If Your Room Has a View but Also Wifi, Will You Ever Notice More Than a Screen? A Challenge for Today’s Writer
By Julianna Baggott | April 25, 2019 |
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Salvador Dali once said, “To gaze is to think.” I agree. My best ideas often come to me when I’m staring off in a daydreamy way. Imagine how many great ideas have come to writers who’ve turned away from the screen, the typewriter, the parchment, and looked out of a window…to gaze.
Here’s my concern. Many writers no longer turn and gaze out of a window. Instead, in those moments when we need to break focus, we go to social media. There’s a window, yes – but it’s not a window looking out on the yard, the gray skyline, the bulky clouds. It’s a screen.
We might feel like we’re gazing, but we’re actually being devoured. The artist Grant Wood got his best ideas while milking cows. Chuck Palahniuk said, “Some of the best ideas I get seem to happen when I’m doing mindless manual labor or exercise. I’m not sure how it happens, but it leaves me free for remarkable ideas to occur.”
These are classical processes. Artists throughout history have talked about how doing rote tasks is actually rich creative terrain. Studies have shown that doing something that engages your prefrontal cortex, keeping it busy, allows your associative mind to wander.
I love how Chuck puts it so simply: It leaves me free.
Social media does not leave you free. It’s not just keeping your pre-frontal cortex busy so your mind can wander. Your brain is processing wildly and is fully consumed – pictures of your frenemies on vacation, your high-school classmate’s racist meme, an ad for the new boots you were just googling … You’re fully engaged. You’re emotionally and intellectually at work. There’s no room for the creative mind to even get a foothold.
Maybe this is obvious to you. Social media is devouring your time, got it, check, whatever. Maybe you’re seeing me as some old cranky writer, waxing about the days of yore.
Nah, the upsides of social media are enormous. We’ve gained so much — the democratization of publishing, the speed of response, community, the ability to share each other’s work… not to even mention the availability of research on the internet. I never want to go back.
Here’s the deal. We can keep the upsides while trying to control the downsides.
We all know that if want to write more – and with deeper focus – we should cut back on social media. From my perspective, there are three main reasons.
1. The obvious reason to cut back is that social media is simply a time suck, and what writers need most of all is time. But this isn’t simple for the writer; social media is our job. We’ve been told – in no uncertain terms – that we need a platform. And so time spent on social media is work; it’s part of what we do, as writers in the current age. We can rationalize social media time as a kind of writing time, as it falls under the writerly umbrella. That said, it’s disruptive and distracting. And worst of all, it exists like a giant black hole – desiring to drag us in – and the black hole is located in the exact same place where we do our creative work. It stares at us while we work. It wants us. And on so many days when crafting the next chapter seems daunting, crafting the right tweet sure can seem easier.
2. The second reason is that popping onto social media gives the illusion of having taken a break, but it’s actually been hard work for your brain and it hasn’t offered any of the positives of gazing – those bursts of insight that come when you least expect them.
3. The third reason isn’t a result of what and how you’re consuming. It’s a result of expressing. When you write, there’s a shot of good chemicals to the brain. When you share and get reactions to that writing (thumbs up/hearts/a heated conversation about something important to you), you also get a shot of good chemicals. Those shots are fulfilling, gratifying – and it also feels, to me, like a nice pop of a release valve.But part of the writing process for many people is a feeling of building pressure. Joyce Carol Oates has put it this way, “’At times my head seems crowded, there is a kind of pressure inside it, almost a frightening physical sense of confusion, fullness, dizziness.”That pressure is important. And I worry that the mini-exertion and rewards that come from posting, sharing, and tweeting let air out of the balloon. Imagine the kettle’s whistle fading . . .
So, what to do about all of this?
In the book Thinking Fast and Slow, author Daniel Kahneman calls refrigerator trips and websurfing evidence of “an urge to escape.” If you need to escape, that’s okay. It’s often a good thing. But writers have mentioned to me that they don’t even realize they’ve stopped working; they just seem to find themselves on some social media page, inexplicably. Since the screen is a screen – the place your work is also the place you play – it’s easy to shift and not fully realize it.
I suggest being very aware that you want to escape – and letting yourself.
If you want to pop onto social media, just simply set a timer. It might be embarrassing; you’re an adult and all. But it also might be really revealing and ultimately helpful. Know how much time you’re spending, how long it’s derailing you, and how much of your creative time it’s devouring.
