We never stop writing.  Writers are always writing whether we’re sitting in front of our computers or scribbling into notebooks or sitting in a coffee shop people watching or staring up at the clouds in the sky and daydreaming.  Our minds are constantly developing our next character or the plot of a new novel or even struggling with the wording of a single sentence.  We see people that strike a note and suddenly we have a character’s description that we can use in our book.  The person who is throwing a fit because the barista didn’t put the 2nd shot of espresso in his drink is going to be our protagonist’s jerky boss who obviously doesn’t need any espresso in his drink.  An overheard conversation sparks an idea for a conversation between 2 of our characters.  A flower blooming in a crack in the sidewalk inspires our next poem.  We, as writer’s, do not have a day of rest.  We are writing whether we’re physically writing, preparing our notes for the next section of our book, looking for inspiration, thinking about the direction our writing will take, etc….  Our writer’s mind is always engaged and people that aren’t writers will never fully understand that.  They may be 100% supportive of our endeavors and cheer us on but they will say things like, “you haven’t written a word in weeks”, or “stop eavesdropping on their conversation”, etc….  And it’s difficult to explain just how our minds are actually working during those times when the words aren’t flowing onto the page.  So, it’s important to keep on writing, whether it’s on the page or in our heads but we do eventually need to get those words and ideas out of our heads so we can share them with others.  We write for ourselves but most of us also do it in order to put it out into the world.  So remember, we are writers and we are always writing and, when the time is right, what is in our head will flow onto the page.  Sure, it might need a little push and a little or even a lot of editing but it’s important to actually get it out of our heads.  But, in the meantime, keep watching strangers, eavesdropping on conversations, observing nature, etc…, because that’s how we develop our ideas that will end up on the page.  And remember…we are always writing.

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” – Stephen King