A good day in the pool

I don't know what it is about me, water and the creative process, but we work well together.

Sit me down in front of a computer and try to force creativity doesn't always turn out so well.

When it comes to the writing I do, the creative process starts with a good idea. If I have a good idea about a subject or a trend or an issue I can usually formulate the idea into a column or story that I'll then post on one of the blogs I contribute to.

Trouble is, I do some of my best story idea thinking in the shower or while swimming laps in the gym pool.

I'm not sure what it is about the water of a shower or the water in a pool. Is it the isolation that a shower or pool affords? Immersed in H2O with little more than your thoughts?

Then the task is remembering the ideas long enough to actually get them down on paper.

I've always been the kind of person who has to write things down in order to remember them. It's why I have a pad of paper and pencil in my car. It's why I have a notepad and pen on the refrigerator. I love shopping lists. I love to do lists. I love sticky notes. I love having my head attached to my shoulders so that I don't leave it behind somewhere.

If I'm in the shower and a good idea strikes, it's not terribly difficult getting to a piece of paper. I get out of the shower, dry myself off, wrap a towel around me -- usually -- and go across the hall to my home/office to jot down the idea.

It becomes a little trickier in the pool.

I can lose an idea in a heartbeat if I get distracted and don't write the idea down.

In the pool, it means I've got to keep the idea (or ideas) through the swim, which can be as long as a half hour, through the shower, through getting dressed and through getting out of the gym and into the car.

Since there's not much to do while swimming anyways, I try to sear the ideas into my head with the mental equivalent of etching a message on a piece of metal.

It doesn't always work, but this week I came out of the pool with four good story ideas that survived the creative process. And I didn't have to run naked to the car to get them on paper.