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Most of my best creative work emerges when I retreat into my studio incubation space and stay secluded for a long time — ideally for several days or weeks. It's helpful if I can minimize online and IRL communications, and only venture out when it can't be avoided.
While working this way is its own reward, the key that unlocks the deepest creativity is the respite it provides from the low-level dispersed attention theft that plagues the modern world. Without that respite, the days will only get swallowed up into the gaping maw of an endless stream of internet honeytraps and nerd-snipe temptations, while my deep-work muscles atrophy and my neglected writer-self looks on in mounting horror.
But immersion in creative incubation space enables a sort of attention reclamation process to begin of its own accord, allowing deep-writer-mind to take the reins.
In this piece I'll explore what it's like when this unpredictable and non-linear process finds itself with sufficient room to proceed unimpeded — free of mini-interruptions and other structural micro-dispersals of attention.
Exposure to selected creative work. Read voraciously, online and off. Take notes. Highlight. Soak up details. Dig up biographical info about writers I like, and track down more of their work. Let curiosity and interest lead the way. Inspiration can come from virtually anywhere, and can strike at any time.
Re-reading. Notes, highlights, journal reflections, unsent correspondence, whatever speaks to deep-writer-mind: review and allow everything to sink in, trusting that it'll be sorted fruitfully in good time. If it takes 50-100 re-readings to fully percolate into the rich, loamy terrain tended by the writer-self, then so be it. Enjoy the process.
Meandering. Let the writer-self wander aimlessly. Play. Do nothing. Think. Reflect. Go for walks. Sit under trees. Stare out the window. Deep-writer-mind needs time to chew on all that delectable input, and even more time to distill the nutrients needed for the specific forms of creative work entrusted to me and no one else. (How does it do that?)
Tidbits! Little tidbits can show up in my awareness anytime: inklings, inchoate yearnings, ideas, connections to other tidbits. Some tidbits plead: "Pay close attention to this!" Usually that heralds the arrival of important raw material.
Brain-dump. Get the tidbits on the page. Drop 'em on scraps of paper, Notion pages, temporary files, or whatever's handy. Don't interrogate. Just get them written down. Words on page. They can be arranged later.
Flooding. Some tidbits arrive fast and furious, and even at max typing speed, pieces still escape. Just get as much onto the page as possible. It's helpful to put the immersive dark ambient and drone music playlists on loop, as they keep editor-brain and the Watcher at the Gates at bay long enough for deep-writer-mind to take center stage.
Pattern detection. Over time, patterns appear: I notice that raw material tends to arrive more freely when I'm otherwise occupied with manual labor, or after a refreshing catnap. Useful knowledge.
Word-wrangling. Oddly, some raw material resists contorting itself into digital text, protesting as fiercely as if I'd shoved it into a straitjacket. Pen and paper it shall be, then: the tools of an intrepid word-wrangler.
Rough sorting. Next up is dropping (or transcribing, if handwritten) the tidbits into the writing software, sorting roughly by topic, author, and project.
Reduce input. When the tidbit collections start to feel unwieldy, that means it’s time to twist the shut-off valve in the other direction and close the input channels for awhile. (Note to self for future reference: when you realize you're here, just do what deep-writer-mind says and avoid the social media feed, OK? At this stage the balance is fragile, and even a trickle can leave "attention residue" that interferes with the incubation process. Choose to prioritize what you want most over what you want right now).
Structural sorting. Structural sorting of raw material demands high-level thinking, novel pattern detection, patience, and persistence. I reserve this work for early in the day, when I'm well-rested. Usually there’s a window of about four hours per available writing day before I start losing steam and must switch to less mentally taxing work. If I don’t, deep-writer-mind retreats and refuses to deliver.
Alignment. The structural sorting process reveals places that need changes in order to align the raw material with the right component parts: deletions, new category additions, splitting off into two separate projects, and so on.
Connecting threads. Eventually deep-writer-mind identifies novel connections among several of the structurally sorted and re-aligned tidbits. On good days, this process leads me to the exact puzzle pieces necessary to complete a long-dormant section or transform a lackluster page into crisp, cogent prose.
Solid draft. At some point the work begins to feel substantive; it’s clear to my writer-self that the core material has taken its initial shape. Lots of editing will follow, usually with big slabs of sub-par material ending up on the cutting-room floor. Nonetheless, there's something solid to work with.
But what is it? The draft is incubating. It could shapeshift into a journal entry, article, letter, blog post, or haiku. Or maybe it'll stay in endless essay territory forever-and-a-day. Nobody knows. Respect that not-knowing; it's actually a deep form of intelligence.
