For those of us with day jobs that keep us staring at a computer screen all day, coming home (or getting up early) to sit down at the keyboard…and stare at a computer screen…is difficult. Some creative types use pen and paper to sketch out ideas. Just to get away from that damned computer.

I think it’s even harder when the day job involves writing. You spend several hours using your writing brain to turn around something for someone else and have little left for the writing you really want to do.

Sometimes I’ll divide my day by a swim – come home, do half an hour of laps, and return to my desk with a fresh brain. Or on days when I don’t have to dash out, I can sit at my desk and pound out something before the dayjob madness begins.

But here’s the truth: right now, all I really want to do is sew. I can create something from scratch and not have to use the computer at all. I can feel the material in my fingers, mix colors and textures, fit it perfectly to my body, and best of all, not have to wait for a theatre to choose my work before I can strut it around town. The gestation period is so much shorter – a couple of weeks or less instead of several months or years. It’s not exactly instant gratification, but close.

Maybe it’s just summer. Maybe I just need a vacation. Maybe I need some suggestions. Got any?

How do you organize your writing time? Where do you find the juice to write? Is there a slow time for you? Are there times when all you really want to do is … fill in the blanks?