staying mentally fresh

A friend who writes as much as I do wrote today to ask if I have any tips for staying mentally fresh under such workload pressures, and I do.

My trick is always to make sure I’m reading something that’s exciting but which has nothing at all to do with my current writing commitments. Often in the past I’ve used history books for that purpose (such as Gibbon two years ago) but more recently novels (I’m reading Faulkner a bit again, having switched to Virginia Woolf for awhile). But of course Clement Greenberg is my favorite pleasure read at the moment.

The purpose this serves is to give you a refuge when you’re sick of working on your writing projects, but a refuge that keeps your mind sharp, and may even give you a few ideas that can be drawn upon for your own projects. It’s like cross-training in sports.