Oh Joy, Joy! Where Art Thou?

It's been at least three weeks since I've done any writing. I've used my kids as an excuse (summer vacation, and it's a good one) and I've blamed "writers block", but the real truth is I haven't wanted to write.

I'm not too worried, this has happened before and what cured my bland attitude towards writing was to take a break.

When you work on a novel, especially your first, it can take a long time. A lot of hours of writing, rewriting, revising, editing etc... so it can burn you out. You can forget why you write. Somehow, it stopped being fun, and just became something else on your endless to-do list that needed to be done. More work.

Now, if you want a profitable career in writing then, to some degree, it is work. It takes discipline to sit in front of a computer for hours when you'd much rather be doing something (anything?) else.

But, somewhere inside you there needs to be a spark of joy, or a sense of accomplishment. Something that makes you return (even after a break) to writing. Especially when you don't have to do it.

So, you tell me, what do you do to jump-start your writing? What do you do when you've lost the joy?