Over at http://heydeadguy.typepad.com buddy, Jeff Cohen wrote about his writing “diet.”

He’s got a contracted book due and he figures if he writes 1,000 words a day he’ll be in good shape,

I try for 1,000 a day. However, when I have a magazine article to do I skip book stuff. When I write a section of my book and end up with 750 words I stop rather than write the beginning of the next section.

Jeff doesn’t. He writes 250 words of the next section.

Cohen has the discipline thing down and I hate him.

I can’t figure when to take a legit day off.  Wouldn’t it make sense to take a mental health day once in a while? How do you know when you’re due for one? How do you know it’s that evil beast procrastination?

Some days I write this instead of writing my novel. Some times the enemy of the best isn’t the worst–some times it’s the very good.

Okay, time to decide when to take a day off.

I declare that you skip a day when your instincts tell you to. That’s the best I got.

I’m trying to come up with a “once every ten days,” “once a week”,” three days a month,” “36 hours before the winter solstice” …nothing feels right.

You anything better?