Almost all creativity involves purposeful play. — Abraham Maslow
Deceptive Inspiration
Have you ever said to yourself—today is going to be a great writing day and then sat down to capture your thoughts only to discover that those transcendent ideas have slithered away like minnows through your eight-year-old fingers? On the other hand, have you ever thought, UGH, no, I don’t want to write today, only to sit down and discover that you had something interesting to say after all?
Play/Write
Bookflow offers daily writing prompts to encourage daily playful writing. Writing is a mental warmup, it stirs the synapses and gets the brain firing. Let me be clear—I am not saying that you need to make progress on your memoir or novel every single day. Some people only like to work on a project like that if they have lots of time and space to truly delve deeply into it. That’s fine! But fun “play/writing” every day can:
- Improve our health and mental outlook.
- Boost our mood.
- Improve our creativity.
- Help us capture those slippery ideas.
Two Minutes
Scientists say two minutes is enough to reap all of those benefits.
How long should you play/write for? Scientists say two minutes is enough to reap all of those benefits. I like to do this in the morning, but there’s no reason you have to do that. You could also close your day this way, and wake up with the benefits. Or you could write after lunch, to get yourself through your mid-afternoon slump. Be sure to re-read these pages weekly or monthly to pan for idea gold. When we’re play/writing, we often don’t know a good idea when we see one.
See if you can commit to this practice for a single week to discover whether it’s useful for you. I can guarantee you’ll come up with something you don’t expect.
