Daydream believer

Over the long weekend, we did a bit of house cleaning to prepare for dinner guests. There was sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, and plenty of scooping the cat boxes. Glamorous, I know, but I enjoyed the work  in a way. It gave me time to daydream.

In my last post, I talked about taking the time to step away from writing projects and recreate and well-fill. There are many ways you can do this: go to a museum, read a story from your favorite author, climb a mountain.

Sometimes, life doesn’t cut you much slack, though. You can’t always find the time on a busy Saturday to go to that art gallery or curl up in the backyard hammock with a favorite book. But you can always let your imagination roam. Even while cleaning a litter box (okay, especially while cleaning the litter box).

Daydreaming has a bit of a stigma, doesn’t it? We grow up being told by our teachers and sometimes even our parents to “pay attention,” and “stop daydreaming.” Now, I’m not saying you should totally blow off those important moments. There are times when you should be paying attention: on the commute home, when your SO is talking to you, when the flight attendant is demonstrating how to use the seat cushion as a floation device…

We all daydream, so it isn’t exactly groundbreaking advice to suggest doing more of it, I know. What I hope you’ll do when you daydream is give yourself permission to enjoy it. Don’t feel like you have to work out your problems (in life, in your story) while you sweep the floor or do the dishes. In fact, it works better if you don’t think too hard about the important stuff.

When there’s no pressure to perform, no word count goal or submission deadline, the brain has an amazing ability to figure out the perfect solution to your nagging problems while it is engaged in pure play. So daydream, imaginate, woolgather!

Some of that fleece is gold.