Experiment #1: Something just for fun

Creative recovery experiments and happy zaps for the muse

Last week, we talked about Border Collie Brain, and I really appreciated the comments and emails I received about the post. Sounds like many of us are at risk of chewing up the couch! ;)

The problem is our creative brains want something to do, but often, they don’t want to do THE THING WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING ON because that thing comes with pressure and expectations and deadlines and marketing plans and…yeah. It’s a lot. No wonder our border collie brain runs away to chew the throw pillows instead.

Some of that is good ol’ fashioned procrastination and fear. Writing is hard work. It’s easier not to do it. However, many of us here who have been doing this job for a while know the difference between that kind of garden variety procrastination and the empty shelves (or full burnout) feeling.

We’re not procrastinating because it’s hard. We’re putting writing off because it’s become painful. We sit down and there is nothing left to give. We feel creatively empty. The thing that used to come naturally to us is not working. It can induce a whole slew of emotions—panic, frustration, sadness, anger.

So. What to do?

Here’s the magical answer in three easy steps!!!

Just kidding. Y’all have been here long enough to know I don’t have the answers.

However, I am determined and motivated, so I’m experimenting.

We’ve talked about taking the pressure off and writing something just for fun. We’ve talked about that beginner writer feeling and how it would be nice to recapture that. So, this past week I had a minor surgery, which provided me some stuck-in-bed time and time to think.

I still haven’t felt drawn to sit down and write any fiction, so I was thinking about what other “just for fun” creative things might give my border collie brain something enjoyable to chew on.

The spark & the experiment

The answer came in a random book I ordered. You know how sometimes you see a book and you’re just drawn to it and you’re not really sure why? Well, I give into those urges. The muse might be whispering to me. The book this time was Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob.

This is a book meant for people who want to become food writers, food bloggers, or cookbook authors. I had no reason to read it other than the fact that I love cookbooks and reading food memoirs and such. However, I ended up loving it and reading it in like two days. It made me realize how truly nerdy I am about food (the almost 200 cookbooks I own apparently wasn’t enough of a clue.)

So, does this mean I’m leaving my fiction career to go pursue food writing? No. BUT, this seemed like the perfect arena to do something just for fun and to have a “beginner’s mind” again. No pressure, no stakes, no plan to turn it into a money-making venture.

So this week I started another (yes, another!) Substack. It’s called

Have Books, Will Cook

and it will be all about cookbooks, food memoirs, and food-focused fiction.

If you’re into that sort of thing, I’d love it if you’d follow (there’s also an Instagram if you’d rather follow that way.)

But I’m not sharing it here to get follows (though they are always appreciated!) I’m sharing it because it’s officially Experiment #1 for creative recovery. I need to figure out things like: Will this be a distraction or something that fills up my creative coffers? Will it add stress or ease it?

I don’t know yet, but what I can tell you is that I’ve already had the teeniest tiniest urge to come up with a book series about heroines who work with food in some way. I’m not poking at the idea yet. I’m letting it germinate. But I hope that’s a sign that I’m going in the right direction with this creative recovery stuff.

Happy zaps

And, for now, I’m going to enjoy the little zap of energy being a beginner at something has given me this week. I got zaps from all the little steps along the way:

• Reading the How To book

• Brainstorming the name of the site

• Researching similar sites to see what’s out there

• Designing the logo and color scheme

• Researching which platform would give me what I needed (Substack still won. But did you know Blogger still exists?? I had no idea, lol.)

• Brainstorming what kinds of posts I would do

• Setting up a new Instagram and following only food-related sites which gave me a beautiful, fresh, focused feed to scroll through (instead of the hodgepodge of my main Instagram feed)

• Scanning through my cookbooks to pick which I’d cook from first

So many happy zaps (or as Becca Syme calls them, energy pennies) for the muse!

Plus, as an added bonus, this will get me into my kitchen, cooking from my cookbooks, which is a well-filling activity for me in the first place.

So, I’m feeling optimistic about this experiment. I’ll keep you posted but also…

Now, I’m going to challenge you! What can you do “just for fun” this week that might give you a zap of creative energy? What gives you a little boost when you think about doing it?

I’d love to hear!