Better yet, when you need a break, how about instead of hopping onto social media, move around instead. Physical activity is great; it gets blood flow to the brain.
Or simply try this: Find a real window and gaze…
Do you find yourself on social media more than you want to be? What pulls you toward it? What, if anything, helps you to limit your time there? If you’ve developed strategies for yourself and they’re working, please share in comments.
And don’t forget this exclusive offer for WU readers: Receive 25% off Julianna Baggott’s Efficient Creativity: The Six-Week Audio Series with discount code WRITERUNBOXED.
Julianna Baggott is the author of over 20 books, including two New York Times Notable Books of the Year, PURE and HARRIET WOLF’S SEVENTH BOOK OF WONDERS. She runs a film and television production company, Mildred’s Moving Picture Show,. Her latest book I’D REALLY PREFER NOT TO BE HERE WITH YOU is a collection of stories, many of which are in development at places like Netflix, Paramount, and Amblin. The feature film WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU, based on the novel she co-wrote with Steve Almond, is currently streaming. www.juliannabaggott.com
Cognitive scientists who study creativity report that the process of arriving at creative solutions involves a period called “incubation”.
I think that’s what you refer to when you say “gaze”; or, as I call it, “staring blankly into space”; or, as my wife calls it, “You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?”
Two years ago I stopped Facebook and cut down Twitter to close to zero. Not only does my brain work better, I actually gain more Twitter followers when I *don’t* tweet. (Hmm.)
What I’d add to your excellent directive is a question: Gaze at WHAT? Writerly observation is often reduced to noticing how things look. That’s fine but limiting.
True gazing is regarding everything in existence with a wry and loving eye: stuff, people, ideas, time and even the manner of our own gazing. Immersive POV and involving narration don’t skim the surface of what we see. Storyspinners gaze deeply.
Yes. And the requirement that the poet/writer/artist not avert their eyes is something else altogether. Bearing witness — and bearing witness in vivid detail. That demand can make you feel wrecked. Can wreck you. Can save us.
You mean you’re not @ImAHotMaass on Twitter who’s been tweeting up a storm? I wondered about all the smoky-eye makeup secrets and Kardashian references.
Holy cow, Mike, I actually went to Twitter to see if there was a @ImAHotMaass! Just too plausible. What has happened to us? Then again, considering the source I should have known.
Ha! After your comment, I had to check, too. :)
Walking away from Facebook was much easier than I’d envisioned beforehand. I did so for a number of reasons, but the central one was how disappointed I was (and remain) over their willingness to sell the very essence of our privacy (and to willfully compromise our national security in the bargain) for profit (I see they’re facing yet another fine for it). It’ll be a year in July, and I really don’t miss it. And – wow! – was I wasting a lot of time there! Today you’re showing me there’s another component besides regained time involved here.
I don’t regret having been there for nearly a decade, as I met a lot of writer colleagues and friends there. But my leaving doesn’t necessarily end those friendships. I am still on Twitter, but I’ve never been as “addicted” to Twitter as I was to FB, and am not nearly as tempted to “check-in” there while writing (I’m a Twitter nobody, so no dopamine rush from notifications).
Regarding writing minus FB, I find Kahneman’s necessity of taking “escapes” rings true. And getting up, even to refill my water, is compulsory. I also relate to Oates’ “pressure building” and your assertion that it’s important. I’m working on a series of resolution scenes right now, and I often find the pressure of writing them nearly unbearable. There’s a crazy emotional tug-of-war in getting the sentences down, worrying that they’re “right”, remembering that it’s “just a draft”; keeping the various strands straight, staying focused on this one strand; wanting to just be done, not wanting to be done; terror, joy; etc.
But you’ve revealed to me just how much that tug-of-war can be complicated, and perhaps worse, easily avoided, by clicking over to access the “crazy-town” news carnival vortex. I find that reading two newspapers online every morning, then waiting till the evening news to reengage, keeps me feeling both informed and at enough of an arm’s length. And a bit saner. (Well, at least on the days when there’s no major investigative report made public, or something huge like it.) Hopefully it’ll be reflected in the work, as well. But worrying about the work is a whole ‘nutha story.
Thanks for the insight.
Absolutely. I am not on Facebook, but I do indulge in news site-hopping, checking this or that … and oh how time flies.
