Time plays such a massive role in creating. It’s a privilege. When time is limited, when it’s hard to reach my desk (or any surface for that matter) to do the work and I’m feeling unproductive, I try to remind myself to focus on observation, experience, and engagement—the necessary fuel for writing. In other words, writing occurs on multiple planes that do not always involve instruments like a pen or a computer.
Often, when centering these three elements, I hear a story first, like a song, which I credit to my father, a musician and poet. Then I follow that musical path like Alice down the slippery rabbit hole of my imagination, for better or worse. Sometimes I turn to using my phone’s voice-to-text function to send myself a note, or I hope my memory will serve me later. What the beginning stage of my creative process looks like really came into focus after I had my daughter. After she was born I gave myself three simple orders to get me out of my limping head and to return to the living, refreshed. I tried to accomplish at least one of the following: 1) Go outside—be sure to look up; 2) rinse—shower or bathtub; 3) lie down and rest calmly—on the floor, the dirt, the bed. Each of these grounded me, which allowed me to reconnect with the creative process. Plus, doing one of them wasn’t too much to ask of myself!
It may be obvious, but I try to remember that everything is part of the writing process. You need to feel and think to have something to write down.
—Nora Lange, author of Us Fools (Two Dollar Radio, 2024)
Photo credit: Nicholas Bredie