When you’re a writer, you learn the things that feed the writing and the things that don’t.

What feeds my writing? Rainy days. Sitting by a fireplace in a cozy library. Dinners at Pete’s Kitchen on Colfax. Really, any visits to Pete’s Kitchen on Colfax, preferably late at night, which can no longer happen because it no longer stays open all night. Also, it’s a couple of states away.

Now these are ideal things, but there are other things that put me in the mood for writing. Like, for instance, time off with my husband without needing to write. Walking outside. Going to museums.

And you’re thinking: sure, taking a break works, because you work too much, you berk. Yeah, but not all breaks feed the writing.

Weirdly there are things that take away the ability/ power/strength to write, because they “pull from the same place.”

And if you’re thinking “Oh, like writing the blog?” Actually writing the blog is neutral. But say going out and peopling? Interacting with people, talking. Hanging out. I come home, and even if it was only half an hour or so, I can’t write.

But other things that pull from the same place are bizarre: teaching, for instance. Every time I do a workshop — in case you wonder why I don’t do them often — it takes the same “writing fuel” as though I’d written a whole novel, and I need to recover for a full days before I can write.

Other things: oh, yeah. Cooking. No, seriously, cooking. I can — and do — cook on average a meal a day without interfering with writing. Or at least I do it usually after my daily writing, so it’s no big.

But what about when I cook something more elaborate? It will eat the writing, because I’m thinking about the cooking even before I do it, and that creative concentration stops the words.

Some kinds of crafts, like painting. Others, like crochet, actually feed the writing. I’ll sit and crochet for a while without consciously thinking of the story, and suddenly I’m ready to write again.

Why? I don’t know. None of this makes any sense.

Other things that eat the writing: Being sick. Being worried about the kids. (MY kids, specifically.) being exhausted (I cleaned the whole house yesterday and afterwards was only fit for beddy byes.) But these are PHYSICAL things. The others are mental things that just take away the wish to write.

Things that feed the writing include certain kinds of music, which seem to be hard coded to specific novel. Reading books, though that’s also coded to certain novels. I can’t seem to read the genre I’m writing. Fortunately I read just aobut anything. Weirdly one of my science fiction books was sparked by the opening of a romance novel. And if I told you what that novel was, it still wouldn’t make any sense.

So, as a writer, you have to find out what feeds you and what eats you — or your ability to write — and it will be highly individual to you.

Because, yes, of course you can write when you’re not inspired. But you can’t write “on empty” when you literally have to fight for every word. No, I lie, you can write then. BUT you can’t keep doing it. It takes forever and it “eats” you. Not just the writing. You. No, I can’ explain it, but at the end of that trail is exhaustion so complete you run out of will power or interest in doing anything.

I know. I’ve been there. And you don’t want to go there.

So, don’t get there. Figure out what feeds you.