Swimming in the Subliminal Soup

I've read that when you have a successfully creative day, you should stop and take note of the circumstances that allowed it, so that you can try to recreate them in the future. So, here it goes.

This morning I woke up at 3:50 am with thoughts of a solution for a poem that had been going wrong for me. I've woken up with fully formed solutions in my head before (see this post and this one) thus I am a big believer in using the liminal space between waking and sleep for creativity (see here, and here), but this time I woke up without the answer but with the conviction that I could solve the answer, if I thought about it hard right then and there. And so I drifted in and out of sleep.musing and making illogical connections that the sleep state is so good for, and the answer did come. Then came answers to another poem that had been stalled, and then some new ideas for two new poems, and then some more revision ideas.

So you can imagine that I'm interested in recreating this kind of amazing flow that I encountered between sleep and wakefulness for about an hour and a half this morning. How did this extremely productive time come to be?

First, I went to bed after reading poetry (Charles Wright, in case you are interested) and I fell asleep thinking about a poem that was stuck. These pre-sleep inputs gave my unconscious mind the suggestion to work on the creative problem I was having.

Second, this week I have been trying to go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual to combat the exhaustion I've been feeling of late. I think that getting more rest over several days made it possible for me to be able to stay in the liminal space this morning rather than falling back to a deep sleep (or even a fitful unsatisfying sleep). I think if I had been as tired as I usually am, I would not have had access to the liminal space and to my subconscious work on the problem.

Third, this week I received some feedback from a poet whose work I admire, some very specific feeback, and it gave me a starting point for thinking about a trend in what goes wrong with my work. Having access to his observations pointed my thinking in a way that was more fruitful than my own floundering around usually is.

All this came together this morning in a perfect storm of creativity in my mind. Here's hoping I can instigate another frenzied storm in the near future.

Composing While Dozing

First I want to thank those of you who sent me personal messages, either telling me who you are as readers of this blog, or encouraging me to ready Moby Dick after all. And so, as soon as I finish the three books I am midway through, I will begin Moby Dick. No new books until I begin Moby Dick, on my honor (though I can't promise not to have several going whilst reading about the whale.) And I will respond to each of you personally, soon.

So you may remember early in the history of this blog when I discussed how I had been able in my younger years to solve mathematical proofs while sleeping, and wondered why I couldn't harness this power of my subconscious (or perhaps my unconscious--still unclear on the difference if anyone wants to write in and enlighten me) to write poems.

And you may remember when I referenced Julianna Baggott's blog post in which she suggests reading through one's current project first thing in the morning, particularly if one doesn't write first thing in the morning, so that the piece is filtering through the subconscious (or is it the unconscious?) all day, being worked on even when your conscious mind is busy doing something else.

So all this came together in an aha moment due to a collision of circumstances. I am working against a deadline. But it is summer break and my kids are home and needing to be entertained, so I am not getting much work done. Also my clients are sending me extra work as some of the freelancers they farm projects out to are away for the summer. Hence I am working late at night, which is not my custom when writing poetry. These days I fall asleep in bed with my pen and notebook in hand.

And guess what? I wake up in the morning with whole lines and images I need. I dream of people I know giving me phrases I will need. I am making those terrific leaps in my sleep I used to make in math, but now they are happening in poetry. Sometimes I wake up at 2 or 3 am with whole stanzas I need to transcribe before I can get back to sleep, and guess what, in the morning they aren't even nonsensical, or not completely.

So it turns out it wasn't the matter about which I was cogitating that got my subconscious (or is it my unconscious?) to carry part of the load. It was the timing. I routinely fell asleep doing math in the wee hours of the morning (graduate student lifestyle) to wake up with answers in my head, but I thought it was the subject of math that engendered this response. Now I see it is the timing. If I go to bed thinking poetry, I wake up scrambling for my notebook tangled somewhere in my covers, so I can write down lines of poetry, instead of lines of proof.

Thus I now conclude it's the proper use of the method, the timing, not the subject that instigates the active help of the sub- or is  it the un-conscious. I  concede that this method tends to work better when I am under deadline, notwithstanding the subject matter. It seems when I am under enough stress, my brain is there for me. How about yours?

P.S. I think I should mention that this is not a long-term problem-solving strategy, or hasn't been in my experience. It's for use in a pinch, with a deadline, and with a very specific problem in mind, such as "I need an image which is mechanical in nature and suggests XXX, and I don't know of one," or "I need to reduce this side of the equation in order to reach the conclusion my gut tells me is coming, but I can't see how to do so...." It's not a way to live a life of art; it's a tool in times of gridlock, or anyway has been for me.