Writing creative writing, story writing and other writings by Rob Hopcott

My ideas for writing arise less frequently from playing an active sport like tennis and more frequently from reflective activities such as walking.

Strangely, I rarely get ideas for writing when I’m playing tennis, one of my favourite sports.

On the other hand, whilst out walking alone, I often find myself mulling over things I have written earlier in the day or things I am planning to write and am often rewarded by new writing ideas.

I have to confess that after a stressful day writing at great speed and dealing with many writing projects one after the other, sometimes I prefer to switch my mind off and not think about new ideas for writing.

Everybody needs a break sometimes. Writing is my professional activity and job. Sometimes, at the end of the day, I need a break - even from an activity I love.

Playing tennis gives me this break. While I am playing tennis, my mind is completely on the match. It takes my whole concentration. The culmination of serving, running into the net and dealing with the many varied shots by the opposition seems to be enough to keep my brain occupied. Of course, I play tennis with other people and there is generally a nonstop sociable conversation with them too to keep my mind off work.

On the other hand, walking alone allows me to contemplate whatever comes into my mind and to think over the work that I have been doing during the day. It is an activity very much like listening to music and very conducive to thinking up new ideas for writing.

If I go walking with a friend, our conversation might either prevent or stimulate creative thought. If my walking companion, like myself likes knocking about a creative idea, we might develop an exciting and interesting conversation that will afterwards leave me with many ideas for writing to develop later.

Without doubt, everybody is different. Perhaps the moral of the story is to monitor the way you react to different situations in your life. If you have a creative burst, try to identify the situation that has made your creative juices flow. When you next need to turn on your creativity, reconstruct the events that last made it happen and led to your idea for writing.

Knowing and understanding your creative self and the activities that best stimulate your personal creativity can open the sluice-gates to producing a steady stream of your own original creative ideas for writing.

Bye for now

Rob

Rob Hopcott - online writer