Brain Break

My strange human brain never seems to turn off. Even when I’m asleep and dreaming, those dreams are about my work or my next short story that I will inevitably write.

It’s hard lately, to turn it off. I welcome creative ideas that often act like flood gates. I never lose my ability to imagine or drum up some weird story ideas.  

I was reading an article this morning about deadly E Coli in meat, and my thoughts automatically went to a new horror story idea about it being racked with human flesh, and there was no E Coli.  

Brains are annoying. I also get these ideas in my head and become obsessed with them until I write them down. They suck hours out of my life, and then sometimes they start hot and heavy and for whatever reason, fizzle out like a relationship in your teens.

Sometimes things need a break, so I put them up for a while till I feel inspired to return to it. I think most of us writers do that. I like things to marinate a bit then come back, such as the case with my Haunted House story about the magician that tricks people into moving out of their homes, thinking they are haunted. Part two of that story was written- in my head. Something felt off about where I was going, so I scratched it for now.

This brain never stops, and occasionally I lose lots of sleep. I am guilty of waking at odd hours to jot down the beginning of a story on my iPhone in my google docs app. It’s where most of my ideas begin and die. I have four incomplete stories as of now. None of them is anything I’m in the mood to finish.

Sometimes once I figure out an ending, it’s over for me. I have stories written from beginning to end in my head that has never reached a word document.

I believe that not every story needs to be written; sometimes, it’s the creative process that helps you. You need something fulfilling to fill a void; it can relax you being creative.

Spiritually speaking, doing something creative can heal traumas. It’s therapeutic, and I plan to explore these thoughts in a series of interviews with some creative friends of mine over the next few months.

This brain of mine, though, go to damn sleep!