I hit a patch of molasses with my writing. Not stuck, but slow. Slow to get words on the paper. Slow with edits. Getting up from my seat bunches of times to walk thru the house, only to come back, keep working at an inch-worm’s pace. You get it. Slow.

Didn’t matter what the topic, whether I knew the material or what I intended to write. The challenge was not on the page, but in me. When my little-girl self sent messages of self-doubts, I finally stopped. A pause was in order.

The day was perfect for retreat. Snow fell in heavy, wet sheets, accumulated on the road. Makings for a hearty soup – lentils and beans and split peas, onions and carrots and celery, spices for flavor – were in the kitchen. Even when the sun came out and roadways cleared, I stayed in. I let the wind that whipped the door from my hand and frigid air that sent knives thru my jacket give me the final excuse. It didn’t matter what others did. The calendar was erased, and writing group rescheduled. I needed to find space inside myself.

Perhaps I knew what I needed before the decision, because I’d bought a wedge of my fav double-creme French brie the day before. I’d avoided cheese for many weeks because of allergies, letting wedges of fine cheese mold in the fridge. The brie was a treat.

I settled in, watched the first three episodes of Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ My intention to pause from all Doing. To release expectation, pushing, soldiering thru and focused attention. It wasn’t exactly daydreaming, but it was 100 steps closer than what I’d been doing.

When I felt myself breathe easily again, an article called “Why Idle Moments are Crucial to Creativity” crossed my desk. The article centers on constant engagement with technology and devices. How our minds engage differently when we look at a screen (external attention system) vs. daydreaming (internal attention system). The internal attention being our natural default network in the brain. And the place creativity comes from.

What I know. . .it’s not just about technology. We need pauses from Doing periodically so our creative juices can flow freely. Pauses are not stasis. They pull you out of the forest so you can see the trees.

What I also know is pauses don’t need to be long to be effective. Those short wanderings thru the house I mention are pauses. And when they didn’t work, I simply needed more time because the issues were bigger than the sentence or paragraph.

You can learn about digital detox from the article. Below are suggestions for building pauses into your writing and creative life. None of them include writing, and all of them feed your writing:

• Move the body. Take a walk or hike. Get up and dance. Do a yoga pose. Go to the gym or pool. Do the laundry, wash the dishes, dust, or clean the bathroom.
• Take a sound pause. Turn off all electronics and listen to your surroundings. Walk outside and listen for birds, the sound of water, leaves riffling in the breeze. Or change the music if that’s how you work.
• Pause from the work at hand. Put the manuscript or story away for weeks or months. Come back to it with fresh eyes and perspective. Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and I do this.
• Change the scenery. Take a new route than you typically travel or walk. Go on a drive to favorite countryside or someplace new. Go on retreat away from home, whether 15 min. a day, an afternoon, three days, or weeks.
• Step away from your active mind. Immerse in something that engages you emotionally. Go to movie, read a novel, a short story, or poetry.
• Engage in creative play, meaning create something strictly for fun without making judgements or thinking about outcomes. Paint, collage, garden, bake.

As your life goes, so your writing goes. Your creative life and life in the real world are linked. We all need pauses to create at our best.

Photo: Chris Ensey, open copyright

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There’s a game circulating on Facebook that’s hit a cord: Of the ten bands in this list, which one have I not seen?

I found the game to be a gold mine. For writing, and for illuminating what every good story can, and should, do.

1)   Like a good prompt, every one of the bands on the lists holds a story. Either a memory for the person who compiled the list, or a reminder of a story in the reader. My clue came from my own response as I considered my own list.

I remembered the first concert that encapsulated me as part of something bigger. James Brown. An auditorium in Houston, small by today’s standards but feeling big. The exhilaration of being in the midst of 2000 people, every.single.person on their feet, dancing as if we were one giant gorgeous writhing animal.

I know there couldn’t have been more than ten white faces in that 1966 Houston crowd. But it didn’t matter. I was young. It was Soul, and we felt it. I can still see where I was in the room, the low stage at the front, the warm palette of golden-tan and wood on the walls. The sea of smiles.

Another, the best concert I ever walked out of. Meaning best band and fantastic, up close seats. Allman Brothers Band. Duke University. They were incredible. Two drummers blasting. The ear splitting, impeccable guitar of Dickey Betts playing ‘Jessica.’ The ride of that song feeling orgasmic and assaulting at the same time. I still say Dickey never topped ‘Jessica,’ but the four of us got up and left. It was simply too loud.

2)  Like details in a story, each band tells us something about the person. Think of the times you walked into a room with music or books in view. Were you compelled to look, even glance, at the titles? Did you notice if the genres were similar? or if it was an eclectic mix? Were you surprised by what you saw?

My music was eclectic. Some expressing a part of me few knew existed until they spent a lot of time and got to know me.

3)  The game engaged the readers. Whether it was for the fun of it, or something inside the reader was tweaked, or like me, it brought out a natural curiosity in patterns. Like looking for clues in a story. The odd detail that time might not explain. People responded.

4) Like a good book or essay or poem that brings something new to a reader’s attention, each list had the potential to expand knowledge of the world for the reader. Consider, did you know every name on the lists? Were you familiar with all of them? I sure wasn’t. And reading the lists of people I like, even tho I know a tiny twinkle of the person & his/her life from social media, it prompted me to explore, listen and hear new music.

I confess it appears I read like a writer. It’s something I indeed do naturally. But that’s not what happened this time. I simply found the lists interesting. Only after a few days and the spite of backlash started, and I saw poet Laura Hope-Gil’s comment (and agreed) – “The rock concert game took me back to when we used FB to get to know things about each other.” – did I realize how the game came straight out of a writer’s guide:

• Prompts for stories.
• Use small details to reveal characters.
• Engage your readers.
• Expand the reader’s experience.

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