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By Friday I was fried. When the muse hits this hard, you either finish the book in an exhausting rush, or you have a few days of fallow time. Since I haven’t hit two hundred pages yet, there was no way to finish the book, so by Friday, my imagination was tired. I did the social thing, which seems to refresh me lately more than hibernating. Charles dropped by and we all visited. Then Friday night was my writing group. Always good to see everyone. But even seeing some of my very best friends, and enjoying the evening, I was still tired. As Richard, no not the character, pointed out if eight pages was my minimum, I’d done about ten days worth of work in two. I guess I had a right to be tired. But part of what buoyed me up for all those pages was how long I’d been waiting to write these particular scenes. Edward, Richard, a new Marmee Noir scene. They’d been in the works, or hopeful works, for awhile. It was like have a very big, strong dog on the end of a leash and finally letting go. The next scene, the one where I stalled, was a new character being introduced. She’s been in a sticky note on my wall for a few months, but she certainly doesn’t have the history and the weight of knowledge behind her. Even on paper I prefer old friends, old lovers, people I know. I’ve never been that enamored of the first blush of any relationship. It only gets really good to me when you can dig down and find out what people really are, dig down and truly know them. I don’t know this character yet, not really. I have notes, but they, as other characters have taught me, my best intentions can get thrown to the wind by a character that comes to life on paper. If I get a chance I’ll make some notes today, but the higher priority is to exercise, and socialize with friends. We’ll see if the book’s momentum suffers from the break. It usually does, but since I’m always working, I need to figure out a way to balance work and recreation.