But when I am stuck in a story, the best thing is still to go out, wander around rather aimlessly (parks are best, but neighbourhood streets work too), letting my story question float around me, gently probing it from time to time, but not trying to force it. Playing with “what if” … and most of the time, like magic, the natural answer presents itself. – One time I was trying to improve the start of a chapter and found myself redesigning the first sentence over and over again. At one point I found the perfect phrase – but I still needed to go grocery shopping. So I marched through the shop reciting the perfect sentence in my head. ;-)) (And yes, carrying a pen and paper would have helped. And yes, I did have my phone on me, but somehow I did not want to type it in there.)
I’ve about given up on social media (luckily I was never on Facebook in the first place). There’s just so much outrage everywhere. So, yeah, anymore when I need a break I walk my dog or clean the house. Those types of breaks actually prove more productive, because my mind almost always wanders back to my story and some sticking point that made me want the break in the first place.
Oh, how I love this post!
My boyfriend and I are both freelance artists (I’m a novelist; he’s a jazz drummer) and we have grave misgivings about the effectiveness of social media, especially in terms of promoting our products.
As a writer, I’m told to cultivate my “platform” because it might lead to more sales. With five thousand friends on Facebook, 1200 on Instagram, and 750 on Twitter, I haven’t seen the needle on that gauge budge once. This leads me to conclude that in terms of time spent versus net financial gain, social media is the least effective way for a freelancer to promote her product.
The best thing a writer can do to promote her books? Write more books. Let people discover you and dive into your back titles.
People don’t want to be sold to anymore. I know that I don’t. Even if it’s something I might be interested in, having ads rudely shoved in my face while I’m online or in line (airports, gas stations) has forced me to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to all attempts to snake a virtual hand inside my wallet. And I know that I’m not alone in this.
As far as social media and its deleterious effect on writing, you are spot-on, dear Julianna. Writing a novel = hard. Writing a tweet = easy. And you get immediate feedback from it, too.
Social media is a thief of time. And the people who keep insisting that it can help you sell books actually WORK for social media or one of its off-shoots.
Fuck that. I’m done. If I could quit it altogether, I would. I think the dark side of social media (Facebook in particular) is extreme, even from a humanist perspective. Myanmar, anyone? New Zealand? Sri Lanka? These are all social media-inspired tragedies.
If and when I venture online these days, I use a timer. I’m well-aware of my occasional need to escape, especially as an introvert and a political junkie. Going online offers no escape. Gazing out windows certainly does, especially here in Italy, which is where I live.
Thank you for writing this.
exactly. what actually works? a big review used to move books, but that’s just not necessarily true anymore. blasting about it — also not necessarily helpful. someone can be a huge supporter of mine online — and never actually read one of my books. i’ve seen it happen — they often write me after reading one …. having been a liker and thumbs-upper for years and years… and it’s this strange apologetic note — like I had no idea …
i don’t know what actually works. but craft is always there — the work itself. and that is where i pour and pour and pour in.
and now I want a window that looks out on … italy!
And you shall have one! My door is always open to other writers. Any time you want to soak up the crazy, unadulterated bliss that is non-tourist Italy, I am one (or possibly two!) flights away.
A frothy cappuccino awaits you.
I too am grateful for this post. I’ve never been a huge junkie for social media, but I do have trouble pulling myself away from my screen because there’s always one more thing I can get done. I’m more a productivity junkie. And as you wrote, staring at the screen is keeping my mind from working the story issues that need working.
Sad as it is to say, sometimes I have to get solutions to story problems by getting up to go to the bathroom. Sitting there, I get sudden clarity on the bigger picture I was missing.
I take myself out on walks often enough, striding our muddy dirt roads with the hope of teasing out puzzles . . . but in truth I’m working a little too hard even then. My best ideas come when I first open my eyes in the morning, often at 5 AM. It’s as if my subconscious mind was working the puzzles while I slept, so my conscious mind can see something new.
But bearing witness, as you say, cannot happen on a screen. It only happens in real life, with real people, making hard decisions and having to live with them. And us, trying to figure out how to write what our eyes see and our minds half grasp . . .
Social media doesn’t pull me in–just the opposite, it puts me off. I joined Facebook in college because my roommates said everyone was on it, but the environment was so toxic I soon deleted my account.
I tried hard to get into Twitter because it’s something writers are “supposed to do.” I followed authors I admire and tried to contribute to their conversations…and I wish I hadn’t. The novels they published were lovely. The Tweets were angry. Always angry.
I’m all for democratization, but I feel social media has also created a culture that rewards click bait. You don’t get likes and retweets for being lovely. You get followers by being a provocateur who stirs up outrage, fear, and “drama.”
