Follow-Up

After my previous blog, Critical vs Creative, I received a few suggestions on how to solve the problem of the critical half of my brain jumping in too soon and interrupting the creative half, thus crippling my muse. Unable to decide which of the suggestions to use, I used them all.

One suggestion was to dress differently for what I was doing, such as 1st draft vs edits. Since the creative side of my brain is my inner child, I reasoned children love to play, right? So I chose beach attire; shorts, tank top, huge red straw hat and sandals. Another suggestion was to make sure I'm not disturbed. I turned off the ringer on the phone and hung a sign on my office door; Do Not Disturb, Inner Child At Play. I changed my old sign—the one I hang above my computer—from Internal Editor Out To Lunch to Elvis & Internal Editor Have Left The Building. In keeping with the beach theme, I did a bit of improvising by filling a plastic container with sand. I put it under my desk, kick off my sandals, and wiggle my toes in it.

All this was done to give creativity dominance over criticisms. But there were a few flaws in the new methods. Wrong time of the year to pick beach attire. For the first hour I shivered through two sentences. Left my office to grab a thick robe and when I returned I discovered one of my demon cats had used the sand under my desk for a litter box. Won't mentioned how I discovered that. Re the sign on my door, someone is always knocking and asking permission to come in and play, too. Love the sign above my computer, but I waste too much time looking at it and smiling.

Sooo, tomorrow it's back to sweats. No sand and no notes. But I'm keeping the big red hat because... well because I like it.

Rose Lerma
www.roselerma.com