By Douglas Kruger
CONSIDER yourself a creative type? Scribbler of words, pecker of keys, combiner of rousing notes into soulful symphonies? Arranger of shoreline flotsam? Web designer?
For a small island, we appear to be teeming with such creatures.
Yet living as one comes with its own challenges. If you are, say, a bookkeeper, your workday is gloriously unambiguous. The sun rises, and you know that you must keep books. You have your coffee, then you keep them. You keep them hard!
Creatives face a different paradigm.
Sun comes up and it’s a blank page. You take your seat before the tyranny of formless potential. Who are you? What is the meaning of life? You must generate earth-shattering genius, often from scratch, without the benefit of oversight or heartwarming guideposts in the endless mist. Hopefully you can invoice for it.
Writer’s block is your great enemy. And an odd psychology comes into play. The more anxious you become that you are not creating, the more difficult it becomes to create. You generate head-worms, tie your own psyche in knots.
Fortunately, a lot of great research has been done on the problem. Here’s one simple technique, by way of a solution. I use it myself, and it works. It’s called “creative hesitation”. Creative hesitation is a way of reframing the problem in your own mind, in order to dismantle it and push through.
It all starts with labels. Labels are our way of framing reality, and the way we wield them can help or hinder us.
Don’t call it “writer’s block”. Don’t label it a “creative drought”. Instead, reframe your hesitation as something positive. This is a useful part of getting going. Call it “creative planning”. You are not failing to start. You are circling the work.
The reason the technique works is fascinating.
We believe that superior thinking takes place when we are laser focused. Research into the brain indicates that this isn’t the case. Focused thinking, called executive function, uses only a limited portion of the brain. Unfocused thinking, often termed daydreaming, actually recruits a good deal more.
Examples abound. Isaac Newton, Einstein, inventors, composers – a slew of the world’s top thinkers attest to breakthrough ideas simply popping into their minds, fully formed, and not as the result of focused effort, but rather while daydreaming.
This process is hard to trust, because it feels like cheating. Yet not only do we have countless examples of game-changing breakthroughs occurring that way, but we now have the cognitive theory to explain why it happens. It is called an “incubation break”.
The brain works not like a single processing centre, but more like a networked group of separate centres, each grappling with an issue from different perspectives. Using your executive function only, you will get a narrow range of solutions, from a singular part of the brain. Think of it like a bottleneck.
By relaxing and inviting additional centres to join in the play, your range of options becomes more varied and creative. As additional parts of the brain become involved, they generate a broader range of ideas. Gradually, it becomes as though multiple people are thinking.
Try it.
Instead of despairing at the lack of ideas, go about it this way. Tell yourself you will begin producing in half an hour, but for now you will just sit and dream. Sit at your computer, your easel, your musical instrument. Your wok. Don’t focus on output, not yet. Just tinker. Sharpen a pencil. Click on a file. Read what you wrote yesterday, then sit back and muse about it. Think wokky thoughts.
The point is to dabble. Take as much time as you need.
Importantly, don’t follow other paths, like clicking on news or social media sites. Keep the work in front of you and daydream around it, in particular. Let your mind wander in its presence.
A relaxed mind explores novel ideas. An occupied mind searches for the most familiar ideas, which are usually the least interesting, creative or reaching. Strive for “unfocused drift”.
This is adamantly not procrastination. It is an important period of mental planning. Your subconscious, whether you know it or not, is exploring the problem. The time spent is not an indulgence, it’s a necessity. You will probably not even notice the moment that your brain switches from creative circling to focused production, and what a joy that is. Hours go by, and you look back in wonder, unable to recall how this glut of inspired production even began.
But perhaps your hesitation comes from a different source. Not writer’s block, exactly. Something more akin to imposter syndrome. That can be equally paralysing, and it’s common among self-doubting creatives. Who am I to be writing this symphony, planning this book, giving this speech?
Most people feel like imposters. If you do feel this way, congratulations, you are human. Everyone has the same fears and insecurities, even if they don’t show them. Even bookkeepers.
And equally, the art of reframing can provide the solution. Change the way you label the scenario, and you can alter your own mindset.
Instead of phrases like, “who am I?”, try saying, “I get to”.
For instance, I’m so excited that I get to give this speech. How cool that I get to compose a symphony? Not a lot of people ever write books, but I get to start writing my own today, how thrilling. And sure, I feel doubt, who doesn’t? But self-doubt isn’t interesting. No, the interesting stuff happens when I daydream about ideas. When I start creatively hesitating.
So, if you are creative, and if you want to be productive, be sure to do the responsible thing. Sit down at your desk and take an incubation break.
Douglas Kruger is an author and speaker based in St Helier. He is currently creatively procrastinating over his next novel, House of the Judas Goat. His books are all available via Amazon and Audible.
