How to sculpt an environment that optimizes creative flow and summons relevant knowledge from your long-term memory through the right retrieval cues.I've known people who needed very quiet spaces in order to create and others who preferred to do so in the midst of people. Hemingway would edit and Sartre write in Paris cafes. At least one minor book of theology was written at a shopping mall, for heaven's sake.
While I acknowledge that I was at my most efficient when I lived in a monastery, I don't know if I was at my most creative. Ah, who knows? A blank page beckons and we do our best to respond.
Speaking of which, I was 60,000 words into the latest book when I realized that I was significantly deviating from my original plan. That wasn't entirely a bad thing, as I hadn't realized until that point that I had so much to say. The problem is that I don't want to write something new until I've finished the original plan. So, back to the drawing board.
I'm now 50,000 words into the original product. Not bad. That means Book #2 can come out next year and Book #1 will be ready for Australia this autumn.