Writing in the latest email newsletter from Tor/Forge Books, Cory Doctorow says:

“All creative endeavor begins with just fooling around, not doing much of anything, just noodling and letting the different parts of your mind talk to each other. Science and art and invention spring forth when we do the unexpected and so coax our brains into letting some imaginative combinations of ideas and concepts jangle together.”

This is so true. I find time off to be as important to the creative process as time spent in front of a keyboard. Reading novels, listening to the radio, watching TV – they all have their part to play in replenishing the imagination. The mind needs distractions in order to make connections. It’s like a muscle: after working hard, it needs time to recover and grow. The unconcious mind needs time to play with the pieces of information it collects, to turn them around and around in order to see how they fit together. This is why some of the best story ideas I’ve ever had are the ones that struck me while driving on the motorway or getting into the bath.