Respect the process-intelligence. The creative incubation process (including the fallow time, as Matt Cardin writes) is intelligent in and of itself. As long as I demonstrate respect for this intelligence — trust it, avoid coercion or force, and listen to what it asks of me — it leads the way into the next phase at the appropriate time. If I try to get too far ahead of deep-writer-mind, chastise it for its "failures," or force it to deliver through a channel it doesn’t like, that’s treated as a breach of trust. It will respond by retreating into hiding and refusing to work with me until I reestablish a foundation of respect.
Simmering. Next, the draft goes on the back burner to rest and simmer for as long as it demands: a day, a week, a fortnight, a year, five years, even a decade. If I want deep-writer-mind as my partner in the process, I don’t have any real say about the length of each phase. Attempts to short-circuit the process will only result in half-baked material that, while technically adequate, lacks the crucial elements that only incubation can deliver.
Renewed interest. Sooner or later my writer-self gets a nudge of renewed interest toward a draft that has been on the back burner. Back to work.
Re-reading with fresh eyes. With sufficient time passed since my previous review of the incubated draft, I now perceive the work differently than before. It seems ready for the next round of edits.
Edit edit edit EDIT. Edit to within a short distance of its life, if need be. Cut-and-paste. Slice-and-dice. Sort. Track down missing references. In extreme cases, a draft may require 50-100 rounds of revisions before it's ready for publication.
Late-stage simmering. Between each major phase of editing, the draft must simmer yet again. Could be an hour. Could be overnight. Could be weeks. As always, it simmers for as long as deep-writer-mind needs to do its thing without interference.
Checking for expiration. Even a finished piece, if it remains unpublished, might “expire” and never see the light of day, for whatever reason or none at all.
Finishing up. Finally, I return to the drafts that survive the whole incubation process. At long last, it's time for finishing touches, polishing up, and formatting. Only then can they be considered for publication.
Note that at every stage of the process, any in-progress work is at risk of being scrapped, outgrown, or otherwise rendered obsolete. Probably 75% of what I write never makes it into a finished piece at all, let alone a publicly released finished piece.
In some cases I track the timeline from the arrival of the first kernels of raw material to the published work. These words you’re reading right now? The first raw material for this piece surfaced in February 2021. Over two years later, this piece is now among the 25% that managed to make it all the way through. Perhaps it was starting a digital incubation space that finally completed the cycle.
When I navigate the entire creative incubation process successfully and manage to resist all outer and inner pressures to interfere with its indwelling intelligence, sooner or later the floodgates open. Deep-writer-mind speaks with increasing clarity, and intrinsic motivation takes over. On the best of these rare floodgate-days I can somehow transcend my usual limits and write and edit for 10-15 hours, with breaks only for food, rest, and movement.
I can’t predict or control the timing of the floodgate-openings. All I can do is prepare myself to receive the raw material, and sharpen my skills so I might shape it into something worthy of publication.
The rest is handled by the mystery of creative incubation.
the stubborn voice on the background of my mind refuses to believe that there is editing that needs to be done. that there is a process that needs to be followed. the voice in the back of the mind just wants to be heard. just wants to be free. it does not recognize that it is doing a disservice to itself, for in the noise it will dissolve. it will pass as that. noise. but when polished, when taken care, when given its proper space... it will spread. it will shine. for the most important part is not what those words are saying, but on how they are a reflection of the presence that read the words that another human wrote before. it is, in some way, an exploration into the world of that other human. opening to that process. living through that process. allowing that friction that is felt inside because of "my process being different" (am i wrong?) being an opportunity to ask? am i really wrong? or it is just that we are different? and that's the beauty of it, isn't it? loved to read this dan. loved that you had such a clear answer to my question. thank you for your wisdom. jp
Sounds like you're on the right track. Hope all the voices of your creative self can learn to coexist fruitfully. Thanks for the convo on Farcaster. I appreciate the kind words about my work. P.S. I'm sure that was an autocorrect error so no worries, but just for the record, please call me Danica instead of Dan. :)
Thank you for sharing. I think reclaiming our attention and rebuilding our deep work muscles and our relationships with our deep minds is one of the most important challenges of today. Do you need to feel a calling before entering your incubation space or is it something you decide to do as a discipline?
