Link: “The science of why you have great ideas in the shower”
Rather than constantly grinding away at a problem or desperately seeking a flash of inspiration, research from the last 15 years suggests that people may be more likely to have creative breakthroughs or epiphanies when they’re doing a habitual task that doesn’t require much thought—an activity in which you’re basically on autopilot. This lets your mind wander or engage in spontaneous cognition or “stream of consciousness” thinking, which experts believe helps retrieve unusual memories and generate new ideas.
My life’s experience working on stories (including my current WIP) makes me not surprised at all to read this 🙂 Not only in the shower, but as a passenger on long trips, playing simple games where you switch your brain off (like Tux Racer), lying down trying to fall asleep… back when I was in high school, class time was a really great opportunity to switch off and daydream about my stories too, lmao. Always nice to learn a bit more about the WHY behind this stuff.
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Jessica Smith on .