Why Am I SO Stumped Lately?

As a feature writer, I’m required to complete a certain amount of articles per month in order to maintain my status. The last thing I want to happen is to have to step down, but I’ve been so stumped lately. The same thing has been happening for my Maine Education topic at Examiner.com . . . what is wrong with me? Usually, I have so many ideas I can’t keep up with them all.

Typically, I keep a notebook going of all my ideas and drafts. This notebook has remained still far too long. Time to get back into the swing of things. I don’t want to step down from either writing position, so I need to get busy. The decision will ultimately lie with the powers that be, so my fingers will remain crossed (makes it hard to type, but I’m ambitious!) that things will remain as they are.

To help things along, I’ve gotten out an over-sized sketchpad to sketch out all my ideas and works in progress:

• I’ve been working on character sketches for my NaNoWriMo challenge project on templates, as well as in my sketchpad.
• I’ve been working on ideas for tutorials and lesson plans in my sketchpad.
• I’ve been working on my outline, as well as research notes, in my sketchpad for a cookbook I’m writing, as well as for a book about learning how to say no.

This has been an excellent exercise and an excellent tool. Why didn’t I start this sooner than today? I have no idea, but I’m glad I did! Hopefully this tool will help keep me on task with all of the various writing projects I have on the block – and, it’ll help keep me on track with my goal to be “creative” beyond the written word on a weekly basis!

How do you keep your creative juices flowing with either art or writing projects (or both!)?