I have often gathered story ideas while doing mindless chores like dishes or vacuuming, dusting, or sweeping. Today I was thinking about the fact that it’s time to write my annual horror story, and while not quite as infamous as a barber’s chair, a dentist’s chair can also spark ideas. I mean, I personally maimed the dental hygienist a number of times in the first ten minutes. She didn’t of course know about it as she scraped, polished, and flossed away.
It may seem rather obvious, but how many people make a conscious
effort to discipline their mind to transfer situational anxiety into
imaginative what-if’s? Not only does it make you forget your emotional reaction
to certain events (from fear of heights in a glass elevator to standing in a
long line), including boredom (depending on your comfort and the technician’s talent),
but it makes much better use of your time.
Writers with deadlines must often come up with a series of
ideas in a short period of time, often in between getting them down on paper in
story form. Making good use of ‘wasted’ time, is a valuable technique from
which everyone can benefit.
There has been a lot written about how fear can prohibit creativity,
but perhaps a more useful discussion is how one can transfer fear to others,
because let’s face it if it scares you it scares plenty of other people too. If
not, you can come up with reasons and examples for the reader to suddenly look
at things in a different, more terrified, way.
So the next time you have some ‘wasted’ time on your hands,
think big!
5 comments:
Having teeth like those would have hurried my molar extraction along yesterday! Idle minds are often wasted. My best ideas always came when driving to work (with no pen and paper handy, of course!) or in the middle of the night to be promptly forgotten before morning. In fact, I mentally wrote my entire speech on writing a series last night at 3 a.m. Hopefully I can still access it this morning and jot it down. Can't wait to sink my teeth into your story!
I applaud you for being able to think about plots in the dentist chair, Elizabeth. Goodness! I have to keep telling myself to breath (not a fan of the dentist), and I have tried to think about any one of my stories I'm working on. Doesn't work, lol! Yet I'm always plotting while cleaning. Great post!
That's a great way to distract yourself from what's happening, lol. I often get good ideas when I ride on the back of the motorcycle with hubby- or while bicycling- since it's really the only time I can't multi-task and am forced to sit still, lol.
Never thought about brainstorming at the dentist. Great idea. My best time to brainstorm is before going to sleep. I used to just count (by 3s or 7s or backwards) to take my mind off everything that's going on. Now, I'm back to thinking about a story. The fact that I'm thinking about a story tells you the desire to write is slowly returning.
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