New Research Discovers a Formula for Creativity

Are you procrastinating, or nurturing your creativity?

by Ruth Harris

Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration—at least according to Thomas Edison.

The point is that writers (and geniuses) don’t work only when inspired. Much of the time, the reality is that writing a book or parsing the time-space continuum is a day-to-day slog.

Edison also remarked that he’d found 10,000 ways to fail.

Sound familiar?

Like Edison, we need to keep our radar operating whether we’re at our desk/in our lab—or not.

Usually we succeed, whether propelled forward by a deadline, word count or sheer cussedness.

But what about the times we’re out of gas or feeling burned out?

Then what? How do you cope when your book is waiting? When you have a scene to write or a character to create and you feel utterly drained and uninspired.

Jack London famously addressed this dilemma: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

Here are a few suggestions. And you don’t even need a club.

Start with a formula:

The recipe for creativity.

New research on creativity from the University of Texas at Austin reveals that simply coming up with ideas—even mediocre ones—and then taking a break to allow an “incubation” period will eventually lead to much better ideas.

The break can be as little as twenty minutes during which you should “detach” yourself. Meaning that surfing the net, gossiping on the phone, or playing with your dog is actually a help. No need to beat up on yourself. No need to feel guilty.

According to Professor Steven Kachelmeier, director of the study, “The recipe for creativity is try—and get frustrated because it’s not going to happen. Relax, sit back, and then it happens.”

Now let’s apply Professor Kachelmeier’s formula to the often frustrating process of writing a book.

Where the h*ll are we?

A hiking vacation in the Alps would be inspiring. So would a beach holiday in Tahiti, but let’s be real: the internet is easier (and cheaper) than a plane ticket and you won’t have to deal with jet lag.

• A quick Google search will turn up inspiring settings from Pausanias’ Description of Greece in the 2nd century to a list of top 100 travel blogs in 2019,
• Looking for romantic hideaways? Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, highlights overlooked gems in Italy in her new book, See You In The Piazza.
• Creating a fantasy world, but ran out of ideas? Let other writers inspire you, but be sure to heed William Hahn’s advice.
• Work with what you’ve got: transform a bucolic cottage in Wales into a house of horrors for your protag to surmount.
• Turn a “boring” suburban neighborhood into a murder scene/a secret gold mine/a portal to another century.
• Or what about evil doings at the supermarket? Worked for The Stepford Wives.
• Margaret Atwood collected news items from all over to create the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Who the h*ll are they?

Writers are told to write about what you know. What do you know better than yourself?

Me, myself and I: A good place to start creating a character, right? Beware! We need to avoid the common mistake of subjecting readers to the idealized Mary Sues and Gary Stus versions of ourselves.

Anne explains what can go wrong and how to avoid it.

Here are a few more approaches:

Make your characters smarter than you are.

• You might not know how to write an algo, but your techy-brother-in-law does and he might be flattered to help.
• Or maybe you don’t know how to escape from a raging river, but a call to a river raft adventure company might answer the question. I once called a company that sold climbing gear and got great info about big wall climbing.
• You might not know how to knit a sweater, but a visit to a yarn shop can get you over the doldrums.
• Don’t know how to steer a sailboat through a hurricane? A call to a sailing club might also provide an up-close-and-personal solution more exciting than any you could invent.

Make them tougher than you are.

• If you ever caved to a bullying boss or a greedy relative, project yourself backwards in time and figure out ways legal and illegal (homicide is always good, but maiming and crippling can work, too) you could have/should have fought back.
• Ever tried Krav Maga?
• What about Muay Thai?
• Does your character seem weak, fearful or passive? The psychology of mental toughness can be the way forward.

Make them funnier than you are.

How many times have you thought of the “perfect” comeback—a day late? In a book, unlike real life, you have time to think.

• A list of funny comebacks might give you some ideas.
• So can a stand-up comedy special. Netflix has lots to choose from.
• Snark is SOP (standard operating procedure) on Twitter, another reliable source of the irreverent.

More (or less) successful than you are.

• What if you totally failed the interview for the job you desperately wanted? How did you screw up? Could you have done something differently?
• What if losing The Job led—directly or indirectly—to an even better job plus, of course, fame and fortune?
• And what if the hot shot executive who interviewed you gets caught with his fingers in the till and ends up in handcuffs?
• What was the most insulting, clueless rejection you ever endured from a reader-agent-publisher who had no understand of genius? Lots of writers have found rejection motivating.
• Books that were rejected turn out to be bestsellers because, in publishing as in the movies—to quote screenwriter William Goldman—“Nobody knows anything.” Just ask JK Rowling. Or the editors who turned down Stephen King. Or any romance writer who has powered through rejection and gone on to earn millions.

More (or less) motivated than you are.

The sports pages are filled with stories about winning and losing, getting (and keeping) motivated. A story about a batter who finds a way out of a slump can inspire new ideas about a character (or an author!) who finds himself or herself in a slump.

• What about tennis star Juan Martin del Potro who endured injury and a long series of surgeries before coming back to beat Roger Federer to win the 2009 US Open?
• Deadspin has the latest sports news and scandals.
• Movies like Free Solo and The Dawn Wall, both streaming on Netflix, are about extreme athletes who have overcome jaw-dropping obstacles on their way to triumph. Their stories are definitely inspiring and may help inspire you.

Even if you’re not dead (but just feel that way right now) obituaries can be inspiring.

Everyone who has ever accomplished anything has encountered setbacks and failure. Obituaries are a rich source of life stories of the celebrated and the notorious.

The New York Times, known for its excellent obituaries, has collected 300 of the most important and fascinating obituaries the Times has ever published.

Search 107,204,054 obituaries by name or by state newspaper archives.

Or maybe you need to get away from your keyboard and take a walk.

The other day I was taking a walk in my neighborhood when I overheard two random, dressed-for-success thirty-ish dudes talking about a colleague who was doing well. Very, very well.

According to Dude #1, their colleague was rising in the executive ranks. Getting awards and recognition. Making buckets of money everyday in every way.

Almost as if he couldn’t take quite that much good news about someone else, Dude #2 finally asks: “Is he happily married.”

After a long, deeply thoughtful pause, Dude #1 replied: “He’s happily remarried.”

Right there is a book with ready-made characters all teed up, begging to be written.

• Dude #1.
• Dude #2.
• The Golden Boy (or Gal)
• Husband/Wife #1.
• Husband/Wife #2.

To h*ll with the whole d*mn thing.

Are you surfing Instagram instead of writing?

Folding laundry instead of writing?

Are you beating up on yourself for being lazy, dumb, untalented?

Katie Rogers explains how to break the vicious cycle of procrastination.

But: Are you really procrastinating or are you giving your muse the time and space he or she needs to do the heavy lifting for you?

Ruth offers some thoughts on summoning your muse.

Here are 11 tips for the proper care and feeding of your muse.

Maybe you’re afraid of success. Anne looks into five signs our fears of success might be the cause behind the sudden need to paint the living room instead of, you know, write.

Trust the formula.

Keep reading, keep watching, keep listening, keep surfing the net.

Keep on keeping on.

Yes, you will get stuck. Yes, you will have b.o.r.i.n.g. ideas. And yes, the condition is invariably temporary.

The incubation period—all those times you think you’re not doing anything and not getting anywhere—is necessary. And your muse’s best friend.

Science proves it—and has even given us the formula.