Thinking Time

Since I’ve undertaken this crazy NaNoWriMo venture, I’m sometimes conscious that to an observer it may appear as if I’m not doing anything if I’m not writing.

Hubby is most supportive. He says, “Now, I will just go and do the dishes. I want you to stay here and write.”

So off he goes to do a chore we usually do together, and I feel guilty, because I have Facebook open.

So I get up and do dishes.

I really shouldn’t feel guilty. I know I shouldn’t, though sometimes it’s difficult not to. The thing is, sometimes when I’m writing I get stuck. When I do, I like to give myself a bit of breathing space, and look into the wider world for inspiration.

Nine times out of ten, that’s includes one or another of the Facebook groups I belong to that are dedicated to NaNoWriMo. These groups are full of folks just like myself, chasing the dream and making it a reality, and coming up against exactly the same roadblocks I face.

As a bonus, very often someone will link to an inspiring page that is just what I need in that moment. I switch over to Scrivener, my writing software, and off I go again.

To the casual observer, it may look as if I’m idly perusing Facebook or surfing the web, but often that’s not the case at all.

And then again, often it is. I really lack “still” time during the day, time to just be alone and think freely, without my laptop open in front of me. It can be very difficult when I’m around my computer (which is pretty much always) to allow my mind to wander freely and find the answers it seeks.

All this had me thinking about, well, thinking. There are times, when writing, that I just fly along, fingers scrambling to keep up with the words in my brain that clamour to escape. They just keep coming, and coming, and coming. Yeeeeee haaaaw! But there are far more times when I scratch my head and wonder just what the heck I’m going to write next.

Nocturnal brainwaves

I know a lot of folks do their thinking when they’re doing housework, or walking the dog. Like still others, however, I get very little time alone during the day, so for me the magic seems to happen at night.

As I lay awake in the night (which seems to frequently be the case since NaNo began) or first thing in the morning (should there be time for such an indulgence), I find my thoughts turning to my characters and their dilemmas. In this quiet time, with no distractions at all and in a rather groggy state, my mind is free to wander where it will. My lack of focus, I find, actually facilitates creativity. It’s a semi-dreamlike state that allows my thoughts to visit places they might not venture into during the day. I can play out scenarios in my head without even consciously being aware that’s what I’m doing. Sometimes I have brilliant ideas! Then I grab my phone from the bedside table and tap out my thoughts in Evernote.

Just a couple of days ago, for example, I awoke very early and it occurred to me, quite out of the blue, that the reader could be drawn more deeply into the tension between the mother and son in my current story if I alternated the narration between them. One chapter would be told from the mother’s point of view, the next from the son’s. I was afire with enthusiasm as to how this would enliven my story, as both characters are struggling with the same situation, but in different ways and in different locations. Ah! Writer’s block solved, and a good night’s work done and dusted.

Wouldn’t you know it, though? When I sat down to write later that day, all the reasons why I should not, in fact, follow through on this idea flooded my mind and totally stymied my efforts to put pen to paper. Yet again.

At least I could still bask in the satisfaction of knowing that I’d had the idea!

Of course, I do have ideas I can actually use. It’s a matter of allowing myself to be open to them — it’s just that, sadly, I find this is more easily achieved at some times than at others.

Do you have a “thinking time”? When is your mind most open to finding answers to problems, writing or otherwise?

This post first appeared at www.vmtaylor.com.au/thinking-time/.