Sometimes as a writer you sit and think and struggle to form a cogent storyline in your head. The characters don't work, the premise seems clunky, you struggle to see the scenes or find the story's voice. Nothing seems to work, and your mind enters a dark place where you wonder if you will ever find your way through to the light at the far end of what becomes a steadily lengthening tunnel. You wake in the early hours of the morning convinced that the well of ideas has run dry.
And then… you complete the first draft of your new book, re-edit your first book to bring it up to date and to use a light brush to sweep away the more unsavoury elements of its theme, start planning and writing your next book, all at the same time as two other ideas – one old and one new – fight for space inside your head. You think something must leak out, so you frantically make notes which can only ever make sense to a similarly psychotic mind. And then you fret – no work is actively getting done as you toss these ideas around inside your head! You need to make progress, but you're getting bogged down in storylines and scenes and characters, blasts from the past which suddenly seem to work amidst the plethora of newcomers.
Frankly, it can all be a bit too much for one brain and one pair of hands to handle.