I’m starting a series here today I’m going to call ‘Refreshing the Wells’.
The writer Thornton Wilder coined this phrase to describe the trip to the desert he took, wanting to escape attention and ‘refresh the wells’ of his creativity.
I love the term, and think it perfectly describes something I’ve been seeking words for. We write; outpour; disgorge, on a daily basis, but how do we refill our creativity? How do we refresh the wells?
I try to read something new every day. Or watch, or listen, or observe in some way.
So I’m going to post each day what I’m using to refresh my wells of inspiration.
I’d love to hear from others, too. If you post in the comments, I’ll post your source of refreshment the next day.
Today:
The Smithsonian Magazine, July 09. This carries the article about Thornton Wilder as well as a story about the terracotta soldiers.
I find one of the best well-refreshing things for me is to walk the dog. Get outside, get into nature, watch people who might be around. It’s very invigorating.
Otherwise, reading is the best medicine.
The only thing that works every time and leaves me brimming with motivation to get writing more than anything else is con-going. But that’s something that comes in intense bursts 3 or 4 times a year. Much as I’d love it more often, that’s probably not good in reality!
Anything specific you’ve seen outside, Al? What did you see this morning?
I haven’t actually been out this morning. But yesterday at the headland where we often walk, in the car park, was a battered old campervan. There was a guy about 50, who looked like a 70s rock band survivor, and two late teen kids. My best guess was that he was the estranged father, and the kids were taking a holiday with him for some together time.
Kids were well-dressed, clearly more moneyed than the dad, the girl a bit gothy, the boy a bit skater-punk. They had this extremely familiar yet slightly uncomfortable air about them, like they all realised the value of the time they had together, but weren’t entirely sure how to make the best of it.
Absolutely fascinating dynamic going on.
Of course, I could be totally wrong. The older guy might have abducted them and was about to install them as avatars in his suicide cult and drive to the outback for a sacrificial ritual. Anything’s possible.
Fascinating! Thanks, Al. I’ll post this tomorrow.
I’ve recently been on a 3 week trip to outback Australia – Echuca, Ouyen, Burra in Vic and SA and then Broken Hill and Cobar in NSW. The people, landscape and the old pubs we stayed at, the old miners stories and so on have really inspired several ideas.
Like Alan, I walk daily and again, little things like a strange bird call, people grouped on the beach and so on seem to inspire ideas.
This morning it’s raining and dreary but the colours of the trees and shrubs really stand out making me think of hyper-reality and perception. So I started a new story.
I love that, Cat! I know what you mean about a strange bird call. Something slightly off-kilter can shift reality, can’t it? And activate our story-brains.
I love the weird little things that I spot out on my walks from time to time. Like today on the path was a half-foot length of thick rope, tied with knots at both ends. I’m guessing it’s a dog toy but… why is it lying on the path? Did the owner throw and the dog not fetch? Why? Or maybe it was tossed over the fence nearby, a distraught person getting rid of the last reminder of a beloved pet lost…
When you look, and allow yourself to think, there’s inspiration everywhere.
I love that, Nicole! Thanks. So many stories that could be told about a simple length of rope.
[...] in desperate need of some well-refreshing, thank you Kaaron Warren for that term! I’m not one to usually share my woes on here, [...]
I talk to strangers. You caught me in the act, yesterday. We’d covered wearing hair rollers in semi-public, where it’s OK to smoke, how smokers network in the public service, how children of today don\’t understand the pressure to take up smoking when we were their age (we reminisced about the Winfield ad!), what makes a good meeting place and a whole heap more things.
Music!
I listen to music a lot, and I find it has a really powerful effect on my mental state, like taking drugs through my ears. I use it as a pick-me-up, or to settle my mind, or help myself concentrate, or drive myself along when I’m running or cycling. Running to the top of Mount Ainslie, near my house, with fast loud music in the earbuds exacerbating my tinnitus puts me on top of the world.
As a consequence, music is also a really great tool for getting myself in the right headspace to write. To borrow your metaphor, I guess I use music to keep topping up the well whiling I’m drawing from it. If I have a very clear idea of the mood I want to capture in a story or a scene, I’ll often put on music that fits the mood I’m reaching for, so I’m refilling myself with that mood at the same time as I’m pouring it out of me into the story.
Over the years, I’ve built up a whole catalogue of ‘go to’ songs and pieces of music to suit particular story moments. For example, my favourite track when writing the big hero moment at the climax of a story is “Rez/Cowgirl” by Underworld. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FYs9tYv8uw&feature=related
I *never* get tired of that track.
Sometimes the right music isn’t the most immediately obvious choice, and I have to go hunting to find what I’m looking for. Writing the final battle at the end of my story “Bitter Dreams”, where the townsfolk brutally slaughter a whole herd of demonically possessed cannibals, the music that eventually nailed the moment for me was “Any Other Name” by Thomas Newman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIjWaulrLjs Yes, that’s the music from American Beauty.
Once the story or scene is happening for me, I’ll listen through a playlist of similar-feeling songs to the one I started on. But if I’m really having to work hard for a scene, I’ll just keep that same perfect song on repeat until I’m either sick of it or the scene is starting to come through how I want it. On reflection, I think my brain is more of a leaky bucket than an actual well, and so I have to constantly refill it with the thought/mood/feeling I want to hold in my head.
And if I’m struggling to get started writing – if I’m finding it hard to concentrate, feeling flat or just can’t find the next line of the story to get moving again – then music will often give me a jump-start, or a quick fill-up. Today, I did the City 2 Sea, the Melbourne version of the City 2 Surf. It was a bit of a shambles, because the past two nights I’d gone out with the friends I’m staying with, rolled out of bed this morning on 4 hours sleep with a hangover and expected to be able to go hard for 14 km. Yeah, no. I has a lesson in how very much I’m not 25 anymore. Maybe better to say the City 2 Sea did me today. Anyway, this afternoon, after a few hours in an exhausted heap on the couch letting the cricket on TV melt my brain, I decided that dammit I was going to do some writing.
Just a matter of picking the right music to fill up my leaky brainbucket, and off I went. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsDpznl8eIs
Booyah!
Thanks, Ian! I don’t think your head is an empty bucket. Wells empty a lot, too! I’ll post this in a couple of days.