How can we be bored?
Every writer has their own process. Whether or not you experience(d) writer’s block or you compulsively maintain a morning writing ritual – one thing that affects all writers is boredom.
How can writers be bored? Stories are waiting everywhere. There’s always another to revise.
Maybe not being bored is the problem. That was the subject proposed on an NPR segment I was listening to a few weeks ago. Since then I have followed the progress of the Bored and Brilliant Project. Although I have not participated directly, the project is open to anyone who would like to monitor and minimize their mobile screentime. Through a series of personal challenges, Bored and Brilliant is structured to make volunteers step back from mobile phones and “spend more time thinking creatively.”
Studies show we need boredom in order to have more creative thoughts. With the constant mental stimulation smartphones provide, most people don’t ‘get bored’ as often as in the past. I remember many times during my no-tech adolescence when boredom was painful. There was nothing to do (everywhere on Long Island required a car), no where to go (the only place on LI is ‘the mall’), and there is only so much one can read before that becomes a yawn too.
I feel like I started indirectly participating with Bored and Brilliant not long before the project launched. In December I decommissioned my author Facebook Page, and I deleted the Facebook app from my phone. One of the B&B challenges happens to be to delete an app that you use ‘too much’ and not for the best purposes. What was Facebook adding to my life? Why was I scrolling the Facebook newsfeed? I had no good answers. Delete.
I need to quote a scene from one of my all-time favorite movies Before Sunrise. “What good is saved time if we don’t do anything with it?” This was a question posed by Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke.
I asked myself this question. I am using ‘saved’ time for:
- Reading. I’m in the midst of Elizabeth Strout’s Burgess Boys.
- Nothing. Now I need to quote a phrase from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love: “Dolce far niente.” The sweetness of doing nothing.
- Writing naked. Yes, adding to the blog, but mainly I aim to finish my short story collection this year. Before then I want to get another story from the collection published.
Want to participate with the Bored and Brilliant Challenge? There’s an app for that. Moment on Apple devices, and Break Free on Androids.
I used to get bored a lot as a kid. Then I discovered movies and music, and along with writing, I got only bored when I couldn’t do at least one of those things. So for me, writer’s block never came from boredom. I used to get it a lot when I only wrote fiction because I went after stories I hadn’t seen so many times before. But with non-fiction, my muscles got more flexible, and now if I ever get blocked, it’s due to sickness or lack of time.
I don’t use my phone smartly; I don’t have internet on it. I limit my time on Facebook. I use my MacBook Air (as a Kindle, mostly) a lot on the road because I live in a huge city, and traffic is a pain. I take notes whenever I can too.:)
I don’t remember that quote. I so need to see Before Sunrise again. My favorite romantic dramedy at the moment is Laggies, though. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.