X marks the spot

Ah, a lovely view. Just the kind of thing my muse enjoys, particularly when she spots that stegosaurus-looking thing on the ground.

source

What do you think you would find if you had a chance to explore? 

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Finding your top idea

By Reg Lynch; The Sydney Morning Herald

I haven't had poetry popping into my head of late. I think it's because I've been focusing on writing prose, in the form of a MG novel. My head can only deal with one writing format at a time.

I had noticed that poems almost always popped into my head while I was in the shower or just after getting out of the shower. For a while I thought the poetry muse liked the bathroom, in general (maybe because it's the one place where I get a few minutes to myself?). Then I thought it might be the hair dryer (lots of ideas came then, too).

But the poetry muse has been very quiet of late, and I've had other things popping in my head, like the idea for my entry into the weather blogfest. That scene quite literally appeared in my mind while I was in the shower. One could argue that water raining down on me triggered it, but I don't think that's it. You see, I had been thinking quite a lot about the weather.

(Lamenting it, really... I love a good thunderstorm, and the weather where I live is monotonous. Day in and day out of the same thing. It's either weeks of sun without a cloud in the sky, weeks of gray clouds without a hint of sun, or weeks of rain. Where I grew up, we got a little bit of everything every single day. The monotony makes me crazy.)

Paul Graham (software developer, programmer, investor, and all-around highly successful creative person) argues that whatever you think about in the shower is the top idea in your mind. It's the thing your brain is playing with, turning over, working at from various angles. It's the problem you will solve. The light bulb flash that will come to you out of the blue. The solution may not come then, but whatever you are contemplating in the shower is what consumes the neuronal pathways in your brain.

Rather exciting idea, really. Like being handed the keys to the kingdom. But it comes with warning: "be careful what you let become critical to you. Try to get yourself into situations where the most urgent problems are ones you want to think about." I think we could broaden this to say, try to get yourself into situations where your creative projects (or serious problems that require solving) are the things you think about.

Obsessing over a negative critique you received? You're not alone, it happens to the best of us (see Graham's Top Idea article for more about how it affected Isaac Newton). But perhaps the most selfish thing you can do for yourself is to let it go.

Nothing can be done to change it. All you do is damage yourself by carefully plotting out the various ways you could inflict pain (real or psychological) on the offender. Satisfying in the short-term. Detrimental over the long-term.

Wouldn't it be more satisfying to let it go, free your brain to come up with something that fixes the flaws, and carry out the new idea? To succeed by overcoming the problems so-and-so highlighted for you? I think so.

What was your top idea today? And how do you keep your mind focused on the ideas you want to think about?

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Unexpected inspiration

I was doing some mending over the weekend... one of those pile-of-clothes-is-so-high-it's-about-to-topple-over-so-I-have-to-do-it chores. The benefit of menial tasks like mending is that they provide time to think. I sat, pondering my current WIP: a mystery that takes place (at least in part) just after World War II. I had a problem with the plot, and I was coming at it from various angles to see if I couldn't straighten things out.

After stabbing myself a few times (the hazard of writing in your head while sewing), I put on a thimble that used to belong to my great-grandmother. And the most unusual thing happened: I immediately felt connected to her, despite having never met her. Grace died 50 years before I was born.

She died when my grandmother was two. She caught scarlet fever and, in the isolation hospital, developed spinal meningitis. Her death left my grandmother an orphan. She (my grandmother) was raised by her grandparents. What a traumatic event, to lose the center of your world at such a tender age.

As I pondered those events of long ago, I quite suddenly resolved the problem with the plot of my mystery. It's all clear now. Thanks, Grace, for the visit. I'll try to keep up with the mending, so you can visit again soon.

What makes you feel connected to others? 
What gives you creative inspiration?

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Spiral Out

If you have spent any time reading this blog, you have discovered my fascination with creative inspiration. So when my husband and I stumbled across this video the other day, I knew I had to include it here. Be sure you have a good 10 minutes before starting it, it's well worth watching to the end.



Now, how often do you think mathematical principles inform music? Sure, we hear about studies that report that music classes help students perform better in math, but how many musicians actually take time to create a song about—and using—unusual mathematical sequences? Not many, is my guess.

I think we can learn from this song. They lyrics tell us to live life like a Fibonacci spiral, and I think anyone pursuing a creative venture strives to do exactly this. They do so by constantly pursuing the new, the different, the innovative merging of previously disparate ideas. "And following our will and wind, we may just go where no one's been." What better definition of creativity could you want? Isn't that what we are striving to do with our creative pursuits?

I also find this song inspirational on those days when I question what I am doing. "Spiral out. Keep going."
What keeps you going?