The writing life is predominantly about putting your butt in your writing chair and doing the work.
However, taking some time to actually live life gives you something to write about. The word recreation comes from the root words of re and create meaning to re-create or to create again. So participating in recreational activities is not goofing off, but bolstering your creativity.
I took some time off yesterday to visit the Jax Zoo in Jacksonville, Florida with the hubs. The bright sunny day with a high of 85 degrees had me wondering if I'd slipped into a time warp and skipped ahead to May or June.
We admired the giant tortoise named Goober (a children's book title if I ever heard one) and discovered that some elephants are quite hairy--perhaps a throwback to their wooly mammoth ancestors?
But my "aha!" moment of inspiration arrived when we stopped by the vulture exhibit. One of these large birds was sunning himself beside the viewing area with his wings extended. And I realized that my fictional school for the supernaturally challenged didn't have any vultures. I snapped a photo to remind myself to work vultures into the novel, either as a pet, a school mascot or even a were-vulture.
But wait, my muse wasn't done yet. The next exhibit contained fruit bats. I'd never been able to find them during previous visits, but yesterday I finally noticed them hanging against the back wall of their area. One bat was awake and grooming itself like a cat! I didn't know bats did that! How cool, especially since my novel-in-progress has bats and vampires.
So going to the zoo gave me not one but two new bits of fun inspiration to weave into my novel.
And if you're still not sure if you should take a break from work to go do something fun, just remember Jack Torrance from Stephen King's The Shining typing pages and pages of: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Now go out there and recreate, after all, tomorrow's a holiday.
However, taking some time to actually live life gives you something to write about. The word recreation comes from the root words of re and create meaning to re-create or to create again. So participating in recreational activities is not goofing off, but bolstering your creativity.
I took some time off yesterday to visit the Jax Zoo in Jacksonville, Florida with the hubs. The bright sunny day with a high of 85 degrees had me wondering if I'd slipped into a time warp and skipped ahead to May or June.
We admired the giant tortoise named Goober (a children's book title if I ever heard one) and discovered that some elephants are quite hairy--perhaps a throwback to their wooly mammoth ancestors?
But my "aha!" moment of inspiration arrived when we stopped by the vulture exhibit. One of these large birds was sunning himself beside the viewing area with his wings extended. And I realized that my fictional school for the supernaturally challenged didn't have any vultures. I snapped a photo to remind myself to work vultures into the novel, either as a pet, a school mascot or even a were-vulture.
But wait, my muse wasn't done yet. The next exhibit contained fruit bats. I'd never been able to find them during previous visits, but yesterday I finally noticed them hanging against the back wall of their area. One bat was awake and grooming itself like a cat! I didn't know bats did that! How cool, especially since my novel-in-progress has bats and vampires.
So going to the zoo gave me not one but two new bits of fun inspiration to weave into my novel.
And if you're still not sure if you should take a break from work to go do something fun, just remember Jack Torrance from Stephen King's The Shining typing pages and pages of: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Now go out there and recreate, after all, tomorrow's a holiday.
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