Unproductive Time–Part of the Creative Process
Writers and other creatives can not be expected to perform on demand like trained seals. Sometimes, when I’m supposed to be writing, I find myself drifting off to websites like E! Online, CNN.com, PerezHilton.com and others. I used to feel guilty when I did this, like there was something bad about it. Then I realized that in the back of my mind, as I lazily wander the internet, I’m actually working on the right voice, intro and path for the articles I need to eventually write.
So don’t force yourself to sit down and write, write, write. Allow yourself the time between writing and deadlines to wander a bit and do some mindless zoning. You’d be surprised how much better your writing sounds when you aren’t forcing it.
They touched on this on Mad Men last Sunday. One of the suits was trying to nag Creative about their budget and mentioned something about how all the copywriters and other creatives appear to sit around doing nothing all day.
Don Draper said (paraphrasing) “That’s creative. They’re unproductive until they aren’t.”
So yes, Mad Men is a tv show, but I still felt so validated. Of course we’re not surfing the net, we are collecting materials to use in our writing.
I saw that too and that’s what made me think about writing this. One of the worst parts about corporate life was that there was no appreciation for the need for unproductive time. I have a lot of that now, and it makes my process soooo much easier.