I agree with a lot of these. Reading in the genre, research, and character sketches, notes to myself on what I want to include, random discoveries I com across now that I’m writing about a certain topic, thinking about writing 
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He was a widower and ended up living only a county away! I am still unsure of the cryptic details, but it did not seem that the ties were completely severed… scandalous for my backwoods area where most people never cross out of Virginia.
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I am constantly writing in my head. If I am on a long drive or just on my own somewhere, I am constantly running my writing through my head. So, even if I am not actually writing; I feel that I am still productive.
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For my fanfic pieces I love listening to music and constructing scenes around the songs. Been doing that since I was 12. Never gets old.
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Household chores like varnishing a floor, painting a wall or doing grandma-in-laws’ garden; right-brain does the manual labour while left-brain gets to wander and suddenly throws up all these scene and character ideas.
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I just purchased Plottr, so playing around with that is helping me sequence my current WIP without technically writing any of it.
But I also have to agree with @rtcatling; walking my dog - especially the long walks through the nearby forest - leaves my brain free to write my book in my head (even down to the level of dialogue!)
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Having coffee with a writing buddy … or afternoon tea! How I miss it.
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I love having run a pen out of ink. Just had to swap pens. 
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I love music, too. I have certain pieces/albums for the stories I write.
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Ya gotta love Dorothy. She’s so deliciously wicked.
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I finally decided last month that it was time for me to make the big move to writing/doing writerly things full time, and while I finish out my time at my day job, making breakfast for myself on days off has been super relaxing for me for some reason.
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That’s fantastic!
Can you tell us a little more about this process / decision?
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Sure.
Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it for three or four years, but it just wasn’t the right time to leave my day job. Now, I’ve gotten a lot more writing experience, and we’re financially in a really good place. My husband has always told me he wouldn’t stop me from pursuing writing full time, so there was no barrier there. I just didn’t feel right about it yet.
I’ve been really working on establishing a sustainable writing schedule for a while, and when I took vacation time toward the beginning of April, I tweaked that writing schedule a bit more. And it worked really well after I made my adjustments. I wrote all through that vacation. Didn’t think much of it until I went back to work.
The first day back, I missed writing, home, my characters–everything about the writing life and being able to be home, etc.–that I just sat in my car at lunch and cried because I couldn’t be with who and what I love.
That was the deciding moment for me.
It was time to go.
The instant I decided to do it, I felt freer than I have since before college.
I’m leaving my day job November 1st–which, ironically enough is National Author’s Day. 
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That’s such a great story in itself. Maybe the stuff of memoirs for other writers out there. (Sorry about the almost 2 month delay in responding.)
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When I am seeding the idea for a new story, (I write Regencies and fantasy) I pull out my quill (goose feather) inkpot and story journal, and start freeform writing the new character - capturing their backstory, their present life, their attitudes and values, the things that aggravate them and the things that delight them, etc. I just keep asking, ‘and so? Why?’ and that ensures I continue ‘peeling the onion’. Another activity is doing pen and ink and watercolor sketches of characters’ bedrooms. Our bedroom is the most personal room in our house, and I think it is this room, more than any other, that truly reflects who we are. And if I hit a brick wall in my drafting, I quit my writing den and go into my art studio and just do a colored pencil sketch of the scene, or the character, and within a few minutes, the story’s flowing again. Nothing like getting the hand working with a pen or pencil to get the creative brain working again!
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I love that. I should take on again water color painting even though I’m very bad at it.
I would love to see one of your paintings.
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Thank you
You’re very talented: vivid and inspiring paintings and drawings.
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