Boom Beach and the creative process.

I have a terrible confession to make, the other night I was bored. Since I started to write I have developed a wonderful new guilt complex which means that if I have a spare moment and I don’t use it to write I feel really, really guilty. I am now unable to veg out after work in front of the television because I am aware that I am wasting time, my second novel is out there waiting for me to put it together and here I am allowing myself to be tired after being at work for eleven hours, what a bum.

I was watching something or other and on came an advert for Boom Beach, a game you can download for your phone. I had deleted all the games from my phone for the very purpose of not wasting time, so I would force myself to spend time reading, thinking and observing. I immedietely downloaded it. Here I was allowing myself to get sucked into playing a stupid game, again. Part of the game involves clearing trees for your island to allow your base to grow. As someone who loves trees I didn’t really focus on this part of the game too much, and continued sending my ill-equipped digital troops to neighbouring islands where they would be wiped out by other players. I sighed, exited Boom Beach and vowed to not play the next day. I wouldn’t delete it though, I mean my island’s wood supply was almost at 20,000 units and that had taken a lot of time. Taken a lot of time. Oh.

I awoke on a Tuesday morning (during half-term break) and thought about how I should try and not play Boom Beach today and should use all of the time I would have played being productive. Perhaps actually writing more than five hundred words of my second novel, which was currently a first chapter stuck on repeat. I had found myself trapped in a room and no idea how to get to the next, but I digress. While making a cup of tea I thought about the creative process as I am apt to do.

Somehow Boom Beach and creativity became intertwined in my mind. In the game you have to remove the trees to allow for space to create your new structures; and it’s the same with being creative. You have to create space to allow for ideas to grow.

Whether it’s mental space, allowing for time to let your mind relax: walking, cooking, any activity where you don’t need total focus and can let your mind wonder while your body automates. It could be creating a space in your home where you can sit and create and write, draw or plan. Or it could be clearing time in your week which you dedicate to your creativity, getting up earlier or stopping yourself from getting hooked on Better call Saul or Boom Beach, just two totally random examples, sure.

So the question is what are the digital trees blocking your space? How can you get rid of them? And how do you ensure you ensure you maintain the space you need rather than filling it with anything and everything you can to block out the creative process.

When I find out I’ll let you know, now where did I put my iPhone?