I started using an app that tracks your sleep and gives you feedback about things like sleep debt & energy management - one of the things it thought me is that the first 90 minutes of every day tend to be unproductive, because the body takes that long to clear out all the sleep chemicals.
Well the sleep chemical induced state seems like precisely the kind of state you want to be in when doing creative work.
I’ve read a lot of anecdotal stuff that raves about the the space adjacent to waking up, some artist (myself included) go as far as attempt to induce that state with the careful and ‘scientific’ use of naps.
Indulge in Daily Creative Joy!
Was it Dali who took naps with a spoon in his hand, so that when he fell asleep the spoon would drop, and wake him up, and that’s when he went to work painting.
My tech bro friends do this thing called expresso naps, where they down an espresso right before taking a nap, allowing the caffeine to kick in the same way Dali’s spoon would startle him awake.
But the goal is the same, to get into a kind of peak creative state.
If this app is correct — this peak creative state could be caused by the process of waking up, more typically known the waking world as, grogginess.
Whenever I find myself suddenly woken up at 2.30 in the morning, I do get up and get to work, normally that work is capturing the ideas that flow during this 90 minute block.
says an hour in the morning is worth 2 in the afternoon.
Morning pages
Maybe you’ve read the artist way by Julia Cameron.
More likely you have the artist way in a Tsundoko waiting for the right moment to be read, but in the meantime, adding some creative prestige to your bookshelf. All legitimate ways to use the book, no judgement here.
Either way you may have heard of Morning Pages, that process of writing 3 pages of long form writing and never reading them. What an excellent way to bottle up the magic of this creative state.
I’ve done morning pages on and off of more than half my life.
And always wondered about (and even tried) doing morning pages at all hours of the day, but they’ve never worked as well as they do in the morning. And I feel like I’ve finally figured out why.
Groggines.
Or as we now know as chemical-induced-peak-creative-state.
If you’ve been reading for awhile you know I’m a sucker for how things work, and this framing of the limited chemical nature of peak creative state, makes me want to make sure I use every possible available drop of it.
And that might be by writing morning pages, mind mapping, or just journaling.
Today I used it to write the comic, and as I was finishing up, 2 fully formed comic ideas raced out of my head onto the page too.
It happens.
You struggle and struggle to make a thing and sometimes you get a couple of unrelated great ideas for free!
CREATIVE ACTION
Extraordinary Birds (Being part 2 of yesterday’s prompt, extraordinary objects)
A quick side note to say that yesterday’s prompt induced a very vivid dream, which I might tell you about in a different letter.
Yesterday I gave you 4 objects to draw, today’s prompt is to somehow turn them into birds. Like so.
Add a head and legs and wings, or however else you can imagine making this conversion. I’m doing a similar exercise to develop characters for an upcoming book.
PS: if you liked today’s prompt, you might enjoy the upcoming
“Was it Dali who took naps with a spoon in his hand, so that when he fell asleep the spoon would drop, and wake him up, and that’s when he went to work painting.”
Yes. This is called a “Drop Nap”. Many different versions of this have been attributed to different historical figures, but the first I heard of it was Dali. He had pretty good branding. So.
Ahh! That explains it. I do my best work right after waking up while everyone else is sleeping.
“Was it Dali who took naps with a spoon in his hand, so that when he fell asleep the spoon would drop, and wake him up, and that’s when he went to work painting.”
Yes. This is called a “Drop Nap”. Many different versions of this have been attributed to different historical figures, but the first I heard of it was Dali. He had pretty good branding. So.
(Also. Caffeine naps totally work. Try it.)