What creative outlets do you have other than writing?

It's great to hear about all of your creative outlets! I thought I was the only one who did several hobby-type things, some of them not all that great, but at least it frees up my head.

My newest is teaching myself to play a small 8-string celtic harp I bought in Dublin. I can already do Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which my kids love.

I love to bake, cooking too when I'm in the mood. I can spend hours in the evening looking at the Yummly app or recipes on the web.

In the wintertime I knit (!). I'm really proud of the scarf I knitted for my oldest daughter last winter, colorful with fringes and all.

I used to sketch and paint a lot more than I do now. I just don't have the space, I guess, and my daughters would want to mess with the supplies. They're usually welcome to, but acrylics don't come out of clothes!

If sports count, I also run pretty regularly, weather permitting. I have it in my head to learn a completely new sport sometime. My youngest daughter is at a fencing intensive course that looks so fun! And I've always wanted to learn rowing. Who knows....

I do a lot of drawing, mostly sketching. I've recently gotten into figure drawing, since I'm doing that in an art course. Charcoal is my favorite medium!! I love how bold it is, if that makes sense. It's a lot of fun drawing people. I also play piano and guitar, and sing in a choir. I also maintain a few blogs on the side too!

Not sure whether it's "creative" but have just booked myself onto a whittling course (c:

(also play guitar a little and used to paint and airbrush)

Drawing. I'm a student of graphic arts, and often the only limit between work and relaxation is how urgently I need to get s**t done.
And then there are the joys of gaming, reading, surfing the web and daydreaming.

I've taken on lots of creative hobbies over the years. I even went to art school and got halfway through a BFA before dropping out, majoring in Drawing and Painting at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Turns out art school just wasn't for me though; I learned a lot, certainly, but nothing I couldn't have learned for free with practice and the internet. Live and learn. Haven't painted in a long time, but I still do digital art and I'm working on a comic right now.

I also knit, or did. Haven't done much in a while but got discouraged when moths kept eating all my work.

Cooking and baking are probably my most practised, especially these days. I love playing with and coming up with my own recipes. And decorating cakes! This past year I started making cake pops too: little bats, mummies and jack-o-lanterns at Halloween; Santas, reindeer and snowmen for Christmas.

The dog. Otherwise, less and less as writing takes up more of my time, worldbuilding and game design seem to be my two more time-consuming, if desultory, interests.

I've tried 'em all in addition to writing: needlepoint, watercolor/oil/pen & ink/charcoal, quilting (which I've taken up again - getting ready to start at king-size Cathedral Window), stained glass, birding, cooking/baking, gardening, refinishing, piano, choir, sewing (hate it! hate it! hate it!)... So far, writing seems to be the winner.

My Kay is an obsessive vacuumer and duster. Not a speck of it is allowed to settle in our house. She works with Swiffer wand earnestly enough to give rise to a pastime of my own: gluing and repainting everything she breaks.

The last item was my Snoopy-typing-on-his-doghouse perpetual calendar.

Before that, my old dogtags surviving a tour in Europe and two in southeast Asia, got munched in the jaws of her Shark vacuum cleaner.

When writing my own novel and editing for others are slow, it helps to have a side hobby.

Before reading I made a guess as to what others would be doing with their creativity. My guess was correct. As for my own use of extra creativity, I too was a programmer in my earlier years. Now it is a hobby to create websites for my ever growing list of domains. Just to keep up with things modern I wrote an Android cell phone app. I did enjoy painting, which I might possibly return to. And, of course I spend a bit of time perfecting the martini, gibson or manhattan, depending on my mood or whim.

Besides writing, I am a guitar player/singer in a part time band (called 'Limited Engagement', because our gigs are, you guessed it: limited). I also record 'one man band' CDs, with me singing lead and harmony vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards (drums programmed on Garage Band software).

It's fun, although I am at best an average guitar player, and less than average as a singer.

Links, if you care to view them (good for some laughs, videos shot with humor intended, especially 'Believer')

Seven Bridges Road cover , I'm A Believer cover.

Picking out ingredients from a grocery store (depending what's on sale) and making good meals from them. I went to culinary school, and I've been watching TV cooking since I was 4 years old. Great fun.

Scribble lightly on an paper and darken the lines that you like.

Some very interesting people doing interesting things in here...

I'm all over the art thing, despite working full time. I've had several novels and one commissioned bio published, but in my spare time I write and record music and paint. I enjoy the extra curricular stuff but my only success in the real world is through writing.

Photography/digital art
Plants, mostly miniature species and bonsai (over 50 species just in the house)
Fractals
Origami
Computers, computers, computers

Everything else is not a hobby, but Stuff I Need To Do, like cooking, building things I want instead of buying them, research, herbal medicine, etc.

I play music (used to be a pro musician, but now I just play for fun). I also build furniture. My first piece was a farmhouse dining room table with a bench. It was so fun to make. I've done a couple of smaller things like a bookshelf since then, but I haven't had time to get into the garage recently. It's also friggin freezing here in the winter. I miss it though and look forward to being able to do it again when I have more time. It'll happen eventually!

I crochet. I’m in the middle of a blanket I’m going to give my grandma for Christmas and a skirt I’m making for myself. I also draw sometimes, but that makes me kinda anxious because my lack of skill nags at my perfectionism. I used to be better at it, but I stopped for a year and lost nearly everything I’d learned.

I’d like to teach myself to knit sometime too.

I enjoy quilting and embroider. A lot of my quilt tops include embroidery. I always have a project in my bag, and can never sit still, so if I'm in a position to do so, I will break out my needle. Keeps me busy when needed.