Embrace the boredom

A couple of months ago I was struggling, as I often do, with an unwieldy first draft when I decided to let go of it for a while, work on other things, try to come back to it with a little more objectivity. I felt guilty about taking a long break from a project that I’d hoped would keep moving forward — but a couple days later, wandering through the Seattle Art Museum, I had an epiphany about this very project, and it sent me racing back to the computer.

What is it about getting away from our writing projects that brings us so much insight? Not long after my epiphany, I ran across this New York Times article, which notes: “Researchers have discovered that when people are conscious but doing nothing … the brain is in fact firing away, with greater activity in regions responsible for recalling autobiographical memory, imagining the thoughts and feelings of others, and conjuring hypothetical events: the literary areas of the brain, you might say.”

The article is actually more about boredom than writing — and I was far from bored at the museum. But I could see a connection there somewhere: While the Times story talks about thaasophobia (fear of boredom), “manifested in our addiction to iPhone apps, the cable news crawl and ever mutating varieties of multitasking,” I wonder whether writers suffer from some sort of similar phobia, one in which we’re afraid to not be typing, to not sit at our desks — in other words, to appear not to be writing. (As I write this, I’m in fact developing a new fear of splitting infinitives, but that’s a whole other blog post.) I often have to remind myself that I don’t cease to be a writer when I’m not at my keyboard — the same way that simply sitting at the computer typing doesn’t ensure a great story. It’s all about the ideas, the great lines, the details in a scene — all the things we writers get from our experience of the world, all the things we can’t get if we too often glue ourselves to the desk.

Discipline, of course, is necessary if you’re ever going to complete anything. But don’t be afraid to take some time off, to get away from your story for a while. See how a new activity lets your brain rest, and see what this resting period brings. And it’s okay if you choose to do nothing at all. As the article points out, “Boredom isn’t just good for your brain. It’s good for your soul.”