Writing out of Space and Time

Rob Kelley here, writing this month’s entry on the road. I switched dates this month to accommodate another Maine Crime Writers’  travels and find myself writing this post while traveling. I was out in beautiful Albuquerque visiting with two of my sisters and got some great writing time in: first on the plane on the way out, then in the early mornings, still on Eastern Daylight Time.

View of Albuquerque from the Sandia Peak Tramway–That’s a long way down!

Margot and I call these “hotel days”: found time in a quiet, unfamiliar place that spurs creativity and focus. When one of us travels for work, the other often tags along, making it a bit more fun and building in a hotel day!

Writers get into the zone in different ways and I’ve tried to be conscious about what things have worked for me historically so that I can make those part of my ongoing practice.

Early in my career, before my responsibilities grew, I was often able to carve out time on Sundays to work for an hour or two, drafting several early attempts at novels. But as my career took off, I couldn’t find the down time to do that more engaged work, not in the mornings, evenings, or the weekends. My brain just couldn’t turn off my work creativity to make space for my writing creativity.

That said, I found small sparks, often while on the road. I traveled a significant number of weeks a year, and while flying would whip out a notebook to jot down a random idea, or while driving would sent myself a voicemail over speakerphone.

There’s a likely very anecdotal story about a Nobel Prize-winning author who had a huge hot water tank installed in his house so he could have extra shower time to think. True or not, I get it. I often find that a shower or a drive help me solve plot and character conundrums that thwart me completely when I’m just staring at the screen. “Shower thoughts” are a well-documented psychological state, a version of the state of flow that allows our “default mind network” to surface novel ideas and creativity. (It is also a delightfully quirky Reddit subreddit).

I find that those alternative spaces, and places, where I can let my mind wander are valuable enough that I now try to incorporate it more purposefully in my writing. When I hit a snag in a draft or revision–with some intractable plot hole or lack of believable character motivation–I consciously frame the problem in my mind then let it go. Reliably, after an hour or so, a day or two, in the shower, on a walk, or in the car, some version of the answer appears.

How do you inspire yourself to be creative or get past a writing conundrum?