A good many writers will tell you that they just cannot stand to not write. They started writing when they were six years old, write a thousand words a day every day, and apparently derive their sense of worth from the act of putting words on paper.

I am not that sort of writer.

I can gladly go months between projects if I just don't feel like writing, and feel none the worse for it. I'm not talking about some sort of "writer's block" where the words just won't come, even though I want to write -- I mean I just don't feel like writing every day. To tell you the truth, I'd much rather curl up with a good book by some author who is much better than I'll ever be, and just read for the pleasure of it. It doesn't make me feel guilty to abandon my own writing for awhile if I'm doing something else I like. Oh, I can always force myself to sit at the keyboard and produce words, but frankly, I can find better things to do with my time than crank out work I probably won't sell just to say I write some arbitrary number of pages every day.

No, I don't sit around waiting for some elusive muse to strike either. I'm not generally at a loss for story ideas, and when I'm in the right frame of mind to apply the butt to the office chair, I've got my files of ideas already waiting for me to pick something to work on. I'm a deliberate writer, but I'm not a rabid one.

OK, so some of you may have heard that true writers are born writers, and must write every day, and devote themselves fully to their art. I think it's a crock, actually. I'm not a full-time writer, and the fiction work is not paying the rent, so I don't have to write. I do it because I like the sense of accomplishment, and the process of creating something perhaps slightly original. I also enjoy playing tennis, but I don't fool myself with the notion that I could be the next Pete Sampras. These are just things I do for fun.

So, am I an underachiever, or what? Well, I have sold a fair amount of short fiction to "professional" venues. I believe I could (and probably will) write a salable novel one day, but we're not talking Stephen King numbers. Like the tennis, it's just something I do, but I don't need to do to feel good about myself.

Other writers will feel differently. They have their rules to follow. Some of them will be better writers than I.