Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Recharging Your Battery

I read an interesting post yesterday about things writers do when they aren't writing.

No, I'm not talking about laundry. Wait, was I supposed to be doing laundry? Oops, I forgot again. Oh well.

The point of the article was not laundry, or dusting or all the chores I'm ignoring at the moment, but rather that in order to keep writing, an author has to fill the creative well from time to time. (Clean houses are overrated anyway.)

The post is over at Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing, entitled "8 Ways to Write Without Ever Touching the Keyboard."

Julia Cameron talks about this at length in her wonderful book, The Artist's Way. How you need to schedule time for yourself, to make "artist dates" with yourself to go do things to recharge your battery and get your creative juices flowing anew.

My favorite thing to do wasn't listed (which of course I then had to post in the comment section, cuz I couldn't stop myself.)

Get outside. Go for a walk in the woods. Or on the beach. Or up the street. Or sit on the jetty and stare at the ocean. Or climb a tree if there's no ocean nearby to stare at.

Nature is full of inspiration just waiting to be soaked up by the likes of us writers.

Go soak some up.

Now, tell me. What's your favorite way to recharge your batteries?


4 comments:

  1. Long Drives, or just sitting at the river walk and watching people, it always recharges me, fills me with inspiration for the next scene or story.

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    1. People watching is a wonderful thing ;-) Although, I have to admit that I get annoyed by the summer tourists more often than not. They all seem to assume that everyone is on their vacation schedule...

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  2. When I need a good recharge I usually end up in the kitchen. I love experimenting with different recipes. Baking or cooking something new or taking an old favorite and doing something a little different with it. Always gets me back in the mood to tackle other things :)

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    Replies
    1. Baking cookies has always been one of my favorite stress-relievers. During high school and college, final exams always meant late-night baking ;-)

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