Let me tell you a story.
Two days ago, I wouldn’t have uttered those words, let alone written them. I’d been too afraid to commit to telling any kind of tale; every idea that entered my head felt too fleeting, too flimsy.
After coming out of edits on two books over the last couple years, and writing a mere…
34,525 words to a new book during National Novel Writing Month, I felt like a shriveled husk of creativity. I’ve got my bag of excuses of course–kids, work, Netflix, life. However, behind the scenes, I have been filling every spare moment with reading. Paper books, ebooks, and audiobooks. Every moment my hands are busy but my brain is free, I found myself plugged into an audiobook (currently: Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune). This is because I have always felt that books provide knowledge and inspiration, the most important food groups for the writing kind. Thus, I find myself in an addictive relationship in which I feel if I can just read–well, everything, then I’ll be a better writer and a better human. I mean, yeah, it’s partially true, but at one point, you have to set the book down (and unplug the headphones) and live. Or in this case, daydream.
So after a veritable Mojave-like dryness of inspiration and drive, I happened to be washing dishes like a normie (i.e. no book being narrated directly into my earballs), and ideas for my November novel came pouring in. Are they genius ideas? No, just little snippets of scenes, glimpses at the characters’ minds, but this is the bread and butter of keeping a story alive in my imagination.
I realized I couldn’t expect to keep on filling every empty space with someone else’s words and have the work of daydreaming do itself. I was living in someone else’s final vision of the daydreaming into which they’d poured countless hours, days, months, maybe even years. I needed to give myself the breathing room to settle into the completely free-to-wander headspace I remember being able to call upon with ease as a child. Good old-fashioned staring into space fertilizes the ground to be struck with inspiration.
Next time I’m doing the dishes or checking the mail, I won’t take my phone with me, because I know now that my muse needs to run through empty fields.
Of course reading inspires, but do you think is it possible to read too much as a creative? What’s the first thing you change when the ideas stop coming?
Ashley B. Davis 
“I realized I couldn’t expect to keep on filling every empty space with someone else’s words and have the work of daydreaming do itself.” Oh my gosh, this resonates so much! I used to walk without audiobooks, and I found that the first ten minutes or so my brain spent rehashing the day or making a to-do list or going over what I should have said, etc. But after that, it would settle down and relax and creative thoughts would float in. I actually started listening to audio books on my walk specifically so that I was keep walking longer and not stop to type ideas into my phone or hurry back home to write something. Audiobooks made me a better, healthier walker, but they have definitely stemmed my creative flow. Thank you for pointing this out! Moderation is the key. Balance. I… WE… can do this.
Good point on needing time to quiet your brain for the channels of creativity to open. I was using audiobooks the same way too! To get me to WANT to exercise or clean the kitchen. But sometimes the brain just needs to be bored, so that it can entertain itself with something other than to-do lists. 😉
I think much like you, once I’ve read too much, I start burbling with ideas of my own and can’t wait to hit the page again. Or, sometimes, I read “just one more page.” Happy writing!
Right! At least that’s what I’m always hoping for when I grab another book…and then another book…and another…Happy writing to you as well, friend!
Oh yes! Cal Newport actually calls this Solitude Deprivation in his book Digital Minimalism. It’s actually healthy to (and I paraphrase) ‘stay away from any activity that involves the consumption of other people’s thoughts.’
That includes music, books, videos, and even images, because once in a while, we need to be alone with our mind to allow it room to do its thing. So yeah, we definitely need to find the balance between filling the well and not letting it overflow.
It IS a thing, then! Good to know. It definitely feels like my own ideas and creativity (and sometimes, motivation) dry up a little in my single-minded consumption of others’ books, videos, and images. What a habit to break, when I find myself consuming others’ ideas in an effort to spark my own. Maybe all along, I just needed some solitude deprivation. I will definitely be checking this book out! Thank you, Stuart!