The other day, I was sitting at my desk, confusing myself.
Let me back up a little. I’m on a deadline for my latest novel, Ending, releasing in the fall, and because of the time crunch I could feel coming on, I decided to have a little fun— the last little bit of relaxedness I was going to see for a while until that foreboding due date passed. So, I chose to outline a passion project. You know that itch that comes in the middle of scheduled projects to just write a sparkly whim? I decided to scratch it.
It was going swimmingly until I found myself caught in the nasty web of a plot hole. I saw it, and I squinted stubbornly at the cursor blinking on the document, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of a workaround; but by golly, I was going to finish this outline and feel a sense of accomplishment and excitement to propel me forward through this latest deadline. So, I sat there.
And stared.
And thought.
And stared.
I can’t remember the exact amount of time I chased my own tail, but it was long enough that even someone as bullheaded as me realized that it was maybe too long. I was well and truly stuck.
Usually, I would resolve this by either continuing to obstinately spew out brainstorms until I had hammered the proverbial circle into a square peg, or if I was feeling sophisticated, I would stand, walk away, and take a break.
This time, I tried something a little different.
In my office, exactly one of my walls is completely blank. It is a large, white, empty slate. I stood up and settled myself in front of it, arms akimbo, and began to speak my problems aloud.
Here’s what I know.
Here’s what I want to happen.
Here’s the plot hole.
How can I get from A to B?
Without realizing it, I began air-scribbling diagrams on the wall.
And before I knew it, after about a half hour of pacing, shadow-jotting, and opponent-free debating, I had detangled the mess. Unstuck myself from the spider web. Resolved the plot hole.
As writers, it’s very easy to consider our jobs to be confined to the desk. Heck, we’ve even constructed some of our sayings around that very principle: we write “by the seat of our pants,” or if we haven’t hit our word count in a while, we crave “butt-in-seat time.”
But as writers, we are first humans—creative humans, specifically. And our human creativity stagnates when our human bodies do.
I remember an interview I did for a college project in which I talked to RMFW’s very own Dr. Mandy Miller about the connection between physical movement and creativity. She highlighted the structure of the nervous system. Both the creative act and the monotonous task of typing letters on a keyboard require those synapses to fire and connect. If you only stay at a desk, the same position and same small motions, then your creativity will be stuck in that pattern, too—nothing new, nothing jazzy, nothing beyond the same idea filtering in and out, over and over.
When you spice up your body movement, on the other hand, using a variety of nerve endings (such as the ones needed to pretend-write on a blank wall and make a presentation to imaginary listeners) you open a plethora of pathways, and that gives the creativity room to flood forward, like a clogged-up river suddenly free to rush through a network of streams. That’s why you might get some of your best ideas while on a run or doing housework or grocery shopping.
Or pretending to scribble on a blank wall.
Or dancing.
Or whatever you find works for you in that moment.
Stuck? Wiggle free.
[Photo by Anestiev on Pixabay]
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Gabriella Batel is a vibrant young Catholic woman with an adrenaline craving and a passion for God, family, acting, movies, fanart, YA, and good food. She’s the author of the highly praised Don’t YA thriller series, the upcoming dark fantasy mystery Ending (the first in the Element Cycle duology!), and the prize-winning post-apocalyptic fantasy story “Antivenom.” She’s also the fiery audio narrator of Mary Rose Kreger’s award-winning story “Fiona’s Choice.” Follow her at https://www.youtube.com/@gabriellabatel, https://www.instagram.com/gabriella.batel.author/, and https://www.gabriellabatel.com/.