That's interesting! Because the long extension-of-canon fics I'm talking about, that sounds like what you write too, ARE relaxing to me; I don't feel right until I start writing them.

But I'm the opposite--just like you--when I'm writing a short character study piece. I have to be already relaxed to write it, and I don't feel and urge like I do with the above type of fics.

I think our different motives and drives to write are so interesting!