Savoring Boredom
Savoring Boredom
Stop and savor life. Creativity might come along for the ride.
The prolific author Neil Gaiman was asked what advice he would give to aspiring writers. His answer? "Get bored."
“Ideas come from daydreaming,” he says. “They come from drifting, that moment when you’re just sitting there.”
Daydreaming does not take any money or special equipment. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.
"I’ve got 2.4 million people on Twitter who will entertain me at any moment," Gaiman said in the same interview from 2016. "It’s like, ‘Dance for me!’ and they will."
(I just checked. Gaiman is now up to three million followers on Twitter. I don't know what the extra dancers have done to his creativity.)
Gaiman and many other writers have talked about the importance of boredom for their creative pursuits. Doing nothing is often the secret to doing much.
But boredom is more than a productivity hack.
By turning down the noise and distractions and allowing ourselves to get "bored," we notice that far more is happening around us and through us than we normally realize.
It's wonderful — and it's anything but boring.
Hi Father, I am a professional screenwriter. When I was getting trained, my mentor talked to me about how real writers depended upon AIC. (Ass in Chair). The idea is that you have to commit to being there in the chair, to fight, to focus. The other part he talked about is what Woody Allen said about success. "90% of success is just showing up." My mentor and I viewed this as showing up every day, to do the work, to invest your time, every day to succeed. Woody Allen might not be the best role model but his words have relevance for creatives.