Let your thoughts flow

By Virginia Winder

Thinking room is as important as creative time.

Awakino Gorge

My favourite places for thinking are waiting rooms – doctors, dentists, blood labs, you name it – swimming pools, beaches, the bush, in big-city cafes and on planes.

But the best place of all is as a passenger on a long car journey.

Today, on the way back from Auckland, with my son and partner in the back and my husband the focused driver beside me, my mind wandered freely, discovering characters and plot twists in the novel I have begun.

As an aside: I will never tell you what I’m writing about because of the advice of my writer friends, who say it’s not advisable. That’s backed up by J.K. Rowling, who says: “I found that discussing an idea out loud is often the way to kill it stone dead.”

What that means for me is that I’m dying to tell someone about it, and that someone can only be my keyboard and eventually, hopefully, some readers.

First, though, the ideas have to be there.

Back Beach

That’s why down-time is so important and also space without mobile devices as distractions.

Solo beach and bush walks can stimulate the imagination, unless, of course, you wish to be totally mindful and watch, smell and feel the world fully.

If you’ve got a project on the go and need fresh ideas, try doing something with a rhythm, like drumming, cycling or take the plunge.

For me another great place to dream is while swimming lengths in a pool. My mother used to count her lengths by going alphabetically through the states of America, or the rivers of the world or the capital cities.

When I swam in the lane beside her, I’d ask: “What are you up to Mum?”

Her answers could be Missouri, the Seine or Laos, depending on her topic of the day.

Apart from concentrating on my freestyle strokes, I love to submerge my mind in creative thoughts.

Like my body, ideas float and flow freely as I pull and kick through the water.

Another great joy to me is being in a big city with a notepad and pen, tucked in the corner of a café where nobody knows me, just writing whatever pops into my head.

It’s difficult to find such a place in a small city like New Plymouth, but headphones and music do offer some thinking space. Great coffee also helps tickle the muse. 

Then it’s to this comfortable place, my writing space, where I am right now, fingers dancing over the keys. This is the place my thoughts come to life.