Blog Chain: Recharging

It's blog chain time, and I'm late. Again. My lack of blogging motivation lately is astounding. Oddly enough, where I lack the motivation to blog, I've been highly motivated to write and getting lots done in that area, so maybe it's good thing. Anyway, this round was started by Cole. She asked:

What hobbies, tips, or techniques do you have for keeping your writerly battery charged?

I didn't used to do anything. It was just write, write, write--more accurately obsess, obsess, obsess--all the time. Eventually though, this does burn you out. Now I know (and I had to learn this the hard way) that sometimes I just have to step away. Plus (and this one's huge) getting behind on my housework doesn't help. If my house is a mess, I can't focus, because I'm constantly worried about what I should be doing instead of writing. So, housework is definitely not a hobby, but it's important for me to stay on top of it.

I like to play around with graphic design. And along those same lines, I do a little digital scrapbooking, though not as much as I used to. I also like to doodle in the corners and along the edges of the manuscript pages I'm working on--this is how I procrastinate without my computer.

Also, watching movies with my husband. And just because I pick apart the plot lines and the character arcs and analyze the characterization does not mean I'm not recharging. Seems I can't help myself anymore and I do this without thinking. Just FYI, if your husband (or whoever you're watching the movie with) isn't a writer--and maybe if he is a writer--he doesn't want to hear your thoughts on these things during the movie and probably not afterward either. ;)

Hmm. That's all I've got. Maybe I should take up knitting again. :)

So what about all of you? What hobbies, tips, or techniques do you have for keeping your writerly battery charged?

Be sure to check out Christine's post from Tuesday and Kat's post today. :)