Need Help Refilling Your Creative Well? (Penny Rader)

Since we’re discussing our creative writing wells this month, I thought I’d poke around the Internet and see what sort of advice I could find. Below are snippets of a few articles I found.  I hope you’ll read the authors’ entire articles.

5 Ways to Boost Your Creativity --  And Generate More and Better Article Ideas (Linda Formichelli)

• Read magazines -- but not the ones you usually read.
• Get literary.
• Go away.
• Get outside.
• Find another way,

The Artist’s Date: Take Time To Refill Your Creative Well (Joanna Penn)

This idea comes from Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” which is a fantastic book. It is basically some time alone absorbing and refilling your creative well. It can be something entirely different, like a pottery class or a show, or could just be a walk or a new gallery exhibition. Anything that gives your brain some new stimulation and takes you away from your work in progress and your ‘normal’ life. It should be alone so you have time to reflect and can be an hour, a day or longer. (I am hankering after a writer’s retreat one of these days!)

How to Recover & Recharge from Creative Burnout (Alexia Petrakos)

• Dump it all out.
• Escape for a while. Leave your studio as it is, messes & all.
• Read a book. Make sure it’s something you enjoy, and not a self-help book.
• Take a walk outside.
• Sleep!

Don’t take too long recharging. Sometimes too much rest can lead to laziness.

How to Refill Your Creative Well (Cindy Barrilleaux)

For a couple of days or more, change your writing routine.  Instead of working on your manuscript, experiment with a variety of writing exercises. Do free writes, a la Natalie Goldberg, guided exercises, play around with poetry.  The main thing is to let loose, drop your inner editor, and write freely, unconcerned with results. After all, they’re only writing exercises.

Recharging the Creative Well (Linda Andrews)

• Look at art.
• Read.
• Stare at the stars.
• Cook.
• Scrapbook.
• Watch HGTV.
• Watch a movie, documentary, or TV show.
• Sew.
• Garden.
• Learn something new.

Refill & Recharge (Dani Wade)

• Artist Date
• Reward Day
• Go to the movies
• Girls Night Out
• Share a movie or game night with your family or some friends once every couple of weeks
• Minute Saviors – ideas that can take as little as 1 minute, or as much as 60.

Refilling the Well (Rox Delaney)

From WARA's own Roxann:

• Find a quiet spot to think or just "be"
• Spend time with friends, both writing and non-writing, especially ones I don't see often
• Sleep or take a nap without interruption
• Go outside and watch the clouds drift by
• Find a place away from the street lights--away from the city--to once again enjoy the beauty of the night sky
• Take a leisurely walk in the park, not for exercise or any reason other than the sheer joy of it
• Go to the park and swing
• Sit by the water and listen to the sounds it makes
• Find a new and unusual shop and explore
• Watch favorite movies for a full day

Refilling the Well (Mistina Picciano)

• Read fiction.
• Read about craft.
• Connect with other writers.
• Write anyway.

Refilling the Well (Kerry Schafer)

And so, I look for healing and refilling in the little things, in the odd moments scattered throughout the day. A picture that I love, hung where I see it every time I walk by. A hummingbird watching me hang out the laundry. A purring cat. A hug. Reading a great book. Talking to friends. Even just taking a moment to stand on my front porch barefoot, eyes closed, soaking in the energy from the world around me with every pore.

Ten Ways to Fill Your Creative Well (Catherine Castle)

• Visit nature.
• Take a long bubble bath.
• Read a book by an author you love.
• Get your favorite movie and watch it, dissecting it as you go.
• Meditate on your writing,
• Free write.
• Brainstorm with another writer about your story.
• Stuck for an idea? Read your Writer’s Market to come up with ideas.
• Read a writer’s magazine.
• Write an article for your blog, someone else’s blog or a newsletter

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Do you have any favorite way to refill your creative well?  I'd love to hear them.