Cheating, Productively

I already tried this once before.
But I guess I'll give it another shot, just because I'm such a nice blogger.
Alright, So I'll skip the tirade on how cheating is soooooo not cool, totally unnacceptable, how if you are with someone and love them you should NEVER pursue someone else.
Oops.
Well, after that tirade, let me tell you the ONLY productive cheating: On you Art.
It's a long story, even longer when you prefix it, but many times in my life I have felt very bad about writing something other than poetry, about focusing my attention in what felt like the wrong direction. But it broke through last night, as I was finishing the last of thirty pages (for the evening.)
I wasn't cheating at all.
You see, when I write different forms, be it poetry, songwriting, essays, or in this case, a novel, I use remarkably different brain centers. In the past, when I was excited about one, and I used it, I tended to ignore the other centers, the other forms. But now I know that I can, while writing a novel, take time out to jot down a few poems.
The types of writing can, and do, overlap. It isn't cheating because writing itself is one entity, and any type of writing develops a more well rounded relationship with the craft, as well as with the writer.
So, My Advice?
If you ever feel excited to write, do so. It doesn't matter if it's a limerick or an epic. Write to your heart's fickle content and when you get tired, write a different form. No harm can come out of writing a single word, I swear by it.

Inspiring and Perspiring.

What pushes me to write? Me, mostly. Sometimes I'll hear the beginning phrase and build off of that. As a writer it's important to have more than divine inspiration or just really good luck, and two elements are quintessential to the writing process.
1. BEING SPONTANEOUS. Always carry writing tools with you. Always be willing to experience new things, meet new people. In any moment inspiration can hit, and I can't even count how many times I scribbled on my hand or a scrap of paper to later build it into a piece I was very proud of. But what's very important with this process is having a really good system to save these papers and to recopy the whole poem onto the computer, as well as having an internet database. An especially helpful database is a google email account, because of the almost unlimited space. The second part of spontaneity is pretty obvious with it's positive side- there are a million subjects to write poems about and if you never meet someone or experience something, you may never be introduced to outward inspiration.
2. KEEPING A SCHEDULE. I know, this contradicts the last point- but not really! Studies show (and no, I won't cite which) that writing every day is the most effective way to push your level of writing forward, as well as to encourage you to write when you don't exactly feel like it. I'm not super good at keeping a writing schedule, but I whole heartedly endorse it.
Well, that's all the advice for today.