The Magic of Creation

From Kate's Writing Crate…

 

        I have the TV on or music playing when I write. This keeps me entertained until I hit my writing stride. Then I hear nothing.

I can't tell you how many times I turn on the news to hear tomorrow's weather, start to write, and the next thing I know, the news is over and I didn't hear a word of it.

        Worse yet, I cannot sit down and write if anything is on the stove, in the oven or the toaster unless I set a timer. I have boiled water for spaghetti down to an inch in depth only to have to start again and eaten cold toasted bagels more times than I can count. I don't mind as I'd rather be writing, but I do worry about burning food hence the timer.

        Is writing a trance? Where am I when I am writing? Clearly others would see me sitting at my desk, but I have no real sense of that. I am far, far away in another…what?...dimension? level of consciousness? astral plane?

        I don't respond to the noise from the TV or the lyrics of the songs. However, I do respond to the beeping of a timer, the touch of a dog's nose or paw on my elbow, a phone call, doorbell, or someone calling my name. 
 

When I am interrupted, I feel the way hypnotized people on TV seem to when fingers are snapped and they wake up. For a split second, I'm not sure where I am. And I couldn't tell you where I was, but I have written. It's the magic of creation—a connection to the Universe or the muse or my deeper self.

"When you write, you go to heaven or some other place that is almost divine," said actor Ted Danson to his songwriter wife and actress Mary Steenburgen.

This is why writers and artists of all kinds have to show up on a regular basis. Get into a routine. Welcome the work.

If you miss making the connection, there's no creation.