Creative Down Time
(11 of 50)
There’s such a thing as just chillin’ and hanging out and goofing off. There’s another thing that I have discovered, which I’ll call creative down time for lack of a better term.
After working hard on a paper, a set of prints in the darkroom or a detailed fiddly bit of knitting, I have often pushed back in desperation and just gone to take a shower, make a cup of tea, go in another room, or throw the tennis ball for the dog.
Invariably, though it’s never really fully intentional, I come up with a solution to the fiddly problem I was pondering and not getting anywhere with… sometimes, it comes out of the clear blue sky, sometimes it all seems to be worked out when I get back to the keyboard, the books, the knitting. If I take a break <i>in order to find a solution</i>, then my monkey mind will start flinging poo and acting very very badly. No, I have to tell myself that I am taking a REAL break because I’m sick and tired of the project.
I have built this into my writing process, usually by allowing myself plenty of time during the working phase and at the end, right up to the deadline. If I allow myself an extra day, or two hours in the morning of a due date, then I can sleep on it and do a final revision.
And it just happened today while I was throwing together an iMovie (which is what I use instead of PowerPoint these days). I finally got all my images together and scored, and now I am counting on a good night’s sleep to come up with the voiceover script, which *has* to be done tomorrow in between a couple of appointments and before the (noisy) boy comes home from school.
Speaking of good night’s sleep, that’s where I’m going now!