By Lisa Malice, Ph.D.
In the lead-up to the release of LEST SHE FORGET, my publisher (CamCat) peppered me with fun and thoughtful questions for use in marketing and promotion, so I’m going to share a few of my answers with you over the next few months. Here’s the first:
When I find myself blocked, whether I’m having trouble seeing a path forward for a personal problem that is vexing me, or struggling to figure out what my hero, heroine, or villain should do next in my story, I find it helpful to walk away, put the dilemma on the back burner in my head, and do something else. My best ideas writing Lest She Forget came to me after shutting off my computer and hitting the beach for a long shell-collecting walk. I also found my creative juices flowing as I pedaled my bike along the heavily forested dirt road where my family’s lake cabin is situated in northern Minnesota. Cleaning—dusting, vacuuming, washing windows, mopping floors, especially with fun music blasting over the stereo speakers—also does it for me. As does a good long shower.
Don’t laugh at that last one. I researched my experience and found psychological studies (as a psychologist, I’ve spent years reading these things) that “The Shower Effect” is real. The key to this phenomenon is not necessarily letting your mind wander, but rather having a moderate distraction from your thoughts. One study discovered that by keeping your problem in the back of your mind while engaging in light mental and physical tasks, such as bathing or walking, led to unbounded, random associations—more productive mind-wandering—yielding higher quality ideas as compared to sitting around and trying to think up ideas. So, next time you get stuck trying to solve a problem, just hit the showers!
So
now it’s your turn to chime in . . . What do you do when you find yourself
stuck or blocked with your writing, or for those of you who are not writers,
whenever you have trouble seeing a solution to a problem?
For me, it is soaking and reading in a long hot bath with a magazine like People or Vanity Fsir or simply curling up in a chair with that gossipy magazine or a good book
ReplyDeleteLike Debra, a nice bubble bath often helps. But for me, doing a load of laundry, especially folding and putting away the clean clothes, is where my brain kicks into gear. I guess my "muse" hates laundry and is willing to get back to work on the book rather than have to deal with folding another bath towel!
ReplyDeleteBoth good distractions that let your brain noodle in the background . . .
DeleteI need to simply distract myself. A brief shopping trip generally helps.
ReplyDeleteFor something mundane, like groceries, or fun, such as a new dress?
ReplyDeleteI usually "sleep on it." I often wake up the next morning with new ideas. I take an aquatics exercise class three mornings a week (to tell the truth, we put as much into socializing as we do to exercising, much to the leader's dismay) and can come away from that regularly-scheduled activity refreshed.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to live a nice walk away from work. Lots of writing happened on those walks to and from over eighteen years.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it’s best to put it aside for a while. When my publisher wanted me to change something major that would have had me rewriting a good portion of my manuscript, I was in despair. I put it aside, and a solution came to mind that i was able to incorporate with little problem.
ReplyDeleteGrace Topping