Getting the Creative Juices Flowing

I'm working on a French essay that's due in my teacher's inbox tomorrow by midnight, and I constantly have to stop and rethink what I'm doing and take breaks and just put off writing more. Sometimes papers, and reviews for that matter, just don't seem to flow like they should. So I have a question for you:

How do you get your creative juices flowing? Or better yet, how do you get things flowing in general?? Sometimes no matter how hard I try, I can't get a paper to come out sounding like it should, and I wonder if there is something that you do that helps when you are in a similar situation.

For me, the answer is usually quite simple. I take a break. I have some coffee (or wine, or in this case because it was so recently St. Patrick's Day, Guinness). Then I go back to my paper. Sometimes I have to do this after each paragraph. Sometimes I only need to do it once and then the rest of my paper comes out really quickly and sounds really nice.

Reviews for me are usually much easier to write because I really like writing them. Sometimes though I am so burned out from schoolwork that it's hard for me to get all my thoughts together to write a coherent review. When that happens, I usually just force myself to start writing anyway, and after a wee bit, everything comes into focus and the writing comes easier.

Sometimes writing just doesn't happen at all, or if it does, it doesn't sound very nice at all. When that happens, I usually have to take a long break. With essays for school, this sucks when the essay is due the next day, which is why I try to start the essay well in advance (which doesn't always happen, as hard as I try. I used to be and am still to an extent a huge procrastinator).

So dear readers, what do you do when you are in a similar situation? I'd love to hear what you all have to say!