If you know me, you know I’m a pantser, but to help myself get back into a session I always leave some future scenes to work off of. Usually, it’s a whole bunch of dialog. It’s really simple and I don’t even bother with quotation marks unless I feel like it.
Yesterday, I got to the end of the story in my dialog. At long last. Finally it’s clear. I planned it out all the way to the end. None of it is set in stone, but now I know what direction I want it to go.
After I finished that long writing/planning session,
here's what I did.
I mindlessly went on YouTube and ended up watching Jazza, cake decorations, and then found myself watching the journeys of past The Voice Winners of various season I never kept up with. I ended on looking up if Sam Perry the looping artist was still doing music, found out that he hasn’t uploaded to YouTube in two years but is active somewhat on IG. Then, I went to bed.
Basically, usually I go onto YouTube.
So, what do you guys do after coming out of a long writing/planning session?
I am a huge planner, but also not prone to scheduling, so I write in a lot of sprints and huge bursts–or whenever I feel the urge to. After I am finished, I usually decide to read or watch something fulfilling, or something mindless depending on whatever strikes my fancy that day. I will also usually play video games between writing spurts, mostly shooters as they require little thought and I can play it with other people. So, I will usually write, play game, write, play game, write, play game all day long until I need to sleep.
In your case, I feel I’m very similar. I think we’ve all fell victim to the YouTube doom scroll. If you’re ever in that fancy again, you should look up infomercial commercials. Absolutely bizarre, and you always find something to laugh at.
Depends on the time of day. If I’m writing in the middle of the day (morning or afternoon), I typically wind down through reading or maybe watching TV (YouTube, show, movie, etc.) Or I just scroll through TikTok. But otherwise, if I’m writing at night, I’ll come out of a long writing session by just going to bed. xD
Reading more than anything else is my major relaxer. There’s nothing better than a nice, soothing book! And somehow it simultaneously refills my creative well or whatever. (*＾-‘) 乃
I schedule my writing related stuff for late afternoon. I always have something to do afterwards, and I’m always pressed for time. Usually socials, meetings, lectures and events. No “relaxing” activities unfortunately; I’m running from one place to the next (sometimes literally).
But it works for me because it gets me to be around people. It’s a big reset button. It pulls me out of my head and out into the real world.
I watch her, too! Usually while drawing 
