Writing highs, spiritual highs

"Dr. Jones, what's wrong with me? I feel on fire inside."
"I am afraid to say, you have a high."
"Which kind?"
"Spiritual."
I jump off the hospital bed and dance around, singing "Amazing Grace" at the top of my lungs.
"I am on fire for the Lord!" I run up and say, "Jesus loves you!" to Dr. Jones and rush out of the room. To every person I see for the next three days, they all get a "Jesus loves you!" and kind actions. And then one day, I wake up a bam! spiritual high is no more. I still love God, and I still am as kind as I can be, but nowI am not the nice, peppy, lovely person I was with the spiritual high. Life goes back to normal.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves spiritual highs. Spiritual highs. The stuff Christians crave to keep them loving God. For about three days you are a dedicated Christian. You are on fire for God and no one is going to stand in your way! Then you wake up one morning and you are no longer a top notch Christian, you're only average. (Click here to watch the best video on spiritual highs! I laugh every time!)

So why am I talking about spiritual highs? 'Cuz I have a high. A writing high. That's right, for about three days, ideas and words are plenty, and I complete more chapters in those three days than in a week. Your work sounds sooooo much better, and you consider yourself a fully fledged author. And then, the inevitable...

It leaves. And then you write about a paragraph every day, if even. And those paragraphs are stiff and formal, and stereotyped like crazy. Then about a week later, you fix onto a normal writing routine, your writing is back to how it was.

And then, it strikes again. This time in a different form: Creativity high. Your characters are real, living, breathing. Your writing is decent, your plot rocks, your characters superb, your words aren't beyond what a thesaurus can't fix.  All in all, your a pretty awesome writer with epic plots. Life is good.

Your stories take on unexpected turns that are new and original. You start bragging a bit, referencing your blog to others and even work up the courage to email your favorite author. People start commenting things like, "You're a New York Times bestseller!" "Waiting for more!" "Emailed my favorite author a link to this!" You get your ego up, posting more adventurous things like, "What makes a good author?" or "When am I gonna get published?" You even send a publisher a copy of your story. For a while, you are at the top of the author food chain. And then,

It leaves.

You once again return to a normal writing style, people stop commenting, you stop emailing your favorite author. Life is normal. You write less and your blog posts are more like, "My favorite authors" or "Why my books aren't so great" and stuff like that.  Your story is still awesome, just a bit tedious and drags out for pages after it should've ended.

And then, a week later, you get a call.
"Hello. Publisher speaking."
"Hi."
"Is this Ima Author?"
"Yes!"
"We enjoyed your book, but it needs work. Once you redo it, we'll look at it again and maybe publish it. Have a nice day, Ima Author!"

You are on top of the world. Your writing highs last for four days now! And, they come every week! Its manna and quail from God. You thank him for this wonderful opportunity. And then, bam! you have a spiritual high. Life is awesome.

Then it just keep going in a cycle. Write a really good paragraph= writing high. Writing high=spiritual high. Spiritual high= really good paragraph. :) So you are stuck in what I call, the High cycle. You get a high, wich leads to a different high, wich leads to a different high, wich leads to the original high. Repeat x∞ (∞ is infinity) So life is at it's highest.

You write, then you get hit in the gut. The publisher won't publish kids. You cry. Whoosh! Status of spiritual high, gone. Status of writing high, gone. Status of all highs belonging to Ima Author, disappeared. Life is hard.

But you know what's coming.

A week later, the High cycle strikes again. And stay tuned for the sequel: My High is Higher Than Yours.

Happy Writing!
Scarlet