Writers are a creative bunch. But sometimes we need to jump start the creativity a bit.  We need to flip a switch from our left brain to our right brain, so we can stop analyzing the sentences we’ve just wrote and start synthesizing them into a story.
 
Sometimes all it takes is a quick craft, like knitting or crocheting a dishcloth.  Just the act of creating a simple, pretty and useful scrap of material is enough to start the creative process.  My favorite dishcloth pattern is to take a ball of one of the variegated colors of sugar and spice brand cotton and a size seven needle. Cast on fifty stitches and knit until you have a dishcloth sized square.  If I need a bit more challenge, I’ll knit the ball band pattern – which you can find with a quick Google search.
 
Or maybe the jewelry bug hits me.  You can never have too many earrings, you know.  So I’ll grab my ear wires, head pins, pretty beads and my tools and have a go.  You just plop a bead on a head pin, trim the wire with the cutter, curve the wire into a loop, slide on the ear wires, and close the loop.  Repeat for the other ear. YouTube has some great videos on how to do this.
 
But what if you can’t knit or don’t have the supplies to make earrings?  You can get your Martha Stewart on in a few more ways.  There’s baking.  If you’re not into making something big from a mix, there are individual mug cakes you can make in the microwave.  The basic recipe is three tablespoons of cake mix and two tablespoons of water.  Mix together and nuke for one minute.
If you’re looking for a little variety or guilt free options, Hungry Girl has a bunch of cake mug recipes. http://www.hungry-girl.com/weighin/show/2279
 
Another way is to decorate a mantle or a little shelf.  Decide on a theme.  Holiday?  Beach? Maybe something to do with your book?  Clear out the space and design it from scratch.  Add some mood candles and voila!  Instant inspiration.  You get bonus points if you have to use your glue gun!
 
If you’re a visual person, you can take some poster board and a bunch of magazines and flip through to find phrases that jump out at you.  Glue them on the board along with pictures of people who could be your main characters or settings that they may find themselves in.  When you need to describe a person or a place, use this board to help.  It doesn’t even have to be that complicated, though.  You can grab some crayons or colored pencils and channel your inner child. Go on Amazon and search for adult coloring books.  There are a few *ahem* adult-adult ones, but the stained glass and the mandala books should allow you to play around with colors and make the designs pop out.
 
So what ways do you fire up your creativity?