If you haven’t been writing much these past few weeks, don’t fret – as the Mercury Retrograde is vibing along with you.

That said, you should still be getting some kind of writing or communication-like work going. For me, I’m keeping a list of all the people I’m reaching out to for freelancing gigs, freelancing a little harder, fixing up the blog (yes, we got a new name) and making sure I’m focusing more in how I communication than the what I communicate.

In recent years, Mercury Retrograde has gotten this horrible, beware and “don’t do anything unless you want forever ruin your life” reputation. But this planetary trickster is more than that during the retrograde phase, and as writers especially we should tap the energies of those days to not only hone our craft, but create a little magic, too.

Take Advantage of the Bounce Backs

The bounce-back emails, the copying the wrong emails, the non-responses from someone you wish to hear back from and so on. Although this happens on a regular and Mercury doesn’t need to be doing much for it to happen, it’s during this time that we should push to be a little be conscious as to what is happening. The bounced-back emails for me means I should review that email one last time, before I resend to the correct contact. It usually feels sharper, more to the point than the first time I wrote it, and it doesn’t matter how much time I dedicated on it to begin with. Usually, when the email retrogrades back, it sounds better when I give it that second look-over and resend.

Scribbling Can Also Be a Thing

Scribbling is defined as writing or drawing hurriedly, which although research show is a great way to get big ideas, has always been narrowed down to the simple work of child’s play.  But because retrogrades is a backwards effect and movement, it works great snatching those backward ideas and ensuring you’ve cleared the cobwebs to other things.

Reaching Out to Old Contacts and Friends

If you find yourself thinking of an old high school friend or teacher or contact, don’t be afraid to reach out during these next few weeks. You might be surprised with what you find on the other side of that conversation, what you’ll walk away with after such a long thread of time, or probably most importantly, what that person could walk away with from you. We often forget the power and beauty and healing nature of communicating and reaching out one-on-one with people, and Mercury retrograde in particular has a more restorative effect.