Take A Break...?

For accountability. I'll be making a more conscientious effort with the blog from now on. Expect to read more of these missives on creativity, more art-related posts, etc. 

Striking realization--I've written two novels, and it's only April. I'm not saying this to brag or boast or whatever, but out of (seemingly) nowhere, If the Dress Fits turned into the first book of a series of interconnected books a la Mina's Chic Manila series. I don't know when yet, but soon you'll hear me talk about a Broadway story where a main actress and an managing director fall in love and even later on, a woman struggling to keep her bakery afloat while a business major swoops in to Gordon Ramsey her whole situation.

It's exciting and fun, and these books have gone through a long thought process for me--they've showed up in notebooks as half-baked ideas and full outlines before they were scrapped and rewritten. I've second guessed myself on this so many times now that I can't even count. Right now they're in the hands of other people who will determine its fate. For now I'm told to sit, relax and have cake. 

But here's the funny thing. I can't. 

I want to write more. I honestly don't know how to turn my brain off from writing. 

For a twentysomething with limited social life and a laptop, I don't want to stop. I already have a third idea half-baked in my brain, and I promised myself this would be the year I try to write my Stealing Luna story IF another thing doesn't pan out. Right now I'm distracting myself, forcing myself to take a break from all the writing by working on more artistic pursuits (hello, lettering my old friend). I want to tell myself to take time to refresh and mull things over a little longer before barreling into another story like a bull in a china shop. 

I go through this a lot. It's become my new and usual process in the last couple of years since I started writing (or even longer, because back then I was writing fic). I write something, agonize over it and type like crazy for a month or two and then while it's out in the void, I desperately find other things to distract myself with shopping or watercolor, etc. etc. Then I would get another idea and start all over again.

Is that healthy, I wonder? 

I'd love to hear about your creative process. What do you do when you're struck with an idea? Is there an idea that's still stuck in your head? How do you deal?