These are times that try men's car batteries (women's too, but hey, it's not my line to begin with). Trying to jump-start my brain this morning, as well. I know I've already been here at work for an hour and a half, but all I've been doing is staring blankly at my monitor while I graze the web. At least I got some editing done last night - I'm about halfway through the second draft of my short story, and I'm happy that I'm still liking what I wrote, by and large. I was worried for a little bit that I'd pick it up after letting it sit for a week or so and find it dreadful, but no. I hope to have a finished second draft by the weekend. Meanwhile, I've been spending my commuting time hammering out the first chapter of a novel I've been kicking around in my head for years. It's too early to go into details, but Chapter One is now over four thousand words, and I think the end is in sight. After I finish this chapter, I might play with another short story idea, if only to avoid burnout from working on the same thing day after day, though it may be hard to stop myself from plowing ahead, as I'm starting to feel that same sense of gathering momentum that I had when I'd found my groove with the first story. We'll see. I've been dormant as a writer for so long that I have a backlog of inspiration stretching back to 1990! If only I could sit down for a good, uninterrupted fortnight and get as many of those ideas out of my head as possible, I might feel better about giving my undivided attention to the novel. But things being as they are, I'm going to have to wear as many authorial hats as I can manage for the time being. Which is still a million percent better than not writing anything at all, mind you.