Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Boredom is the spark to creativity?

Saw an article that asserted that boredom is the spark of creativity.

If you are constantly entertained by your phone and your computer and your xbox and your T.V. and ect. ect. You never get the urge to fill it with something creative.

Thing is, I don't get bored.  Never really have.  Stick me in a bare room by myself and and I'll just sit there and ruminate about things.  No boredom there.

But I will agree that unused time is necessary for writing.

I noticed a long time ago that if I had one or two days off, I never got the urge to write.  If I got three days off, I'd start to get an urge, but I'd turn it off because I'd be going back to work the next day.  Getting three or more days off is what it really takes.  I find by the end of the first day or the beginning of the second day, I'm rarin' to go.  But only because I know I have that time in front of me.

Same thing happens on a daily basis.  If the day is going to get broken up by chores or errands or appointments, I put my subconscious on hold.

Creativity is a "shy pet" who you have to give freedom to tiptoe out its cage and sniff the air.

Lots and lots of rumination before I take action.  Giving myself time.  Letting the creative rhythms' take charge.

Don't get me wrong, you can't just sit around waiting for inspiration.  No --you call forth the inspiration, and you coax it, and you ask it nicely.  You can try the five minute rule, for instance.   (Sit at a task for five minutes and more often than not you'll keep going.)  Or you can browse the manuscript, or you can play solitaire or talk to yourself or go for a walk.

It won't just come without asking.  And it comes much easier, for me, in quiet alone space and time.

Not boredom -- space that needs to be filled with ideas.  Ideas that can bloom, instead of being crowded out by other things.

I'm not even reading much these days.  I'm taping shows and trying to watch them in chunks.  I'm dropping mediocre shows -- Revolution, Red Widow, for instance.

I had been cooped up in the house for 5 days, and yesterday I got in the car and drove out to the high desert and just sort of walked around for a few hours.  Sat down on stumps and pulled my hoodee over my head and computer and typed in some ideas.  But mostly just ruminated.

It was dry and smelled sweet and the temperature was perfect -- high 60's.  Just a great central Oregon day.

Didn't write much, but I know that when I breathed in that dry sweet air, I was sucking in ideas somewhere in the back of my brain.

Nurturing it not with boredom, but with contemplation.


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