Four: I can't think of something clever.

One of the weirdest parts about freelance writing isn't the writing -- though that can get pretty weird -- it's the shift. The in-between. The frantic re-wiring of your brain to move your imagination, your tone, your thought process from one genre to another.

It's very different writing about a flashy, Akira-esque, motorcycle gang (complete with elves and magic, not just chipped reflexes and flashing neon, because Shadowrun is Shadowrun), and writing about...uhh...well, really, writing anything else at all. Generic science fiction with a military flair? Way different pacing, way different dialogue, way different vibe (though cocky fighter pilots could get pretty close, I suppose). Medieval wizards? They're all candlelight holding off the gloom, not flash and chrome. Steampunk? Again, there's some machinery, but a very different attitude, a very different flair. High fantasy? Not many motorcycles there, not the same focus on glare and glitz, on spikes and swagger.

Everything's different. The RPG game you're playing is on a different wavelength than the anthology piece you're writing, which is on a different wavelength than the pitch you're working on to try and get your next assignment, which is on a different wavelength than the tabletop wargame you're just getting into, which is on a different wavelength than any of the two or three tv shows you're shotgunning with your wife, gobbling up episode after episode, that makes you want to be writing something else.

And, of course, it's an entirely different tone to maintain a blog, to post on Facebook, to hammer something down to a Tweet, or to try and make a Patreon page.

It's not tough for me to get my creative wheels spinning, it's tough to point them all in the same direction.