Picking Up Post Threads 2: “One Vital Part of My Process’
Continuing on with my process of bouncing a few blog conversations out of “comments” and back into “posts,” I thought I’d come back to last Sunday’s post, “About Revision: One Vital Part of My Process”, in which I discussed “morning pages”.
You can read the full post here, but the essence of my post was how useful I found morning pages in order to both ‘get writing’ and also to resolve issues of plot and character development, continuity and consistency while revising—which I am currently doing with my second-in-series, The Gathering of the Lost.
Catherine responded with an interesting link to the Quiet: Power of Introverts blog and an article on 7 Tips for Busting Through Fear and Being More Creative. The particular tip that Catherine was referencing was number 6—Work at night when your cortisol levels are lower.
The essence of what the author, Susan Cain, is saying is this:
” … Cortisol is a stress hormone, and it peaks in the morning and steadily dissipates throughout the day.
So while you probably think most clearly first thing in the morning, you may be at your least inhibited at night. I’ve noticed that interesting turns of phrase and associative leaps come much more easily in the evening hours. And indeed creativity researchers believe that a relaxed brain, a brain that is not in the grip of anxiety or blocked by other psychological barriers, is a more creative brain.”
I am not sure of the science behind the cortisol correlation, but will take it on faith for the purposes of this post. I was also interested in the observation that (because of cortisol, by implication) ” … while you probably think most clearly first thing in the morning, you may be at your least inhibited at night.” [Emphasis mine.]
I still believe that to a certain extent morning vs night, lark or owl, will come down to personal constitution. For example, as I admitted in the comments, I appear incapable of “all-nighters”—I just can’t last the distance; no stamina, clearly 😉 —but will very happily work through until 11 pm or 12 midnight when on a writing roll. With regards creativity, therefore, my experience is not out-of-sync with Ms. Cain’s observation; with respect to being clearer in the mornings, our views match (the reason for the emphasis added above.)
For me, in terms of “getting clear” about what’s going down with my story and where things are heading, the “morning pages”—that fresh-off-the-blocks, stream-of-consciousness start to the day—are undoubtedly an effective tool. For example, yesterday morning I used the three pages to explore directions for four potential plot threads arising out of the revision I’m currently working on—two for later in this current book, but two looking ahead to the books to come. Obviously I’m very careful to write up those notes after I’ve finished the morning pages as well!
But coming back to night-time creativity, I do always keep a pen and paper handy at my bedside, to make sure I capture any ideas that spark along the boundary between waking and sleeping. Mind you, I always have a pen and paper handy anyway, both in the house and in my bag (and have been known to beg paper napkins and pens in cafes when the paper/pen reserve in the bag has either been left behind or used up, in order to capture new ideas—possibly arising because of Ms Cain’s point 3: “Coffee is magic” 😉 )
What I’m saying here (with a respectful nod to the coffee) is that the act of writing itself begets further creativity, at whatever time of day one engages in it. And the more we write, the more the ideas spark and the more creative we become … How many of you, I wonder, have also experienced the phenomenon that I call “run-on”—when you have been working hard on the writing (or similarly intense project) for an uninterrupted period but you know it’s time for a break—and as soon as you get up and go to get coffee or lunch, or just tidy your workspace a bit as wind-down, the quick rush of the “next” ideas come, not unlike certain kinds of engines that “run on” even when the motor has been switched off?
I suspect this may be why the “morning pages” work so effectively for me: I am naturally a morning person to start with; I am tapping into the clarity of the early morning period—what I described previously as “my subconscious telling me what it’s resolved while I’ve been sleeping”; and I am using the act of writing itself to generate creativity—a process that is enhanced (exponentially) if I am disciplined about doing the pages regularly, i.e with any practive, the more frequently we do it the more quickly and easily we get back to the ‘highest point’ of where we were before.
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By the way, Ms Cain’s 7 tips (to bust through fear and be more creative) are:
1. Know that you’re in good company.
2. When it comes to social media, think self-expression, not self-promotion.
3. Coffee is magic.
4. Train yourself, a la Pavlov, to associate creative work with pleasure.
5. Work alone (or “alone together” – for example, sitting by yourself in a coffee shop or library).
6. Work at night when your cortisol levels are lower.
7. Strengthen your backbone, and therefore your confidence, in small steps.
Each tip comes with a paragraph or so of explanation/discussion so it’s well worth checking out the full post, here.