Cures for the Writing Funk

It seems to me that for the last few days, there’ve been some writing funks lurking around the blogosphere. Myself included. Not because of anything in particular, just a general lack of confidence and feeling of hopelessness. Maybe querying has something to do with it. Putting yourself out there is hard, and it’s easy to convince yourself that everyone and their mother will shoot you down. Could be the weather. I think as writers, we’re generally more sensitive to shifts in our outward environments. At least I am. And this bleak weather definitely does nothing to improve my moods.

I was reading a post about this over at Operation Awesome yesterday. So how do you pull yourself out of such funks? I didn’t know. And then last night I found the answer.

Coffee ice-cream.

I ate an entire container of it at 11:30 at night. Not the brightest move in the world, but my boyfriend’s friend was over and they were using our bedroom TV to play videogames. We weren’t going to bed any time soon.

So I plugged in my headphones to drown out the sound of Spiderman’s web-slinging and decided to take another crack at writing. I’m guessing it was a combination of the coffee ice-cream and forcing myself to keep at it, but I actually started to feel better.

So I thought I’d compile a list of cures for the Writing Funk. Feel free to add to it if you think of anything!

• Coffee ice-cream. Try it. You can thank me later.
• Wallow-music. It’s different for everyone, but whatever makes you feel better when you’re down.
• A good book. Nothing better to take your mind off things. Unless, of course, it starts to remind you of your mess of a WIP. In that case, try…
• Mindless TV shows. Self explanatory.
• Exercise. They say it helps clear you’re head. Try at your own risk.
• Cleaning. I can’t think straight when my surroundings are a mess. An early spring cleaning is a good way to order my thoughts. The act is refreshing and it’s mindless enough that you can mull over ideas about WIPs.

Can you think of anything else? Write it in the comments and I’ll add it to the list.