Had a strange Monday last week. I’ve started writing for someone else and was dividing my time between writing for her and reading Prince Caspian for Mondayitis. I’d finished writing Mondayitis, not concentrating too well so I accidentally published it instead of scheduling it for Tuesday, when I realized it a few minutes later I fixed it then took a break as I figured I was probably in need of one. A couple of hours later my friend Mark tweeted me asking for a cure for Mondayitis, I figured he’d seen the appearance and then disappearance of Mondayitis on my blog and was teasing me about it but it turned out he really needed my help.

Mark is doing NaNoWriMo this month and was having writers’ block so turned to me for help. I told him what I was doing which was drinking coffee in front of an episode of Charmed, he decided Star Trek was for him and it must have worked as he ended up ahead of schedule.

Some literary giants get into writing mode by answering their mail and you can read a little about John Updike and Cynthia Ozick on Beattie’s Book Blog. Some people call it getting into the zone or changing from home to work. I’ve seen discussion on this topic from people who work from home, they say they need to have a clear delineation between the two and so they make sure they do something physical such as picking up their keys and walking around the block before going back inside and starting work, others do it by going to the gym.

Some people tell me they need to have a clear break before engaging their creative brain, others just talk about needing to get the creative brain in gear. I was thinking it’s a left brain, right brain thing with the right side being creative and the left dealing with logic but according to this article published on an unspecified date left brain/right brain theory has been debunked.