By Wendy Lawton
I’m feeling inspired and ready to creatively tackle a complex project I’ve needed to tackle for a long time. My muse, you ask? Why I spent the weekend cleaning out closets, reorganizing the pantry and cleaning toilets. Glamorous, right?
I spent my whole before-agenting life making my living off art and creativity. For thirty years I was a sculptor, doll designer and later, an author of middle grade and YA novels. I received dozens of awards over the years including the Dolls magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and an honorary doctorate from Wilmington University in 2004. Pretty heady stuff.
Over those thirty years I created more than 300 different porcelain doll editions comprising more than 100,000 dolls now residing in collections and museums all over the world. People used to ask how I could keep coming up with fresh new ideas. The answer was simple. Doing dishes, mopping floors and cleaning toilets.
When one lives a creative life– like writing books– the best antidote to the muscles used in creativity are the ones used to do rote, brainless tasks. Are you stuck on a plot issue? Start sorting the wash. You’ll sort out the issue at the same time.
Can’t think up a new idea for another book? Spend the day spring cleaning your whole house. Or tackle that garage or workshop. The ideas will come, fast and furious.
Need to do more interviews for a book and can’t figure out any new ways to approach the subject? Take a long, hot bath. I used to call my claw-foot bathtub “The Think Tank.”
I know it sounds simplistic, but mindless work is a powerful muse–creativity & cleaning toilets go together.
So how about you? ‘Fess up. What mundane tasks get your juices flowing? Why do you suppose that taking a break from creating to spend time working with our hands refocuses our minds?
I have twenty muses
and they have waggy tails.
When creativity confuses
their sanity prevails.
Yes, they all live in the house,
and no, they are not small,
but you’ll not hear me grouse
when I feed and walk them all.
Survivour gives me fresh new rhymes
and Sylvia does meter well.
Ladron suggests themes, just in time,
and for humour there is Belle.
If you think my canine inspiration odd,
remember – dog spelled backward’s GOD.
I love this, Andrew. 🙂
Dogs are wonderful. They love you without judgment or expectation. That’s freeing. Good to see you here today, Andrew. Praying that it will be a good one.
For two decades, I spent a couple hours on the road daily, commuting to and from work. I retired from that job. When I’m up against writer’s block, I go for a drive. My best ideas are still found on the road.
Shirlee, how do you make notes on the road? I find that I have lost my ideas by the time I get to a place where I can write them down.
Damon, I know this sounds silly, but when an idea comes to me in a location that I can’t write it down, I keep replaying the idea in my head until I get to where I can jot it down. I might let myself think on a few topics, but always returning to the original, so I don’t forget. I sort of make a mental game out of it. I love when my girls are in the car with me, because they’ll take notes for me on their phones. 🙂
I have a ring with small blank cards in the car. At the first stoplight or (if the thought is spectacular) space to pull off the road, I write down enough words to nail down the idea. Right now, there’s a card in my car with “forgive us our failures” and “give us more grace.” I’m not yet sure what will be wrapped around those titles, but I have faith the ideas will come.
Yard work. Most recently I was shoveling fresh top soil into raised garden beds. Pretty easy stuff, requiring very little mental engagement, leaving my mind free to wander, contemplate, and ponder.
The challenge is retaining the various ideas that fly through ones head during this exercise. I tried the little voice recorder, and have not had great success with that. At the moment, I’ve found that the Notes app in my phone is a good option, as I rarely am without the phone.
I have had unexpected ideas come to me when I’m chopping vegetables for supper. I don’t know what it is that spurs the ideas, but I’m thankful for them. I sometimes think that maybe, because our hands are occupied on the mindless task, our brains have the freedom to just wander and create since it’s not “on” in the moment.
Scrubbing toilet, cleaning oven, driving alone, these are all times when ideas spring forth. But the ultimate is a long soak in my own hundred-year-old claw foot tub. As for remembering, if I can create a mental you-tube, it’s easier to remember.
Without a doubt, my best ideas come to me when I’m in the shower. Not sure why, but that’s the way my mind works.
Same for me, Cheryl. I think because I’m relaxed and somehow my heart is in a vulnerable place.
I love these down-to-earth blog posts! Writer’s block is often our reality. I honestly think any mundane task would work for me in finding direction, because I can concentrate on my mental task at hand. And that’s the key for me … giving all my focus to the direction I’m looking for regarding my writing. I, too, find best results when I’m in a hot shower and hot bath. But I can’t have several things flooding my mind at once, like I normally do. Tough places require me focusing in on that one thing I need to find, giving it my undivided attention. I need to put my heart in my character’s place. I often beg God for ideas, too. One of my favorite authors said that her path comes more easily to her when she gets to know her characters better and falls in love with them. If she doesn’t love them, she gets stuck, and she knows her first goal is to delve deeper into their lives.
I come up with my best ideas when I’m vacuuming the house!
Road trips when I’m driving through familiar territory alone have always fired up my writer’s brain.
Ha! Good ideas, Wendy, but I’m hiding this post from my household because I don’t want them thinking I need to clean toilets every time I stare off into space.
I do have a waterproof pad and pencil in the shower for when ideas spark.
I have a horse that I keep on my property. I have plenty of routine, mundane chores every single day, rain or shine, weekdays, weekends, and holidays. As bad as it sounds, some of my best ideas happen when I’m shoveling manure.
What a unique blog! I bet our minds go into overdrive to find creative ideas to get out of doing anymore hard work!
Such a great point though…balancing our lives is a wonderful on-going adventure. The cerebral and the physical.
I’m a stay-at-home mom, so housework, cooking, yard work are all my ways of refocusing. Thank you, Wendy!
I love this! “mindless work is a powerful muse–creativity & cleaning toilets go together.” I find ideas flow when I’m on my daily walk, in the shower, or drifting off to sleep. I’ve learned to keep a notepad handy, and am now making notes on my phone.
I am in complete agreement, Wendy! A shower or a walk are my favorites, and I often have to be stern with myself about turning off the podcasts or radio while I clean because I miss out on the ideas otherwise. I also find all these tasks great for prayer, which often leads to new ideas and solutions too.