No, this isn’t a post about trampoline as an Olympic sport (I don’t get it, personally).
It is a post about finding the thing(s) that help you be more creative, break through the blahs, and otherwise deal with writer’s block, procrastination or other things getting in the way of getting it done.
When I am in a very creative state, or need to be, such as when I am writing a book like now, I find myself in need of various aids that I have come to think of as trampolines. I’m stuck or unmotivated or whatever — in a mental space that isn’t working — so I jump on one, and it flings me around until I shake off whatever the problem is and can get back to work.
My favorite trampoline right now is reading books that are somewhat but not quite related to what I’m writing about. I like to read like crazy when I’m writing. It’s the “Steal Like an Artist” mentality: I’m not looking for ideas to imitate in my own writing but for ideas that inspire me to take my own stuff to the next level.
Think of it this way: the trampoline doesn’t make the jumper do a big double-twist back-flip and nail the landing, but it does make that kind of motion possible. Reading helps me take my ideas to new heights with new twists too.
Trampolines fit in with what I’ve shared in the past about my downtime creativity producers like napping, walking, and showering, and how I love to get new perspectives from staring out an airplane window. Those are little trampolines too.
What are yours?
Girl on Trampoline by Big Stock
