For the last couple of weeks, I've been researching and writing a story about burn out.

It's hard to imagine anyone in a creative profession (let alone people in helping professions) who doesn't from time to time hit that firey wall. Putting one's words, designs or images before the public lays them bare often to the cruelst scrutiny. People have told me to my face that they hate my writing; that a given piece "sucks" (a direct quote); that I've missed the mark or that they've elected to go a different direction (meaning, "you're fired").

It's taken years (and many of them) to develop any kind of shell at all. Early on, any rewrite, any inkling that an editor or client was anything but ecstatic would send me reeling. Now I know that not everyone is going to buy my act. Though I'm fairly versatile, I'm probably not the best fit for writing about aeronautical engineering to an engineering audience. Nor will I take technical writing jobs; I'd rather teach left handers to knit. I'm also not the strongest strategic thinker; I don't have the cojones to forge organizational directives.

Writing, too, requires intense focus and energy. To put words together in unique and coherent ways, words that add up to something, is day labor. When people tell me they have difficulty writing, I tell them, "I do, too." Over the years, I've gotten better at it, but it's no easier.

Too much writing leads to burn out; too little to starvation. Fresh writing requires new perspectives, a break in the action. Reading helps. So does travel. And great conversations when ideas pop and spark.

Anyway, I've got to get back to...writing. But I'm curious? How do y'all stay fresh?