my unsconscious at work

A couple of days ago, I had a strange and wonderful experience. I was reading a book that fascinated me, but at the same time my brain was working on a story idea, fleshing it out and plotting through it. I don't know that this will be an idea that will come to anything, but it was worth it for no other reason than the experience of seeing my mind work on two things at once.

Looking back, I think there are two reasons that this happened:

1. Reading forces me into a different mode. My internal editor gets tricked into turning off, because I am reading for pleasure, and this is actually extremely advantageous to my creative brain, because it rarely has the chance to play with ideas freely. I find the same thing will sometimes happen while I am in the shower or watching TV, likely for the same reason. Or in the middle of a conversation with someone else. I am a big believer in the importance of unlocking the subconscious and trusting it.

2. I was inside of a well written story world and this inspired my mind to do something similar. This part of the equation IS, I think, particular to reading and not just any activity that unlocks the creative unconscious. When my mind sees a pattern that is really perfection in writing, it wants to mimic it and starts to unwind the secrets of that pattern and figure out how to replicate them in one of my own stories. If I see an emotional effect that I like, for example, I think about how I can steal it and use it in my own books. Or if I like a character, I can hijack that character for a moment, watch him or her work in my own world, and then take notes on what I've learned.

I don't know that other people write this way at all. In that sense, it may be useless to everyone else. Nonetheless, it was interesting. I in no way tried to provoke this event. It took me a moment to realize what had happened, and I often wish that my brain would focus more on one thing at a time. But then I let it go, and kept reading and thinking.