And Be Creative...Now!
Tuesday, December 16. 2008
I'm entirely too busy in my daily life. There are constant demands on my time, and most of them are not mindless tasks; they're operations that require some mental commitment to undertake.
How can one find the time to write creatively in such an environment?
I've blogged before about how I find I often get good ideas in the shower, or when engaged in some other activity where the process involves decoupling the gray matter from reality to some extent. Clearly, as I've said before, an idle mind is best for creativity. When those idle moments are few and far between, how best to make good use of them? In other words, is there a way to be efficiently creative?
I've long been of the belief that one must wait for ideas to happen. Creativity occurs spontaneously, and not on command. The muse cannot be compelled, but must be obeyed. That attitude cannot stand in modern life, if I ever hope to reach what I consider to be my full potential.
I promised some weeks ago to discuss what NaNoWriMo is really about, beyond reaching a concrete goal of 50,000 words. There are several potential payoffs from going through the November exercise, and here is one: NaNo shows that the muse can be compelled. Sometimes.
One must write on a regular basis, regardless of any pre-existing inspiration, in order to be able to "win" NaNoWriMo. At local NaNo meetings, there are regular "write-offs," where the goal is to write more words than anyone else within a given brief period of time (say, thirty minutes). The unstated hope in all this is that the very act of typing will open the connection to one's creative soul and bring forth something interesting. The suprising result is that, often, this ploy does work.
So I'll continue to try to apply this NaNoWriMo principle to my writing, even outside the bounds of November. Yes, much of what I'll write in this manner will have to be thrown out. But it is better to be able to keep 5% of something than all of nothing. And it will represent creative progress, which is what I so desperately need at this point.
I'm entirely too busy in my daily life. There are constant demands on my time, and most of them are not mindless tasks; they're operations that require some mental commitment to undertake.
How can one find the time to write creatively in such an environment?
I've blogged before about how I find I often get good ideas in the shower, or when engaged in some other activity where the process involves decoupling the gray matter from reality to some extent. Clearly, as I've said before, an idle mind is best for creativity. When those idle moments are few and far between, how best to make good use of them? In other words, is there a way to be efficiently creative?
I've long been of the belief that one must wait for ideas to happen. Creativity occurs spontaneously, and not on command. The muse cannot be compelled, but must be obeyed. That attitude cannot stand in modern life, if I ever hope to reach what I consider to be my full potential.
I promised some weeks ago to discuss what NaNoWriMo is really about, beyond reaching a concrete goal of 50,000 words. There are several potential payoffs from going through the November exercise, and here is one: NaNo shows that the muse can be compelled. Sometimes.
One must write on a regular basis, regardless of any pre-existing inspiration, in order to be able to "win" NaNoWriMo. At local NaNo meetings, there are regular "write-offs," where the goal is to write more words than anyone else within a given brief period of time (say, thirty minutes). The unstated hope in all this is that the very act of typing will open the connection to one's creative soul and bring forth something interesting. The suprising result is that, often, this ploy does work.
So I'll continue to try to apply this NaNoWriMo principle to my writing, even outside the bounds of November. Yes, much of what I'll write in this manner will have to be thrown out. But it is better to be able to keep 5% of something than all of nothing. And it will represent creative progress, which is what I so desperately need at this point.
How can one find the time to write creatively in such an environment?
I've blogged before about how I find I often get good ideas in the shower, or when engaged in some other activity where the process involves decoupling the gray matter from reality to some extent. Clearly, as I've said before, an idle mind is best for creativity. When those idle moments are few and far between, how best to make good use of them? In other words, is there a way to be efficiently creative?
I've long been of the belief that one must wait for ideas to happen. Creativity occurs spontaneously, and not on command. The muse cannot be compelled, but must be obeyed. That attitude cannot stand in modern life, if I ever hope to reach what I consider to be my full potential.
I promised some weeks ago to discuss what NaNoWriMo is really about, beyond reaching a concrete goal of 50,000 words. There are several potential payoffs from going through the November exercise, and here is one: NaNo shows that the muse can be compelled. Sometimes.
One must write on a regular basis, regardless of any pre-existing inspiration, in order to be able to "win" NaNoWriMo. At local NaNo meetings, there are regular "write-offs," where the goal is to write more words than anyone else within a given brief period of time (say, thirty minutes). The unstated hope in all this is that the very act of typing will open the connection to one's creative soul and bring forth something interesting. The suprising result is that, often, this ploy does work.
So I'll continue to try to apply this NaNoWriMo principle to my writing, even outside the bounds of November. Yes, much of what I'll write in this manner will have to be thrown out. But it is better to be able to keep 5% of something than all of nothing. And it will represent creative progress, which is what I so desperately need at this point.
Guess on :