I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out how this scene I’m working on in Heart of a Dragon needs to flow. Part of the problem is post-COVID brain fog (or as I prefer to call it, “molasses brain” because it feels more like trying to wade through molasses to think than fog). Another part is that I may have outputted too much and need to input (I’m a #1 Input on the Clifton Strengths, which means I need to take in all… the… things—books, TV shows, movies, outdoor scenery, people watching… everything—in order to be at my creative best).
So, when the hubs asked if I wanted to take a drive to Bozeman, I thought, why not?
It was a beautiful day for a 2-hour-each-way drive. Spring is finally gaining a foothold here in Montana, and today’s weather has been a mix of sunshine and rain squalls and tiny thunder storms, which made for a delightful mix of light. As a hobby photographer, I am especially sensitive to how the light plays over things and landscapes, so the contrast was mesmerizing. Golden afternoon sunlight here. Silver, rain-filtered sunlight there highlighting newly green hillsides there. Bruised blue-gray shadows off in the distance. In short, it was a perfect day for using “outdoor scenery” as input for my creative brain because, oh, the flashes of scenes the varied weather sparks!
When we arrived home, I felt refreshed and ready to get back to writing. And when I sat down with the iPad and Apple Pencil and a document in Good Notes (my current go-to set up for writing), it was like I wasn’t struggling to figure out this scene just this morning. In the short time I had left of the evening, I wrote a quick 500+ words and jotted notes for what happens next so I’ll be ready to jump right back into it tomorrow.
Sometimes I forget how useful a simple change of scenery can be to my creativity. Consider my freshly reminded.