How to Foster Creativity
Notes from the Prairie: I Wonder column #37
After exploring where ideas come from last week, I wondered a follow-up question: What fosters creative ideas and the writing that follows? How can a person generate more creative thoughts and produce more writing with them?
Many amateurs think they can write only when inspired. They can’t produce new writing unless they are in the mood. Novelist William Faulkner is credited with saying, “I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.”
I don’t feel inspired every morning. I suspect no writer does, and Faulkner was pointing that out.
Thomas Edison is known for his view that hard work was crucial for inventing. He said it several ways. The most famous version is: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
I agree with both Faulkner and Edison. If I want to produce a weekly column as well as the book I currently plan, I need to produce words every morning. Some mornings I feel creative energy and a rough draft gushes like water from a firehose. Other mornings I have to push it out like a bowel movement while afflicted with constipation and hemorrhoids.
I never know which process will appear when I sit at the keyboard to write a first draft. A blank screen terrifies me. So I procrastinate.
I pour a cup of coffee and carry it to my workstation. I take a few sips, then a few more. I open the correct Scrivener folder. New emails distract me, and I scroll through them. I turn back to drafting and choose a topic from the idea list entered into Scrivener from a small notebook I always keep handy.
I check for new Facebook posts, scroll through dozens and reluctantly return to the Scrivener folder. I sip more coffee. By now, it has cooled. I microwave it and sit again. …
You get the idea.
At length, I type, “Now is the time to start writing,” just to prime the word-pump. And eventually, regardless of how I feel, I consider myself tied to my chair. The Germans call this self-discipline sitzfleisch (sitting meat). It is their metaphor for keeping your bum glued to a chair for long periods of work. I eventually have enough sitzfleisch to produce “a shitty first draft.” (I borrowed that elegant phrase from writer Anne Lamott.)
When a deadline looms, I suddenly develop huge quantities of sitzfleisch.
I prefer a firehose first draft process to a plugged-colon one. I wonder if there are ways I can foster more firehoses of creativity. Can I raise the percent of inspiration in my process and lower the perspiration percentage? Are there more options than self-discipline and bum glue?
I ask Perplexity for ways to foster ideas. It gives me unhelpful principles for corporate environments. I notice, though, Perplexity suggests a follow-up question: How to harness the power of incubation to enhance creativity. That sounds more promising.
I learn that incubation (stepping away from a problem) can lead to unexpected insights. Perplexity suggests:
Breaks and downtime such as walks, chores or exercise. I nod, but realize permitting myself lots of these before launching a draft could lower my productivity to zero. The Geri-Fit class I recently joined, however, is probably an incubator.
Unrelated, non-demanding activities such as puzzles, daydreaming or listening to music. I often put on easy-listening music while writing or distract myself with daydreaming, but I hadn’t thought of these as a way to take a break. Maybe I’ll try the other two. I wonder if reading counts. Probably not.
Targeted dream incubation. When drifting off to sleep, prompt yourself to dream about a specific issue. Some studies show it leads to more creative ideas. Wow! I wonder if targeted dreaming works. I’m not convinced I can influence my dreams. Then again, my husband Marlo once attended a creativity workshop during which he was coached to do exactly this. It worked. He woke at 2 a.m. and jotted down his dream-thoughts as instructed.
A restful but stimulating environment. As the years go by, I have less patience with office clutter. Decluttering might be helpful. But then again, doing that takes time.
The next suggestions are meditating and keeping an idea journal. I already do both of those.
The final suggestion is to schedule incubation intentionally. I like that idea, but it will require retraining my inner slave-driver Mlle Editor. Whenever I leave my desk for a break or a different activity, she follows me and lectures, “You are so lazy! Think of next week’s deadlines. Remember, you also need time to prepare for your week away with kids and grandkids. Use more sitzfleisch!”
Perhaps I can bind and gag her as I did my inner Hypochondriac.
At the moment, I feel inspired by new ways to incubate creativity. But these processes will require self-discipline, changed habits and effort.
More perspiration.
Sigh.
Carol Van Klompenburg is a writer living in Pella, Iowa. She is currently at work on a second book about aging. She can be emailed at carolvk13@gmail.com. Her website is carolvanklompenburg.com.