Originally published in Read Play Edit on 19 March 2012
When I was in high school, one of my favorite teachers was preparing us for a big test. We were all very nervous about it, and she told one of her when-I-was-in-college stories to put us at ease. She’d visited her professor, worried about an upcoming test; she wanted his help to make sure she was prepared. He chatted with her briefly about the class, then got up from his desk and took her to a movie.
“You know the material,” she told us many years later, just as her professor had told her. “You’re prepared. Go home and don’t think about it. Just put it in the back of your mind, and you’ll do fine tomorrow.”
I’ve been using that back-of-the-mind analogy ever since. The back of the mind is the place where the marbles roll around loose, bumping up against one another and setting off new associations, new ideas. 🙂 But it will only work when you release your tight hold on them, when you quit trying to line them up. Set those marbles free, my friends!
I often have authors worry that they’re stuck on a plot point or just can’t seem to make an idea work. I tell them to take a break. Get up and walk away. At the very least, sleep on it. If there’s plenty of time, I suggest reading Julia Cameron’s The Artists’s Way. (And it’s even more fantastic if you can work your way through the book in a facilitated group. Either way, it’s not a book that can be rushed through. There are lots of mental exercises and built-in pauses to ponder.) Cameron’s version of “walking away from it” is the Artist’s Date. (Here are some more ideas about seeking inspiration.*)
So I was delighted when my friend Michelle wrote this post. It’s the best description I’ve seen about what happens when you put things in the back of your head and let them roll around for awhile. I also have heard more than one author’s story about a peripheral character who ended up taking over the plot. It’s astonishing what can happen when you free the marbles!
*Someday when my Read Play Edit blog is “up” again, you’ll be able to see this.
http://michelleule.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/finishing-a-novel-take-a-break/
Wanderlustful 