Shopping and Recharging

Happy Friday!

The illustration for this post in the grand central hall of Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia, currently owned by Macy’s.

When I’ve been writing for several hours and my brain has been emptied onto the page, I often spend the afternoon shopping. Not for books, but for things like clothing or toiletries or household supplies. Not necessarily to buy anything, just to wander and look at the merchandise and watch the people. I think of it as refilling my brain.

How about you? How do you recharge?

Related Posts: Resting, Or Not-Writing and Reading for the Writer.

About Victoria Janssen

Victoria Janssen [she, her] currently writes cozy space opera for Kalikoi. The novella series A Place of Refuge begins with Finding Refuge: Telepathic warrior Talia Avi, genius engineer Miki Boudreaux, and augmented soldier Faigin Balfour fought the fascist Federated Colonies for ten years, following the charismatic dissenter Jon Churchill. Then Jon disappeared, Talia was thought dead, and Miki and Faigin struggled to take Jon’s place and stay alive. When the FC is unexpectedly upended, Talia is reunited with her friends and they are given sanctuary on the enigmatic planet Refuge. The trio of former guerillas strive to recover from lifetimes of trauma, build new lives on a planet with endless horizons, and forge tender new connections with each other.
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10 Responses to Shopping and Recharging

  1. Jeannie Lin says:

    I like to run errands like go grocery shopping. I know it’s weird, but it gets me away from the computer and I can let my mind zone as I stare at spinach and apples. My brain waves go completely beta and I zombie out a bit.

    I do write and work from home so my butt gets stuck in this chair. I need to get a life, don’t I?

  2. Victoria Janssen says:

    I think it’s the same kind of thing, just a different location. Beta waves, yeah.

  3. Fae Sutherland says:

    I usually recharge by zoning out playing video games. Either Final Fantasy games on a console or Sims 2 on my computer. Either way works as complete mindless entertainment, no real world thinking involved and it helps me charge back up after being drained when I finish a heavy burst of writing or after a long day of brain-breaky edits lol.

  4. Emily Ryan-Davis says:

    I shop, read or sleep depending upon the intensity of the writing in question. Early this month I write a short novella draft in a weekend and spent the day in the middle napping and eating.

  5. Victoria Janssen says:

    Fae, I often play Free Cell BEFORE I write, oddly enough. I am terrible at video games, though.

    Emily, I often nap after the shopping–it makes it seem like a new day when I wake up, and I can write again in the evening.

  6. Katie Reus says:

    I clean the house (like super spring cleaning), go to the beach, and/or I also catch up on reading.

  7. Victoria Janssen says:

    I wish I had a handy beach to visit in the afternoons….

    Reading I have to be careful with. It can’t be anything TOO fun, or I won’t go back to writing.

  8. Elise says:

    I read.

    Well, once in a while I’ll do something crazy like go on a date with my husband. I’m nutty like that.

  9. Jenna Reynolds says:

    Either I watch a movie or read. Sometimes I take a walk. What I like about walking is that if I had some knotty plot problem come up during the writing, lo and behild, I usually solve it during my walk. Haven’t been walking lately, however, as need a better pair of walking shoes. :)

  10. Victoria Janssen says:

    Walking works really well for me, too. I think that’s part of why the window-shopping works so well–I’m moving the whole time.

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