Writers... what do you do when you feel burned out and can't seem to settle

Question: Writers!.!.!. what do you do when you feel burned out and can't seem to settle down and produce like you want to!?

I am having a time doing that right now and don't understand why I feel so burned out!. Any suggestions!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

I have found that when I get stuck if I just go for a walk in the forest around my property, Goddess will inspire me further to return and begin again with renewed vigor!. Of course my writing tends to be about Witchcraft so that would seem to be the very thing to do!. LOL

Brightest Blessings,
Raji the Green WitchWww@QuestionHome@Com

You are probably burned out - go do something else!. Sometimes the best thing to do is take how you are feeling to the extreme and let it work out of your system!. I'm an artist, and I usually have several paintings I'm working on because I usually hit the wall with one of them and can't go any further - so I start on another, or I do something completely different, or I completely ignore them and go run errands, go to the movies, clean up or do something just to get my mind into a different place!. Sometimes you just need a break and the best thing to do is take it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I walk away at first!. Get something to eat, take a nap, clean, work on something else!.
Try a walk!. It might be due to built-up energy!. Plus, there are ideas everywhere on a walk!. I used to go to a city park at midnight to write, but apparently it's illegal in this town to go to the park after dark!. In other words, make sure you know the law!.
If I'm just stuck I try exercises!. I have a recipe box with index cards as follows: 50 character cards, 50 item cards, 50 setting cards, 100 scenario cards!. Pulling one or two from each category, I sit down and write a scene involving my character in a setting doing something with some object!. It could be a pirate and a bellhop delivering a baby with a paperclip (it gets worked in somehow) at Buckingham palace!. It won't amount to anything, but it gets me going!.
I might put on music and battle through it!. Once I get going, I'm usually fine!. Sometimes I need certain music, though!. If it's anything with words, I'm apt to let my mind wander and sing along, so I have nature CDs to use, too!.
If it's a long-term deal, then I lower my expectations!. Instead of shooting for 3,000 words a day, I aim for just 100 (and usually get ten times that)!. The rest of the week I keep the bar low, and once I hit it several days straight, I raise it up a little to 1,250 words a day!.
Sometimes it's just the story I'm working on!. Something isn't right and I can't get into it!. Or perhaps I've been working on it so much I can't get myself to do any more at the moment!. I move on and do something else, perhaps in a different genre!. My short story holds me up!? I write poetry!. Poems going bad!? How about that personal essay!. And so on!.
Then there are the few things that work to get me motivated to write!. It all depends on what I'm working on!. Perhaps I just look at all the successful people I graduated with!. I have nothing to show for my efforts now, but seeing them makes me want to complete my collections and show them up (it's not the prettiest motivator!.!.!.but it works)!. I try reading!. With books, it's tough!. I have to find one that is similar to what I'm writing!. A horror novel!. Poetry!. A memoir!. It all varies from week to week!. And sometimes a book is so good it makes me hate everything I write!. Or it's good enough to keep me reading, but not good enough to inspire me!. And sometimes it's a BAD book that inspires me!. I read something and think, 'Hell, I could do better than that moron!. Let me prove it!.' At the end of this I include a list of my favorites (in parentheses is what genres it inspires me in)!.
It's important to find what inspires you!. Some of the books I list I relate to in some way!. Others I only wish I could relate to!. Some are amazing and the writing seems effortless!.
'Speak, Memory' by Vladimir Nabokov (all)
'A Long Way Down' by Nick Hornby (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama)
'The Best of Roald Dahl' by Roald Dahl (all, esp!. short stories)
'White Fang' or 'Call of the Wild' by Jack London (Fiction, Non-Fiction)
'Word Freak' by Stefan Fatsis (okay, okay!.!.!.it only inspires me to play Scrabble!. But it's a fun book, anyway!.)
'Travels With Charley' by John Steinbeck (all!.!.!.but I do get absorbed into it and postpone my work)
'H!.P!. and the Deathly Hallows' by J!.K!. Rowling (Kid's Lit!., Fiction, Horror!.!.!.regardless of your Harry Potter views, this one's got it all, so long as you ignore the crappy epilogue)
'Tenderness' by Robert Cormier (Kid's Lit!., Fiction)
'Into the Wild' by Jon Krakauer (Non-Fiction)
'Love in the Time of Cholera' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (all)
'Danse Macabre' and 'On Writing' by Stephen King (Horror)
'This Boy's Life' by Tobias Wolff (all)
'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (all)
'Dead Men Do Tell Tales' by William R!. Maples (all, though it more gives me ideas than inspires work on what's already started)
'Writing Life Stories' by Bill Roorbach (Non-Fiction)
Anything by Bill Bryson or David Sedaris (all)
'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury (Fiction!.!.!.and I really hate Ray Bradbury)
'Mrs!. Bridge' by Evan S!. Connell (Fiction, Poetry)
'Bad Haircut' by Tom Perrotta (all)
'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess (Fiction)
'The Long Hard Road Out of Hell' by Marilyn Manson (all)
'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac (all)
'Mythology' by Edith Hamilton (all)
Poetry by Theodore Roethke, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and many others!.
Good luck!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Walk away and do something that is absolutely unrelated to what you've been doing!. Your mind needs to relax in order to properly function just like our bodies do!. I read in a book if you have a job that requires alot of mind stimulation take 10 minute breaks every so often to do mindless tasks and just the opposite if you have a mind numbing job like factory assembly line then take 10 minute breaks to stimulate your mind!. It works I use it quite often in my everyday life just to energize me!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

There's a book that was out several years ago called "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron that you might find helpful!. (Lol- alert, It is sub-titled a Spiritual Guide to Higher Creativity, but it is written from a "mostly non-denominational" approach!.)

She advocates the use of "morning pages" and "artist dates"- and while somewhat tedious at times, I did find it helpful!.

The book actually walks you thru a step process to break thru blocks!.
It's definitely worth a look if you're stuck!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I used to get so terrified of not being able to write a song!. "What am I going to write about!? I'm totally empty of ideas and inspiration!." And then I realized after about five years of this terrible block that some of the time you have to be on 'input'!. You just have to receive and then retransmit it and hope it comes out as something else!. - StingWww@QuestionHome@Com

I take a respite and when the urge to write comes back, (and it will) I'm ready to write again! maybe it's time to listen to some good music, or just be still and listen to your own inner voice!. I'm sure you are not burned out, Give yourself a pat on the back for all your accomplishments!.
Www@QuestionHome@Com

I sometimes feel this near the middle of the story I'm working on!. I just push through it!. I do not take a break, I find it doesn't help and puts off the inevitable!. My personal rule is to write at least 200 words a day!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Honestly, what works best for me is housework - something more physical than mental!. Then my mind is unoccupied and it can't help but get back to the project at hand!. I get my best ideas while scrubbing floors!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Your a writer, anything you produce is going to seam sub-standerd to you (maybe not to other people though),Www@QuestionHome@Com

It happens, so just let it go!. Sometimes just relaxing or taking a long walk or running helps me!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Sometimes, I look for inspiration or read some of my works even though they're not published yet!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I like to listen to music or watch t!.v!.!.!.just get my mind off the task at hand for a while then get back to work!.!.!.basically just re-energize Www@QuestionHome@Com

I look for inspiration!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

I either take a really long break or I work on my other novel Idea!.Www@QuestionHome@Com