If it’s October, then it’s wood chopping time around here and that’s the pile I got to chop. We have a really great woodstove that beats the pants off the wimpy electric heaters stuck to the baseboards in our apartment.

So, each fall I buy about half a cord of wood, split it, stack it and burn it nightly from November until February. It’s a fantastic way to heat up the whole place and there’s nothing like watching the warm glow of the flames through glass doors of the stove.

It’s a lot of work to to split and stack this pile. It usually takes about two or three days of chopping, but it’s really rewarding and great for thinking through story problems and plot ideas for my works in progress. Like doing the dishes or running (so I’ve been told), chopping wood has that repetitive action that is great for getting into the flow, which lets the creative juices boil and those ideas or plot breakthough just bubble to the surface.

Today, it’s raining buckets, so no chopping for me (which is just as well as my back is complaining a bit from all that hard work yesterday.) But next chance I get, I’ll hit the ol’ wood pile and chop my way through my plot problems and a little closer to a warm and cozy winter.