Recent newsletters from writer clubs and workshops have all kinds of tips on how to get the creative juices flowing.  Get out of the house for a change of scenery.  Think back to yourchildhood and favorite adventures.  Read a book unlike anything you have ever read before.  Scan every headline in your daily newspaper.  Tune in the News on TV.  Etc.  Endless tips come from well established writers, and I'm sure they are worthwhile.  However, they do not work for me.

I wish I had a tip to add.  I do not.  I simply can't wait to get to the computer each day.   Of course, I am in a position now and at an age when I am completely my own boss.  I can pretty much do as I like any  every day in the week.  I am not unfriendly with the 100-plus individuals who live in the retirement complex that is my current home, but I do not find or take time to socialize with them beyond pleasant greetings on the way to the front desk or to pick up my mail.  My "social life" if you can call it that is spent in the writer workshops I lead.  These are more creativly stimulating than any tips I have ever read.  Each person is a window into life experiences (through his or her writing) that I would never know, were it not for these people reading their works.

If I have any tip it would be: associate with other writers.  They are a feast of ideas.