By the time I sat down to write last night at 9:30pm, my body and mind were telling me that staying up until 4am the night before was just not going to work with my current writing schedule. I forced myself to write for about ten minutes, and I realized that just wasn’t into it—my mind just wasn’t working well enough for me to care about the characters or the situation. I was hating the book.

So I ate dinner and then went to bed before eleven last night. And when I woke up at 2:30am, I felt completely different about the book. I stared at the ceiling for an hour—as I tried to go back to sleep—and the whole time I was thinking about how cool the book is to me.

It’s amazing what a little sleep and food can do for your outlook on life. I’ll have to chock that one down on how to keep a consistent writing schedule: Remember to eat and sleep!