Bring Play To Your Writing (Michelle Intro) (12/12/2020)

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review and Best Microfiction Nominees. Introduction by Michelle Ross.

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I’ve written before about how integral running is to my writing. If I get up from my desk feeling frustrated or exhausted by a writing project, all I have to do is run a couple of miles around the block, and I’ll return home with new ideas and solutions, and with that, renewed excitement.  Often, I return with whole sentences, or paragraphs or scenes, ready to be transcribed. There’s a long history of writers finding a wellspring of creativity in physical movement, and in recent years, scientific research has supported the connection between movement and creativity. In a study comparing how walking and sitting affect participants’ creativity, nearly 100 percent of participants were more creative when walking versus sitting. While the benefits of getting outdoors in nature are uncontested, studies indicate that even walking indoors on a treadmill significantly boosts creativity over sitting.I imagine energy-boosting endorphins have something to do with this, but I wonder, also, if part of the reason people tend to be more creative when walking or running is that movement puts us in more of a “play” mindset. The act of writing creatively, at least if we seriously commit to it, straddles both play and work. The play aspect is usually what draws us to writing in the first place, and it is essential to maintaining interest and passion, as well as to writing well. But soon enough, we realize that to write well, we must also work hard. We must put in time. We must produce. Discipline is essential, too. The problem is that reconciling work and play can be tricky. Not only do they seem to be contradictory things, but if not kept in check, the work aspect can squash the play aspect. I suspect this has much to do with why so many writers talk about struggling to write—procrastinating, feeling blocked, lacking inspiration or focus. On my best writing days, I can sit at my desk writing all day and feel energized and excited by that work. The work feels like play. But other days I sit down to write, and I stress about the number of words I think I should write or how I still haven’t finished a draft of that story I’ve been drafting for far too long or about how nothing I’ve written recently seems particularly exciting. On these days, writing feels like all work, no play. This makes me want to rebel. Of course, in a world in which time is so conflated with money, “spending” time to make art instead is already an act of rebellion. But if I’m stressing about my productivity, getting up to wash the dishes can feel more rebellious than writing.  In her book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell extolls the virtues of intentionally seeking out ways to resist the pressure to always be producing. Odell knows it’s not practical, or even ideal, to always do nothing, either. The point is that in a world in which we are constantly bombarded by pressures to optimize productivity, carving out time to do nothing (or that which is not goal-oriented) is liberating. A metaphor she uses to illustrate her prescription is that it is like “going for a walk instead of walking to go somewhere.” I think this has something to do with why running feels so indispensable to my writing. Moving for the pleasure of moving helps return me to writing for the pleasure of writing. As I physically wander through space, my mind wanders. Instead of trying to corral it to do what I think it should be doing, as I sometimes fall prey to at my desk, now I’m following my mind wherever it wants to go. I’m tapping back into what engages and excites me as a writer.Of course, running and walking aren’t the only ways to bring a sense of play back into one’s writing. For some writers, maybe doodling works. For others, maybe gardening or listening to music. What brings a sense of play back to your writing?Thanks for reading. We’re glad you’re here. Michelle RossFiction Editor

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

Atticus Review is pleased to announce our 2020 Best Microfiction Nominees. Thank you to all Atticus Review contributors for your great work. Best of luck to Jonathan Cardew, DS Levy, Christopher Linforth, Frankie McMillan, Woody Skinner,and Francine Witte.READ THE NOMINEES

Looking for a good book? There's been a lot of new additions to our Reading List!CHECK IT OUT!

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FICTIONWHERE ON THE EDGE OF MAPLE STREET I AM LOVELYby Emily Collins"I couldn’t remember the last time someone asked me what I thought. The people on my street have wallpaper over their hearts."READ ON

POETRYHE LEFT, EARLY THIS MORNINGby Richard Weaver"and return he always does, in his salt-encrusted, guano flecked kayak,his hold full of pelican bones and feathers – he says they bring himluck and ballast – when he does paddle up to the dock and hoist himself"READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONTHE FASTEST WAY HOMEby Rose McMackin"I never learned my way around that city by heart, no matter how many times Alex explained it to me, that the avenues go east to west and the street numbers go north to south. Or is it south to north?"READ ON

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