Even if you've not heard the term before, its definition shouldn't be hard to grasp. An advertorial is an advertisement disguised as an editorial, and these little bothers are popping up everywhere - even on sites I'd normally trust to deliver excellent content. The disturbing trend hit LinkedIn this morning, when I clicked on a link promoting one of my favorite topics, "how to stop thinking" and was given a glorified sales pitch for a book.
What a bummer! But, it did inspire me to write this morning, and you'll note, on a brand new blog to boot. If you're keeping score at home, this is the third blog that I am actively updating. See, this is why I need articles that tell me how to stop thinking.
Being unable to stop thinking and, let's be honest, a touch egotistical, I felt that I could deliver a pretty stellar tutorial on the art of shutting down one's own central nervous system enough to let creative juices flow freely (but stopping short of turning off other autonomic processes and waking up in the ICU). Better still, I think I can do it without getting too scientific, selling you one of my books or resorting to promotion of the use of copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.
To those of you whom I didn't just lose in that last sentence, thanks for continuing to read on. I promise there will be plenty of time for discussion of booze in blog posts to come.
I'm a storyteller by nature and profession, so let's start with a story. About three months ago, my company held its annual conference. Conference is a very big deal - in fact, it was the biggest deal of my work-world in 2012. At the same time, I was invited out to LA to show my books at Stan Lee's Comikaze. With a guy like Stan Lee putting his name on a show, I probably don't have to tell you that the event was the biggest deal of my freelance-world this past year. So there I was with two very big deals, encompassing 100% of my career realm, all during the same week. It was crazy, it was labor intensive, but let me tell you... it was fantastic!
Despite all the good times had and the relief of putting these huge events behind me, I ended up with a big problem on my hands which I did not see coming, once things got back to business as usual. That problem was burnout. And, here's the worst part: I did not recognize it. I was in burnout denial.
Do you ever feel like doing nothing? Do you ever feel like the best thing you could do for yourself is pick up a book and sit in it until nightfall, have yourself an HBO miniseries marathon, or play a 14-hour game of "Drink The Beer"? Do you ever feel this way for more than a day, or more than a week, or more than a month?
Do you work through it, anyway? Of course you do! Because that's how we keep ideas from escaping and how we stay relevant and how our benevolent maker knows to give us even more good ideas as a reward for keeping our noses firmly planted on the grindstone.
But is it really? Let's take a look at my brain at any given time. Your brain may vary:
I used to think the brain was the most fascinating part of the body. But then I thought, "Well, look who's telling me this..." But seriously, if there's anything I have learned during my creative endeavors it's this: When it's time for a break, it's time for a break. As the very accurate map of my Cerebrum above shows, the common perception is that ideas and stimulus are two separate things. In reality, they're far closer to being the exact same thing. Your ideas are in essence, based on your stimulus, which I'm sure is pretty obvious and nobody would argue the point unless they were the guy that does my taxes who has never had a single interesting day in his life and is stimulated only when I tell him things like, "I'm writing off my cable bill this year and naming my cats as dependents - is that okay?". But the point is, your ideas won't go away if you take on more stimulus, and I don't care if it's reading a book, watching a movie or staring out your front window all day as the IRS takes the furniture from your house.
So what's the opposite? What happens when we have nothing but ideas and no stimulus? The obvious answer is the burnout I described above. Call it what you will: Writer's block, mental collapse, or my personal favorite, "I can't brain today. I have the dumb."
When I teach an art class or provide ministry to someone on honing their creativity, one of the first things I advocate is taking time for oneself. When I had my post-conference-comic-show breakdown, I figured I was just tired and would get over it in a week if I kept to my routine. Then one weekend, I looked down at my comic boards and saw nothing but blank pieces of paper. I sat at my computer at work and felt nothing but the bright glow of the monitor piercing through my eyes. Eventually I couldn't be in denial any longer, and I took a long weekend to hang out with my husband, take long walks through the Old Town part of Hilliard, and catch up on my reading.
Each one of these things yielded surprising rewards: Matt had written some music for his new band which provided a soundtrack for some of the stories I'd been stuck on, thus giving them a theme and myself an exciting direction in which to take them. The walks we took were at the peak of the fall foliage season, and the colors, scents and sounds around us translated into a thousand different designs in my head. And picking up my favorite George R.R. Martin novels easily stirred the writing bug from slumber.
Okay, so perhaps your ideal break from work isn't as laid back as I've been describing. Maybe you have another idea for a different project that you'd like to work on, but you are afraid of starting because you don't want to stop being "in the zone" on your current work. Let me break it to you, gently: If you feel like you need a break, you are anything but "in the zone". In fact, the zone doesn't even exist. What people often mistake for the zone, is in all actuality, a clear head brimming with ideas thanks to interesting stimulus. For you to want to start your other project, something must have stimulated you and given you a great idea. Don't waste another second! Go for it, get it on paper, and let the creativity flow. You'll find, as you do the things you want to do, other ideas will come to you, which could be used on any one of your projects and I promise, each will be better than your first idea. Remember when I told you I would write a blog post without getting scientific, selling a book, or resorting to the promotion of adult beverages right before I wrote a blog post that contained references to theories by doctors, a link to Amazon.com and diagrams featuring an inebriated mind? Well, it must have been a good idea to change paths because you're still reading, aren't you?
Ideas do not vanish in order to make room for stimulus. In fact, they often get bigger, better, and more interesting the more time you take to do the "non-work" you and your brain crave. This is why they tell aspiring writers, one of the best things you can do for yourself in order to write interesting stories, is to lead a life that interests you.
So, stop feeling guilty for taking a break, already! I promise you, when you jump off the train, you'll catch up to it again, and sooner than you think. You won't lose all those good ideas, and if anything, your mind will just make room for them to grow by pushing all the funny cat pictures out of the way.
Now just think of what you can achieve when your hangover subsides!
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