Sitting in a rainstorm with a dead car battery, I can’t help comparing this situation to my writing. For various reasons, work stress among them, I feel too drained by day’s end to write. It’s like my characters have abandoned me.

However, I’m not calling it quits. I knew what number to call for help today, so there is surely some key to storytelling locked inside me. First, I need to sit down and make the effort to write whether I feel like it or not. Taking that step is one hundred percent more likely to produce words on the page than not trying.

Perhaps I’ll start now while waiting for my savior with the jumper cables.

Then again, I have my “Artist’s Way” book by Julian Cameron. It’s designed to enable higher creativity without forcing oneself.

Rather than speaking of a drained battery, Ms. Cameron would probably tell me that I need to fill my creative well. There are many fun ways to do that. This week five of “The Artist’s Way” advises collecting images of postponed pleasures and desires. I think it’s time to go through a gardening catalog. Then I can head over to a garden center when the weather warms and put my artist’s eye toward shaping my yard into some fresh new visualization.

Weekly artist’s dates, times spent all by myself doing something fun, are another big tool from Julia Cameron’s arsenal. The visit to said garden center would make a great date even before time to plant.

What about you? Is it time to charge that battery or fill your well? What interesting venture might aid you in the goal?