Today, the AWP2024 is on a Writers’ Retreat so, although I’m writing, I’m also a bit distracted; thinking about whether the weather will allow us to go for a lunchtime walk, scouring the room for raised hands and listening for noises to squash.
So my mind is drifting a bit… and, when that happens, I typically end up with loads of new ideas for more projects.
In part, I blame my subconscious and its desire to postpone the moments of actually writing, finishing and submitting by swamping me with new ideas that seem oh-so-shiny and that require attention immediately. But maybe it’s also the natural state of an enquiring mind; I start reading and thinking about one thing, and all of a sudden, I can see how it connects with everything else that’s been buzzing around in my brain.
Although this doesn’t happen for everyone. I remember a researcher asking me once “Where do you get new research ideas from?”.
And it hasn’t been happening for me either, recently. I’ve been holding on to a long list of planned publications that I’ve been determined to get to, but haven’t quite reached. The upshot of that is that I’ve not done the big publications, and so I’ve not gotten to the little ones either. And everything has, therefore, sat in a drawer in my head and gathered dust, and gone a little moldy.
And, in the midst of all of that, new ideas have stopped coming.
But now, I’m generating ideas again… and I think it’s because I ignored the ‘big’ projects for once, and started with something small and that I can complete reasonably quickly.
Suddenly, it’s given me the momentum I needed to engage with the writing in a fresh way, and my brain has woken up.
So maybe there’s something to learn here… that although big projects are valuable, they can be too big to keep your momentum going. Particularly if you can feel yourself slowing down.
I guess, rather like picking too high a gear to get up a hill in a car. If you’re in a place where you need more revs, you have to drop a gear… or pick a more ‘revvy’ project.
I think, particularly post-covid, post career shift, post (lots of other things) I’ve been holding onto trying for something that’s too big. Striving, if you like, for too-high-a gear.
It’s only as I’ve dropped a gear and gone more revvy, that my brain has found a more productive working speed, and is beginning to respond in a way that I recognise is more creative.
The Garage of Books 