There are times in every writer's life when they need to step back and refill their creative juices.

Most of us can only write and create, filling all our possible writing time with words, for so long. It doesn't matter if the words flowed freely from brain to paper, or if each word written was hard won, recharging is a thing that everyone can use from time to time.

And don't get me started on the doldrums of editing when you've done three rounds and you feel like you'll never finish...



But recharging can look different for different people. So, I thought long and hard--or you know, at least 15 seconds--about how I spend my downtime and asked a few of my writing friends exactly what they do to recharge. Here are six of our answers:


Ben L says: "I write poetry, because it exercises my writing but in such a different way that it recharges me. Especially form poetry with lots of rhyming and rules, because then I can feel the freedom when I go back to prose. (This can just be limericks if you don't feel confident in sonnets or villanelles, but haiku doesn't help much, at least for me.)"
According to Patrick H., what he needs is something completely different. "I get entirely away from my creative process, usually via computer games. That's when my characters tell me they're tired and they need to stop working through drama." But he adds a caveat to that advice, to be careful what sort of games you're playing. "I had to stop playing Civ 3 because it was getting in the way of writing, though for a different reason. (Apparently, six-hour gaming sessions on high difficulty levels are tiring?)"

Kimberly B shares, "I find strolling through a bookstore or library helps invigorate me. It’s also really helpful to have other creative outlets that I have no pressure to be good at. Dancing used to be that for me, before we started performing."
Marti P? She says, "I like to search around on Pinterest, read good books in my genre & watch good movies."
Anup M likes to "treadmill or take a nap or simply keep it away for a day or two."
And me? Well, I like to binge watch Netflicks, read a few books in my massive to-read pile, and try to remember what the gym looks like.

How do you recharge?


P.S. If one eye looks off, I'm recovering from pink eye right now. But! I did manage to rough draft that new opening scene. Waiting on feedback now!