Obscuradrome Patreon Essays: Archive #1

This is a reprint of an essay from my now terribly neglected patreon. I'm still undecided about what to do with my patreon, so before I decide to completely nuke it from orbit, I'm going through my essays there and posting them here for posterity. Hopefully, readers will get something out these ... at least I hope so.

Enjoy!

Let's talk about the Mundane.

The only tried and true writing rule I know of is: Ass in the seat. That's how words get on the page. If you don't write it, no one will read it. Makes sense. But creatives are always creating, even when their ass is not in the seat. We are the dreamers. Now, it would be nice to sleep all the time, hit that beautiful and sweet REM dream state, and get inspiration that way. And it does happen. But then, we can't sleep all the time. We may want to due to various issues ... ie. insomnia. But for most of us, even those with insomnia, a lot of our dreaming takes place while we're awake, and usually when we're involved in a mundane task.

Like showering, using the restroom, brushing our teeth, data entry at the job, cutting the grass. A lot of kickass ideas have come to me while cutting grass. Hell, I figured out the ending to many a story while pushing a mower up and down a lawn. It doesn't happen all the time, but it has happened enough times for me to notice. I've begun to relish the mundane. It's an easy way to get your mind off of pressing matters, like navigating around all the bullshit in life like bills, getting the groceries, and dealing with insurance companies on the phone.

Relationships with family, friends, significant others, and children don't qualify as bullshit, but even these necessary and extremely fulfilling things in our lives can, and sometimes do, get in the way of creativity.

So yeah, take care of your people first, always.

But the rest of it, the bullshit, crushes creativity.

So why not harness the mundane?

Pushing a mower is an easy enough task, but hell, even taking a shower can allow your mind to wander while you go through the cleansing of the body process. And that's what you want ... mind wandering.

Relax your brain.

Let all the bullshit rinse off.

I find the best way is to imagine conversations with your characters. They don't need names, and sometimes you don't even need to use any of what you dream up. The idea is to get lost in the moment. If that doesn't work, think about how characters might fit into your story. Who would work best to make your idea as dynamic as possible? Stuck and can't figure out why? Dwell on it. Admittedly, this is sometimes easier said than done, but with a little effort, you'll be glad you let everything troublesome slip from your grasp. That bullshit is still going to be there, waiting for you to quit daydreaming. It's not going anywhere. But if you harness the mundane, you can escape its clutches, if only for a little while, and dream the fantastic.

And when you have one of those AHA moments, make sure to write it down as soon as possible. Those daydream eurekas are extremely slippery to hold on to. Write it down, or you'll be like me a few years back, staring at an empty folder on my drive called Sugar Witches wondering what the hell I was thinking when I created the folder. (I eventually figured it out, but it took a while, and another daydream session while harnessing the mundane to make the connection.)

Harness the mundane. Dream it, write it down, and get to creating.

peace&love