Since just before last Christmas I've been awfully busy, which is not a bad thing. Racing to meet deadlines can be exhausting but consider the alternative. Freelancers, like sharks, either keep moving or die.

Constant work, however, does not allow time for the sort of relaxed reflection I seem to need in order to write fiction or even essays or blog entries. Did I say "reflection"? "Woolgathering" might be a better term. You can't reflect upon ideas you haven't had yet.

Once you have an idea to hand you can elaborate on it, push it in this direction or that, polish it. If you don't have an idea -- a real, good, workable idea -- you end up elaborating, and pushing and pulling and polishing...words. And words are no substitute for ideas.