This is exactly my fear. People thumbs up/heart at massive rates when others need support — they need support when angry and when grieving, when insecure… I worry that this kind of attention becomes addictive. Your outrage becomes a mode of interacting with others. And then there’s Munchausen — not by proxy — the original — not as an actual diagnosis (that might be chemical and/or severe) but as a way of being online, a persona. As for insecure, I see — often women — taking selfies or otherwise saying something along the lines of: I know I shouldn’t post this but … and they, in a way, ask for validation … it takes various forms. And their friends jump in telling them to go for this or go for that — and those who are thinking — ah, this might cost you your job, don’t respond… And I totally agree about writers I’ve loved and admired — even when they just post about a delicious soup, I’m bummed. Some dream of them is broken — much less if they’re furious about a parking ticket.
How to navigate all of that? Maybe just don’t…
Julianna, this is such a great post. We think we’re taking a break, but social media doesn’t allow us the mental space to feel expansive. I’m a reluctant FB user…for about 3 yrs now, so it’s not much of a time suck. I do enjoy all the family photos and I’ve even come across some wonderful stories to read. Like J above, I often find myself reading some news article for a break, but you’re right, it’s not.
But for a real break, I do housework and play with the pets. Walking the dog is essential, both for my health and creativity. Also, other creative pursuits, like playing piano, singing, and cooking cross-pollinate the writing life.
I often write on my back porch and the view is fantastic as are the sounds of birds and squirrels.
Julianna, I have to share my story. Two years ago my talented and inventive husband designed a writing studio for me. Last summer he built it in a cozy corner of our backyard. I specifically ask him NOT to run in any kind of WIFI connection.
I have two windows in my studio, one looking east, the other west. When I look out, I see several fir and cedar trees, blooming plants in the spring and summer, and what more inspiration do I need. Certainly, not the interruptions of social media surfing! When I tell others about my non-WIFI studio, they laugh and ask how am I going to research or find answers to questions that come up in my writing. I simply reply that I have a WIFI connection in my home office and that my studio is my writing getaway.
Thanks for an intriguing and always timely post.
When I write, in the mid to late afternoon, I stay away from social media. I wait for the buildup that keeps me in the chair and allows creativity to begin. I don’t like being interrupted, and when I look up and see that it’s 5:45 I’m ready to stop. Thanks for this post. You confirm some ideas that I believe I developed instinctually.
Great post Julianna. I do find social media steals not only my time but my creativity. I think it also reduces my attention span. I get like a crow, chasing the next shiny object.
Recently, I’ve been making an effort to build that platform we all hear about, and my writing suffered. I agree a lot of people are so angry, others post controversial things just to get more interaction. It’s quite socially dysfunctional. I find myself mainly interacting with the same handful of people who prefer to keep things positive.
Sometimes I get sucked in to the circus of talking politics which is almost always a mistake and so emotionally exhausting.
Social media just puts too many damn voices in my head. : )
I like Facebook. I like checking in with friends and chatting with readers. But it is good to be reminded not to use it for a break when what I really need to do is ponder/not ponder a story problem. That’s what walks and dishes are for. :)
I have been on Facebook for far too long – maybe 10 years. I am also a person who needs to know what the world is doing, so I need to check in and see what stupidity the politicians have gotten up to or where the haters have attacked. It’s because I worry for the future of my grandchildren, and sometimes I have to sign that petition, write that letter or attend that protest in order to feel like I have had some input into changing things.
However, it makes me so negative, and creativity cannot come to the fore when I am closed up that way. It is a year since I have done any really significant writing. My third novel is mouldering in the file and my ideas are non-existent.
This post, Julianna, has made me look closer at what I am doing to myself. I have a beautiful scene outside my study window – eucalypts, green lawn, colourful birds, an occasional passing car – and I have an even better outlook from our front verandah, which is so green with foliage, so full of movement from the breeze, and the flight or flitting of birds, along with their songs or raucous screeches.
I love it when we go bush for a few days. No news, no internet, no newspapers or radio. We have just returned from such a break, and it really brings home to me how I have been sucked into the social media ethos of clicking and getting angry. When I finish writing this, I am going to my FB page & will let my friends know I am limiting myself to half an hour a day for a start, then will cut that back further. If it doesn’t work, I’ll leave FB completely.
I need my positivity back. I need my joy of writing back. I need my already developing characters to know they are not abandoned.
Thank you Julianna!