Right now, I'm sitting at the best coffeehouse in the world watching people paint pottery (you can do that here while you're drinking your coffee. Isn't that just cool?). If I had the time today to paint, believe me I would be. Sometimes words on a page can't express how I'm feeling as well as paint on a ceramic plate can.

Do you find that sometimes you need to break away from your computer and do something else that's just as creative as writing?

Sometimes, I just have to take a break from my computer and paint a piece of pottery. They make great gifts and I get to branch out a bit. For other people I know, it's photography that calls them from other pursuits. One of my brothers-in-law works as a waiter full time, but he paints in his spare time. He takes pictures to get his mind away from a canvas. My other brother-in-law is a musician. I'm not sure what he does when he's not playing music, but I think it has something to do with drawing. Or beating my husband at metroid prime.

It's okay to branch out from one medium to another to make your brain more effective at your primary pursuit. After I paint, all of a sudden the scenes in my head that I'm writing down are clearer and more vibrant. All of a sudden I can explain what I mean so much better.

If you're getting bogged down in everything else going on in your life and your writing is suffering, go do something else that's creative. You'd be surprised how rejuvenating that is.