The physicality of creativity

I can answer the question of how I do my best creative work quickly: I don’t know.

I wrote the above about three hours ago. I’ll return to it at the end of this post.

First, let me describe for you how this post was written. I began it with no idea where I was going. I think the phrase “my best” threw me off. But I did start it and wrote for about twenty or thirty minutes. However, it took three hours to write and eleven steps. Here’s how it went.

• Home office – Apple Powerbook G4, Microsoft Word
• Outside – walk dog in park (about 45 minutes or so)
• Home office – Apple Powerbook G4, Microsoft Word
• Outside – neighbour’s yard, throw ball to let dog run (20 to 30 minutes?)
• Home office – Apple Powerbook G4, Microsoft Word
• Transfer to Google docs
• Dining room – PC, Google docs, print
• Outside – on deck, edit post
• Dining room – PC, Google docs, add revisions, print
• Outside – on deck, edit
• Dining room – PC, Google docs, make final changes

To summarize, to write this post I became a pinball machine.

Pinball machines

There are forests of electronic variations of the old school pinball machine but it’s that old one that I always think of when I think of creativity alight. It’s my favourite metaphor for the creative process.

When you’re on, it’s ding-ding-ding as the numbers mount up and the ball shoots around forward, backward, this angle and that, flippers flipping and lights flashing everywhere. The forward progress is seen in the climbing numbers. The ball itself is shooting in every direction.

When you’re off, the flippers flip uselessly, the ball rolls down, the machine keeps showing, “Tilt.”

Creating is about moving forward. However, it isn’t a smooth, straight line kind of movement. Even streams, which are often used as metaphors for movement, don’t move this way. They curve here, rush there, trickle over the obstacle that is in the way, curl back and around, then curl again to get back on course.

Forward creative movement is often about going sideways or even backward. It’s about angles.

Backwards and sideways

I find the idea of going in multiple directions in order to go in one direction (forward) fascinating – probably because on the surface, it seems contradictory. But to use a quote my brother loves (no idea of the source), “A straight line is the least interesting distance between two points.”

When I say backwards, it could mean many things but I’m specifically thinking of returning to books I’ve read in the past that have been helpful. I’m a big believer in re-reading, re-watching and basically returning to what has been helpful in the past. For one thing, we rarely take away all a book or movie or class contains. Revisiting something helps to remind us and also inform us. And when it’s good, it’s like flippers on a pinball machine constantly flicking the ball back up into play.

By sideways, I essentially mean a form of collaboration. I’ll discuss ideas with others, be it online, on the phone, or in person. I’ll be open to new things – from anywhere. You never know where an idea will come from or what will provide a new and exciting angle on it.

It’s physical

All of the above is really about mental activity. But for me, it’s also physical. I bounce between computers. I bounce between Google docs and Word docs. I bounce between paper and digital. I literally move around the house: twenty minutes here, maybe forty minutes over there.

I think, when you are on, it’s a biological response in the brain but also the body. Mind and body are really just aspects of one biological thing — us. They are connected. I think that’s why I physically bounce around. Whatever is going on in my head, the electrical and chemical whatever, is also creating a similar response in my entire body.

It’s adrenalin (or epinephrine, if you prefer). Perhaps that is why ideas propagate: they generate a chemical response and that, in turn, leads to more ideas being generated.

Whatever it is, creativity feels physical to me: energetic when it’s working; sluggish when it isn’t.

This is why physical activity, like running (or in my case, walking and playing with the dog) promotes creativity. It produces epinephrine, the stimulus that fuels the creative process (or so I think). Going back to the pinball machine idea, it’s like plugging the machine into an electrical outlet so it can work.

And it feels so good

Now let me correct what I began with, three hours ago, when I wrote that I didn’t know how I do my best creative work. I do know. What I do is feel great, mentally and physically. I think everyone has their own strategies to get there (and I’m not referring to alcohol or other drugs) but mine seems to involve being physically active in some way.

When the creative process is in full gear, when that silver ball is shooting around everywhere to the sound of ding-ding-ding, it feels absolutely great. It’s movement, mental and physical; mind and body. It’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.

It’s ironic that something as sedentary as writing should involve so much physical movement.

All images by Bill Wren

Related posts:

1. Rusty Cage – The Creativity of Minimalist Cover Songs
2. More questions and answers about the link between creativity and dishonesty
3. R.I.P. Steve Jobs, Creativity Enabler