The pause that refreshes …
I’ve thought a lot about the creative process and I have often likened it to an artesian well. For those non-geologists, an artesian well is a natural well that bubbles up out of the ground under its own pressure. It is usually free flowing and often overflowing. Sounds like the creative process, doesn’t it? Unlike a standard well, it doesn’t require a pump. Let’s call that an external push—or dare I say “prompt.” Any writer will recognize that kind of personal well of thoughts and ideas that push and prod us to get things on paper.
An artesian well, however, like any well can go dry from overuse. Tap it too much and you end up with a weak stream or the dreaded writers block.
Heading into summer, I’m drawn to this analogy. Wintertime is usually productive for me. It’s cold outside. There are no flower beds to weed, no golf courses to tackle, no family picnics, no hikes to take on. Sitting in my office working while the cold winds blow, the snow piles up and the outside world becomes less hospitable, I’m eager to write and ideas flow freely.
When warm weather comes, though, other activities begin to encroach on my writing time. My calendar fills up, and I’m pulled away from my ordinary productivity.
I’ve tried—really tried—to press on through the summer and continue my productive winter pace. I found, however, that my creative spring begins to run dry around mid-April. So, instead of fighting to eke out the last drops of creativity I have learned to lean into the pause.
In 1929, the Coca Cola company began using a tag line that said it all: “The pause that refreshes.” I like that because it describes the way I’ve come to think about summer. I can stray from my desk and enjoy some of life’s other pleasures.
The trick is to consider the pause to be an essential part of the creative process. That’s when I go back to my artesian well analogy. When my well begins to run dry, I fill my life and mind with other things that fuel the creative process.
How many times have you faced a problem with a plot or stalled on a character’s dilemma—and after a good night’s sleep, the solution comes to you almost instantly. C.S. Lewis called sleep “God’s celestial nurse.” The same thing applies to writers and their creative process. Sometimes we simply need “a pause that refreshes.”
A pause to let our creative wells refill.
