(NOTE: I consider myself a good writer, but good only gets better by practice. So I’ve signed up for the WordPress Everyday Inspiration schedule to prompt me to write something different every day. This is the result of today’s nudge.)

I wrote before about how I think getting outside and doing physical work is good for both the body and mind and that’s very much applicable to this writing prompt. I enjoy getting out and getting my hands dirty for a while, even if it’s easy for my mind to tell me that’s the last thing I want to do and why don’t I stay inside and nap.

So aside from that, the best thing I do when I’m not writing (or working a day job, which often gets in the way of writing) is either reading or watching something. Right now I’m in the middle of a marathon reading binge of Earnest Hemingway’s books, most of which I’d either never read or which it had been too long – 20 years or more – since I’d picked them up. And I’m trying to at least catch up on some of the movies I’ve written about for MMM but haven’t watched, though those are also fodder for my After the Campaign series.

There’s more, of course. I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids and doing or going to their various activities. One of the things I’m working on as I’m out and about is paying more attention to the details of my surroundings, trying to describe them in new and interesting ways in my own mind so I can bring those skills to bare on my writing later on.