I agree about the importance of reclaiming attention, strengthening the deep work muscles, and tending our relationships with our deep minds, creative muses, etc. As for extended incubation time: good question! I take it pretty much whenever I can get it -- i.e., whenever my life circumstances afford me the privilege (which is all too rare). I write every day, but since I make a living as an editor, a lot of that work is business writing rather than the intrinsically motivated kind of writing I talk about in this piece. There's discipline involved in the deep-mind-driven work, but it's not "mind over matter" or "willpower" or any sort of subtle self-coercion. The discipline mostly involves resisting inner and outer pressures to behave in ways that compromise the trust of my deep-writer-mind, and in keeping my basic skills sharp so I can transcribe as much as possible on those amazing days when the floodgates open.
Sounds like you recognize the voice of an aspirational writer-self trying to speak over your real writer-voice. Good sign. :) This piece is probably the best current exemplar of "my" voice in the way you describe. Hope it's helpful. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson/what-is-creative-incubation
I'm taking extended studio time for an immersive sprint on a writing project (working title: Forms of Incubation). Also leaving Substack & moving most of my nonfiction writing (3 separate Substacks) to @paragraph. Inspired by FC scenius and the @!3900 mainnet launch. 💜 ⚫ 🟤 🟣 🔵 🔴🟠 🟢 🟡 ⚪
Here's my most recent take on creative incubation: https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson/what-is-creative-incubation
Just realized this cast is being watched, which gave me an idea to build scenius work habits & turn this into a thread of mini-updates as I work. Quick intro: Forms of Incubation is an extended study of creative incubation and its relational contexts. It integrates material from all my previous Substacks. More soon.
Update: For the duration of the immersive sprint (the next 3-4 weeks) I'll use this as my "pinned" thread for updates on this project. (Mute if not interested).
Project thread check-in: It's been a great day of work/play. For me, few pleasures in life compare to the satisfaction of spending an entire day working on an enjoyable writing project, and becoming so engrossed that you lose track of time.
Progress today: leaps and bounds. May have a full intro piece ready for release tomorrow. Will publish it on Paragraph. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson
Go Danica Go!!! Loving these cast updates....🌳
Thanks for the encouragement! 😀 After the first 1-2 days, my thread updates stop showing up in the main feed and are only seen by those who clicked 'watch.' That's good, since only those who opt in get notifications, but there may be a better way to communicate project updates. Will think more on this.
Today's update: my intro essay is finished. 💪 Hit a small snafu, though, so it's not quite ready for publishing. I expected a few of those; it's part of the process. That's why I was careful to word yesterday's update as "MAY release tomorrow." One more day, I hope. Thanks for following my progress check-ins!
Hazaar! Looking forward to reading. 👀🙌
Love these little boosts, Phil. Thank you.
A quick update for the kind souls watching this thread: Got a few essays in various stages of completion. Excited to share them when they're finished. I also got some unfortunate news last week that puts me in a difficult position and may cut short my studio time. I'll continue to do the best I can.
Hello cast-watchers! I'm finally polishing up the second essay in my Forms of Incubation series. I'd like to publish this one as an onchain collectible on Zora. This will be my first NFT release and I don't have many examples of full onchain essays to compare with, so I feel a bit out of my depth. Suggestions welcome.
Exciting!!!💜
💜 Always appreciate your encouragement. It's rare that I have an extended stretch of time to focus on intrinsically motivated creative work. I've never been lucky enough to stumble into a scenius before either. Don't know what to expect. We'll see where this leads...
@cameron gd example of what you asked about earlier in week (or last week). Danica has 3 substacks… but how do I find them? Be great if didn’t have to go hunt them all out on substack.
I'll be shutting all my Substacks down soon and integrating some of the work into this new context, so when I'm done it'll be much easier to find. (Until I found @paragraph I didn't have a web3-native place to do that the way I wanted). But here's my music newsletter in the meantime. https://endarkenment.substack.com/
👀👀👀
In which I explore what happens when I let in-progress works incubate as long as they need, and otherwise give my deep-writer-mind carte blanche. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson/what-is-creative-incubation
Follow-up: fixed the broken URLs.
This is one of the most cogent and insightful pieces I’ve read about someone’s creative process. I especially like your language around attention (eg micro-dispersals of attention and attention residue), and your conception of the deep-writer-mind and the writer-self. Thank you for creating and sharing!
Thanks for the kind words! A tip o' the hat to you from deep-writer-mind, too. :) Currently incubating another piece about attention. The insight about attention residue is from Dr. Sophie Leroy. Nice to learn that there's a name for this experience. https://www.uwb.edu/business/faculty/sophie-leroy/attention-residue
Looking forward to it, especially as someone with ADHD who all-too-often gets stuck in the muck of sticky attention residue. It’s not lacking attention that’s problematic, it’s the hyperfocus and the poor context switching skills.