Cleaning the Slate
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I enjoy doing crossword puzzles in the morning, as a companion to my breakfast. I believe they stretch your mind nicely and also constantly reacquaint you with the wonders of words. How many different ways a clue can be taken! Words are magically multi-faceted. It’s a lovely reminder for a writer. I am not a purist and so sometimes when I get stuck, I look up the answer (you would not believe how many sites there are that provide this service.) I don’t believe it is cheating, because it is how I learn.
I do have one rule, though, which is that I must get to the absolute end of my rope and be really, really stuck before I turn to my phone. And that often means that I leave a half-completed puzzle and return to it later in the day. It never fails to amaze me that the clue that flummoxed me at breakfast is ridiculously obvious come lunchtime.
I thought about this today when leafing through Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. The book just came today and I couldn’t leap at it fast enough. I’m reading several books at the moment, so I can’t officially start it but that didn’t stop me from leafing through it. And the chapter that leapt out at me is titled, Clean Slate.
Rubin, the legendary producer, is writing about music, but of course everything he says is applicable to all kind of creativity. Here’s what he wrote about cleaning the slate:
“If we train ourselves to step away from the work, to truly detach from it, to distract ourselves completely, to dive fully into something else…
After being away for a long period of time, when we come back, we just may be able to see if as if for the first time.
This is the practice of cleaning the slate. The ability to create as an artist and experience the work as a first-time viewer, dropping baggage from the past of what you thought you wanted the work to be. The mission is to be in the present moment with the work.”
Coincidentally, as I was working on this post, a writer in my twice-weekly zoom writing group said he was happy and had a lot of momentum going because he was approaching his writing from a new angle. He was able to “drop baggage” of what he thought the novel should be and proceed forward and become present with what the work itself wanted to be.
It’s a fact of the writing life that there will be moments when you will get stuck. With luck and a positive mindset (I like to repeat to myself, this is easy, this is easy, this is easy when I’m stuck), this won’t last long. But training yourself to look at things with a clean slate or fresh mind can help. While Rubin in this section is talking about the final stages of producing a song, (“the mix”), giving yourself a fresh take on your work can be useful at any stage.
So how does one do this?
Some thoughts:
Walk away, as in the crossword puzzle example. It’s amazing what your mind can produce if you let your brain cells cogitate. Allow your mind to make connections and come up with new ideas by not thinking about it for awhile. If you work from home, put a load of laundry in or do the dishes. If you’re in office, talk to a colleague or go grab a cup of coffee.
Work on something else. If you’re comfortable focusing on multiple writing projects at once, switch to another one.
Meditate, if you are so inclined, take a walk, or indulge in something that produces repetitive action, like knitting, gardening or assembling legos with your child. (I’ve got legos on the mind, having just visited the local Bricks and MiniFigs store with grandchild #4 yesterday.)
The idea here is to give your brain a vacation so it can come at the work fresh. It’s not so important what you do as that you actually do it. Sometimes we get so into our work that we write and write and write and don’t give ourselves a break from it.
Do you have a system for cleaning the slate? I’d love to hear about it. Please comment or hit reply to this newsletter.
Paid subscriptions
I’m planning my first workshop for paid subscribers. It will be sometime in September after everyone has gotten back into their routines and the topic is going to be, wait for it: Plotting for Pantsers and Pantsing for Plotters. Several of my clients requested this and I cannot wait to dig in. When it comes to plotting and pantsing, most will convince you that never the twain shall meet. But I think each camp has much to offer the other and that often a middle road is the best. I’ll explain all in the workshop!
When you subscribe at the $8 a month level, you’ll get access to this class and others I’ll offer monthly going forward. Founding members get a one-on-one coaching session upon sign-up!