Musings from the Shower

No, toidy brains, this is not an erotic story. Yeesh!

You might wonder how the simple act of standing under a stream of hot water could inspire creativity. For me, naked navel gazing mostly inspires horror. Strangely enough though, I often solve problems and come up with lots of good ideas in the shower. I've pondered why this would be, while soaping up of course, and I've discovered what I think might be the reason.

In the shower, my brain is, for all intents and purposes, shut down.

Now, those of you who know me are saying, but your brain is always shut down. Okay, there's no need to be cruel. It's not always shut down. But in the shower it is, because good heavens, do you think I want to think about what I'm seeing in there?

But seriously, I think it's the same concept as when you're trying to remember a name or a title and it just won't come to you, so you push it away and try to think of something else and all of a sudden it pops into your brain. You see, a busy brain is a clogged brain.

Put the Draino away. I said brain, not drain.

Wait a minute. I'm not sure I like where that leaves me. I mean. If I am mostly able to crank out stories, does that mean my mind is mostly blank? But if it's blank, where do the stories come from?

I'm getting that headache I always get when I try to imagine where mankind originally came from. I mean, I get that we came from somewhere...but where were we before we were at that place? And before that, where were we? Ouch!

Blank brain, blank brain!

Oh! Pretty shiny. There's the piece I need to fill that plot hole.

Not pothole...plot hole. Pay attention.

Anyway, enough navel gazing, blech, time to dry off and go back to work. Did I mention my brain shuts down while I'm drying off and dressing too?

What did man do before showers? What did he do before waterfalls? What did he do before pools? What did he do before he knew he needed to get clean? I know what woman did then, she kept man at arm's length. 


Happy Reading everybody!

Negative Energy can sap your Creative Juices!

I thought I'd offer my two cents on a subject that comes up a LOT in the author community, negativity. Bad reviews, jealous authors, angry fans, and gossip sites that thrive on dissing others in the industry can all sap a writer's creative energy if he/she allows them to.

I've made it a practice to avoid the negative energy from these sources as much as possible.

I've left Yahoo groups with members who have a tendency to flare up and create ripples of tension throughout the group. I try not to read or dwell on really bad reviews of my books. I understand that not everyone will like what I write. I can live with that (sort of #:0). But I don't want to get dragged down by someone who gleefully shreds my hard work in a public forum.

I LOVE what I do. Writing stories that make others happy is a dream come true for me. But it's dang hard to sit down and create hundreds of pages of tight, factually accurate, and compelling fiction. Since it's so hard, it's easy to get sidetracked...easy to get discouraged. I minimize hits to my creative drive by staying away from negative energy as much as possible.

One important component of that is managing my own behavior. I try to be kind and supportive to other authors. I know what they went through to write their books, and I know how hard it is to succeed in this business. I believe we should stick together as much as possible and help each other grow and prosper. There's audience enough out there for all of us.

I try to moderate my online comments and consider everything I say carefully before I say it. Still, I'm sure I'll screw up and offend someone by mistake, or say something others find controversial. It happens. When it does I'll take my hits and move on, having learned a valuable lesson. My real friends will understand and help me get past it.

Avoiding the negativity of others is important. So is reducing our own negativity. Because, in the end, negative energy does nothing to help us grow as authors and, as we all find out the hard way, Karma can be an evil b-ey-itch! #:0)