Where do you do your best thinking? For me, it’s in the
shower and/or driving the car.
And by “best” I mean those brain wave moments when you get your
juiciest creative ideas or solve problems that you’ve been concentrating on for
weeks but nothing has come to you no matter how hard you tax your brain. They’re
those sudden, “AHAs!” when you know you have a great answer, that comes seemingly
out of the blue and when you least expect it. I find the “best” thinking is
really not like thinking at all, but more like a little voice coming from
somewhere deep in your intuitive fiber. These gems float into your conscience like
tiny bubbles that pop on the surface of your bathwater.
Let us refer once again to the Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop
(EBWW) that I attended two weeks ago – or as a blogger and fellow attendee
called it, “the epicenter of comedic and humor writing today.” (See link below.)
I heard at least two presenters confess
the same thing: they get their best ideas in the shower or in the car. And I
thought, “Hey! Me, too!” So, how about that?!? Some well-established writers
validating my thought process! I was so pleased to hear someone else thinks
this way because there are many times when I have been alone in the car,
stopped at a red light, brain storming away to myself about some great idea
only to look over at the driver next to me and realize that they’re giving me
that, “Crazy Lady!” look. Although, seriously, people. With all manner of
mobile devices these days, aren’t we all used to seeing someone talking to
their dashboard? But then, I always wonder if the amount of time I spend talking
to myself might actually be a “sign.” So I usually cease mouthing the words
when I realize someone is looking and hope I don’t forget to write some notes
at the next red light. Advice from the workshop: always carry a notebook and
pen everywhere you go!
Anyway, my other favorite place for getting ideas is in the
shower. I don’t know if it’s the hot water, the solitude or the fragrance of the
shampoo, but it usually works with satisfying regularity. Except, it hasn’t for
the last week or two. I had not had a good idea in days and days – well, since
the EBWW actually. I guess this is what they call writer’s block. I was
despairing of ever writing a blog again. But then I was in the shower on
Saturday morning (as I am every morning except on occasional “Declared No-Bath
Sundays”) when my brain kicked into high gear, firing on all cylinders like a race car at the Indy 500. The ideas were
flowing so fast my brain couldn’t contain them. Plus, I know from many, many times
before that if I don’t write this stuff down, it will be gone forever, evermore
true as I advance in years. But I had shampoo in my hair! Quick, Lesley, get rinsed! Think, think, think! Memorize those great story
bits until you can hop out and write them down! I jumped out of the shower
and grabbed a towel. No time to dry
anything! Still repeating my ideas to myself. Slipped into my UGG slippers
and dashed for my desk, holding the towel up under my arm pits and not really
tucking it all the way around, if you get my menaing. Sure hope no neighbors are looking in the windows right at this second!
On my yellow legal pad I jotted
notes as fast as a court reporter at a sensational murder trial. The ink ran in
the little puddles forming from my dripping wet hair. I got my ideas expunged
and returned to finish my shower. The inside of the UGGS were wet. Damp
sheepskin is never that pleasant on the feet. I put them on a sill by an open
window to dry.
Once I was “decent” I looked at the ideas I had written
down. They weren’t that great. My brilliant idea was to write about doing my
best thinking in the shower. I started the blog, but every time I went back to
it, I put it aside. Too lame. So, I’m not sure what the moral of the story is
here. Is it “Don’t trust the thinking you do in the shower!”? Or is it, “Invent a waterproof writing surface
for use in the bath and it will become a best seller at writers’ conferences
and you’ll get very, very rich”? Or is it, “Just about anything can be a good
story idea; just run with it!”? I’m considering this third option as the
possible right answer. I’ll be able to report on that next week if I don’t get
any more good ideas. But for now, I’m going for a drive. And hoping for a
better blog topic. Any thoughts?
Here are links to blogs by a couple of very talented writers
who posted about the EBWW:
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