On Being Off
I have made it my habit always to take a few days off after completing a manuscript and before starting the next one.
Let me just say, I rather hate taking days off. I get snippy and irritable and my sleep suffers.
I manage my condition by telling myself that rereading the manuscript and making small corrections and emendations to polish it is a leisure activity unrelated to work. Then I try to watch some superhero show on Netflix or CW, up until the first or second time the show casually spits on the flag or tramples the cross or otherwise sticks its thumb in my eye, and I go back to tinkering with my manuscript.
(An aside: Where is Bruce Timm when we need him? By the dog, where is Joss Whedon? I do not mind flaming Lefties writing shows. I mind flaming Lefties who have left off writing writing shows. That was the point of Gamergate and Sad Puppies, for the same thing had happened to the Hugo Awards as has happened to games and to Marvel Comics. The flaming Leftist is a pirate, not a pilot, and would rather sink the ship in flames than see her home. End of aside.)
Taking days off may be a great idea for men with honest jobs, lumberjacks and toreadors, and others who do hard physical work and need time to recover their strength. But we who push ink for a living? Not so much.
Besides, NOWHITHER is waiting, not to mention my next weekly serial pulp.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
