What to do when

you don't feel like writing? As much as I love writing, there are days I don't feel like writing. So what do you do then?

First of all, (and btw, when I say first of all, I'm assuming you've already consummed copious amounts of caffeine and have more handy!) you establish yourself a routine for writing long before this. For me, it's networking, answering emails, reading my writer type blogs, and recently I've even had to watch my comment thread closely. Which I lurv! It helps as I state on the 10 things for nano time that I do. It gives me time to remember things I have to do before start writing, and for my kids to know I'm going to be busy and hurry up and ask for whatever it is you need.

So, you've done your routine and still...nothing. Your muse apparently went down the drain with your shower water. Now what? First, try these things.

One, I always start my writing by rereading last 1-5 pages I did last. It does two things. It helps me catch weird errors and other editing issues and it gets me back into the mood the characters were at. So do that. You get down to the last paragraph of superb awesomeness you wrote (When NOT in the mood to write--NEVER EVER CALL YOUR STUFF CRAP EVEN IN YOUR HEAD!!!! I don't care if it's the worst stuff you've written in 3 years. On these days, you are not allowed to start arbitrarily deleting!! I mean, if you wrote, "Sh thuchks her sumb." you may erase and fix to "She sucks her thumb." and you may even make a comment her that the whole section needs to be reworked. See how I did that? Needs reworked. Not sucks. Not crap! Ahem,off the soap box and back to our regularly scheduled program.) and you are still not in the mood?

Here's what I do. I open up other MS I'm working on. Or have finished, and I start editing. NOT TRASHING, editing. A really nice hint that my friend @tamiklockau gave me? Save in drafts. I do it before all major work is done. That way, if in your present mood you OOPS and lose a scene that in your right mind you know is needed (I have done this!) you can simply go copy paste from other draft :)

Editing is a huge, major, super, uber important, gigantic part of writing. Did y'all catch that?? So, editing when your muse is gone, is still part of the writing process. The time isn't loss and you are still improving your craft.

The other thing you can do is research that you need. Whether it's for plot point on the story or grammar geeking, doing research is not always fun and can be a good thing to do when "not in the mood" to write.

But, hold yourself accountable. don't research "the big bang theory" unless you really are looking up the science for your book and not the TV show!!

Anyone else have hints and tips for what they do when "not in the mood"--FOR WRITING!! LOL