When Inspiration Meets Reality

For the past couple of weeks, I've been inspired. I've been filling up pages and pages of notebooks, writing on napkins, on scraps of paper, on the palm of my hand. The muse keeps whispering in my ear (even if I don't necessarily believe in divine inspiration, the analogy works here). I can't say why but ideas have been screaming through my head, and I've been furiously trying to capture them. These are ideas about fiction, non-fiction, projects, and work. I guess I'm in flow.

Let me tell you, as a creative person, feeling like this is fantastic. That is, until the other shoe drops. The other show, of course, is reality.

Work is insane right now. I'm writing consistently on my other blog. I'm still working on my fiction for the 52 Short Stories experiment. I've committed to writing a couple of pieces a month for someone else's new project that I'll probably talk about in a couple of weeks. I woke up one morning this week and decided it was time to start working on a creative project that I've been kicking around in my head for close to five years (can't say anything about this yet, but it has me seriously pumped). Aside from that, I'm still trying to maintain a healthy social life and not become an eccentric shut in.

I've been working furiously at all of these projects, and here's the thing, I know that something is going to fall through the cracks.

And this is what's been bothering me. As a creative person, do I put the breaks on the flow of creativity and tell myself that I need to focus on just a few things to make them work, or do I need to embrace the flow while it lasts and tackle everything at once even though I know that's going to lead to some things getting neglected for short periods, become late, or not get the attention they deserve?

Seems like a straightforward and easy to answer question, but if you've ever been on a roll, you know how good it feels and how hard it is to stop. Maybe the secret to happiness and to creativity is never having a spare moment?

I'd love to get some feedback on this one. What should I do? Should I prioritize and put some projects on the chopping block or should I ride the wave for as long as I can, and deal with the wipe-out when it comes?