Building A Mystery - or the compost pile theory of creativity

‘Building A Mystery’ is a Sarah McLauchlan song that came out years ago, and it’s currently stuck in my head—an ear worm that has burrowed in. For some reason, the tune puts me into a mildly melancholy mood and I fall down the rabbit hole of introspection and end up thinking about creativity (which is one of my favourite topics).   

Creative output depends on input—one can’t endlessly pull from a well without adding something in. My favourite way to describe it is the compost pile theory of creativity (not my own, but I don’t remember where I originally found it). 

Here’s how it works: take a wide swath of ideas and pile it all into one’s mind, then wait for it all to percolate together. In time, creative ideas will emerge from the bottom. Right now, as I stay home as my part of combatting a pandemic, reading is one of the most accessible sources of new ideas. 

“At full power, a good book trains us to forgo our immediate environment, trains us to sink into an imaginary space where its private life can thrive at the exclusion of all else.”

Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World by Michael Harris

We don’t merely read the work—we enter into a dialogue with it.

“We engage in discussion with black marks on pieces of paper, we allow ourselves to confuse those pages with something like reality.”

Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi

My fiction to-be-read pile is full of potential gems I can’t wait to explore. I love visiting the new worlds fiction offers (as my preference for fiction tends towards stories with a strong element of wonder). 

But, it’s non-fiction that most often gets me thinking. The words on the page become a catalyst focusing my thoughts. I try to cast a wider net here and currently I also have some great non-fiction queued up to be read (above is a snapshot of some of my to-be-read pile). I need books to get me thinking, books worth taking notes from, books with new ideas to add to the compost pile.

So, if you are running low on ideas grab a book.