup of coffee to get in the mood’. Spoiler alert...all of that is bullshit. Hehehe! But it’s ok. It really is. Live your life. Have fun, relax, get yourself into a happy place where you don’t feel pressured or intimidated by the task at hand. Get all of your distractions out of the way so when you sit down to start writing...you can feel good about it. You know? You had a pleasant day all to yourself, did everything that you wanted to do...and now you have time to write. It doesn’t have to be a whole lot. Write a little bit. See where you left off...and then continue from there. It doesn’t have to be 100 pages worth of hard work. Just think of the next logical progression in your story, and then finish off a single thought. It might be a few pages, it might be a few paragraphs, it might only be a couple of sentences...but take your story to the next step by completing a single thought that will lead towards the next impactful scene of your story. You’ll be surprised how quickly that can get those creative juices flowing freely again and re-ignite that passion for a story that you thought you were better off giving up on.

And the third tip? DON’T beat yourself up over how long it’s been since you’ve written your last chapter! Speaking from personal experience...I doubt that there’s anything more intimidating than the realization that it has been sooooo very long since you’ve written anything on that particular story, or anything at all in some cases. I know that it’s going to rattle around in the back of your brain for a while, but you’ve just got to do what you can to silence that voice so you can create something awesome. I mean...I get it. People won’t even remember where you left off, and you don’t know if you’re the same person now that you were when you started. And I know that you dread having to hear all of the ‘It’s about TIME!’ comments when you share it with your readers! Hehehe! But find a place in your mind and in your heart where none of that matters...and get back to work by isolating yourself in that space so you can concentrate and think clearly for whatever amount of time it takes for you to get back to business. K? Easier said than done...but keep going. It works. Trust me, I know!

Anyway...follow those three tips, and stop putting your talent off for tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow! Each one of us has a story to tell the world, and the world will be missing something if we don’t do our part and share the light that we’ve all got within us. Don’t you want people to know your story? It costs you nothing. But it might be someone else’s saving grace in the grand scheme of things. So why not let your voice be heard? Right?

As I’ve always said in the past...somebody out there needs to read the exact story that YOU have to tell! Nobody else...but you specifically. And you’re gonna deprive them of that to watch TV? Hehehe, you suck for that. Just saying...

I hope this helps you guys to get those engines revved up and you all start writing again! We all have hard times, we all get busy, we all get tired...but our art and our creativity will outlive us all. We owe it to everybody reading to share a piece of ourselves with them. That’s how I feel about it, anyway. Best of luck! And happy writing!

Stop reading this and go write something, dammit!!! LOL!