Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Brainless Work


Man I love brainless work! I've been fretting about the ending of Outlaw in Petticoats. It seemed too short, something was missing, and it was eating at me.

Last night while raking hay, staring at the rows and rows of hay fluffed and yet to be fluffed, driving back and forth, my mind wandered and Bam! I realized I had two loose ends that needed tied up, and a scene near the end (lengthening and strengthening) would take care of those and thanks to my CP I added a better/longer ending to make the story not seem like someone pressed the shut off button!

So Whoop! Whoop! to mindless, repetitive work!

What kind of mindless work helps spark your creative thoughts?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cleaning the house always gets my wheels turning. : )

Danita Cahill said...

Taking a shower or a drive, or gardening is often what gets ideas flowing.

Cute piglets. The white on them is so white. The piggies I took care of last weekend were all white, although they were a hamp cross.

Happy belated birthday, my friend, and big congrats on the first draft!

Paty Jager said...

When we were building the house, I would always come up with a story idea while painting. Not sure if it was the paint fumes or the brainless work. ;)

Anonymous said...

Brainless work always brings on great ideas.

Like Danita, taking a shower is very helpful because of the water drowning out everything but the voices in my head. :) And gardening too, because my kids don't come near me when I'm in the garden, afraid they'll have to pull a weed or twenty. LOL

Dishes, folding clothes, mowing, all those kinds of things help me formulate.

Another thing that gets the ol' brain working is going to town by myself to get groceries or whatever and watching people. You know, coming up with scenarios of who and how and what they are in their lives. People watching is a blast.

Glad that all the brainless work you've been stuck doing was actually really productive for you!