Inputs
Recently, I stumbled on this post from Austin Kleon’s blog which got me thinking (in fact his blog is often a rabbit hole I fall down). In the post, he discusses how for creative endeavours, output depends on input. It’s an idea I’ve stumbled upon before in many places and is something practiced for years.
I’m drafting a new novel right now partly because I don’t want to take on the responsibility of caring for a sourdough starter (although that may change). This time, I’ve taken a different tack for this book—instead of creating a detailed outline, I started with only a general idea where I wanted the story to go. At over half-way through this ‘shitty’ first draft the story is coming together nicely—however I’m worldbuilding on the fly which means I need inputs more than ever at a time where inputs are harder to come by.
The current pandemic has me working from home—and I count myself lucky that my work can be done from home. I’m still working full time and society had decided I should also homeschool—making my free time is precious. But, I suspect if I devoted every free moment to writing, I’d run out of ideas. My well needs regular re-filling.
In Soonish — Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, one of the last chapters delves into the future of programming our brains. The authors point out that the technology to do that exists—and that’s reading. Both fiction and non-fiction works (see my non-fiction reading pile above), and diversity in reading material provides better input.
Since I’m not going anywhere, I’ve turned to my bookshelf to fill my creative well. For once I can praise my past self’s habit of acquiring books—I have plenty of reading options. Right now I have two non-fiction books on the go (one on the history of science fiction and another on exploring space) and a fiction book (I decided to delve into Iain M. Banks’s Culture series starting with Consider Phlebas). My brain is being filled with ideas—as are my notebooks which is a topic for another post.