Finding Creativity in the Weirdest of Places

And how writing is not unlike making your morning cup of Joe.

Fiona Moriarty
The Trailblazer
4 min readSep 30, 2016

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This blog post is part of the Trailhead content creator series. Follow The Trailblazer publication to read the entire series.

My least favorite place in the world is and will always be the dentist’s office. The scrapers, the smell, and my genetically weak teeth collude to make each visit as miserable as possible. So imagine my shock when the experience of getting my teeth cleaned for the first time in years (I don’t recommend waiting that long) triggered my creativity.

With the chair tilted at its ominous obtuse angle and hygienist invading the crevices of my teeth with a fairy-sized pickaxe, I was finally able to string together thoughts about my next trail.

Apparently, I shouldn’t have been so flabbergasted. For the same reason our best ideas appear in the shower, the familiar angle and inability to do anything but stare at the ceiling…enabled me to think.

Research has shown that when your body is occupied with something routine and your mind has the opportunity to wander, you have the chance to let subconscious ideas make themselves known.

As we all know, it’s hard to hear your subconscious over the buzzing, beeping notifications that are ubiquitous in the 21st-century workplace. Chatter, calendar invites, email, texts, the good ole fashioned tap on the shoulder … are all important means of communication and interrupters of our thoughts. As a Trailhead writer, I protect and budget that uninterrupted time as much as possible so I can actually do my job. Which I realized during my dentist chair musing, is not unlike making my morning coffee.

Writing without great coffee is unbearable

In both, you’re taking something raw and processing it to your liking. Whole beans are pulverized into sand-sized espresso grounds, and situational stories from subject matter experts are turned into big-picture concepts.

The type of roast or information may change, but when you start with high-quality inputs, the final product has the opportunity to be excellent. (Thanks SMEs!)

Now comes the doing, the making, the hot water and pressure. This part looks different for everyone. Some drip sentences steadily into paragraphs while others pore over each word. Others (me) like to let things brew for a bit, and only with a little pressure will you see the final product come streaming out. Like magic, like my morning coffee.

Honestly, it took me many failed starts to figure out my creative process and set myself up for success. I tried everyone else’s method and got bored, distracted, and may have missed a deadline or two.

So now I know I have to set myself up with thinking time to let the facts percolate before trying to write. And that time has to be punctuated with a deadline, real or self-imposed, or else I’ll be writing the same assignment, sporadically, until next Christmas.

So here’s my process; borrow and steal at will!

  1. Block off time — Do not ignore this step. My job as a writer grants me the luxury of creative time, but many of you have clients and reports and people who request meetings with you if there is time to be found on your Google Calendar.

If you don’t give yourself time to be creative on your own calendar, no one else will either.

2. Find your trigger — Some of my best ideas come when I’m running, swimming, or as I mentioned, staring at the ceiling. All involve my brain shutting off and letting my body do what it’s meant to do. My mind can wander. If I’m at my desk, a momentary ceiling-stare will put me in the right frame of mind. For others, it’s vacuuming or doing the dishes. The trick is finding what works for you. So get out there and start cleaning, running, gardening, or doing whatever it is that gets you jazzed about creating. Oh, keep a pen handy too.

3. Give in to sitzfliesch — Now comes the next-hardest part, sitting down and “doing it.” Whatever “it” may be, there is a certain amount of sitzfleisch to being creative. This German word, which translates directly to “seat meat,” refers to the ability to stick it out through something challenging. Writing, drawing, designing, and [insert creative skill here], can be hard and frustrating and annoying when you feel utterly blocked. That’s where sitzfleisch comes in. Trust yourself and keep trying. You will make it to the end of your first draft.

4. Review and refine (and sometimes redo) — Find a friend, colleague, or anyone with another set of eyes to give you feedback. Always. They may tell you this is “Rad! Keep it up!” Or “I have absolutely no idea what this means. Also, what’s with the cats?” And that is OK. The process of getting feedback and discussing/scrapping the idea makes you better at what you do. Alexander Hamilton misspelled Pennsylvania on the Constitution because he didn’t have an editor handy. Creativity is beautiful. Typos and bad content are not.

That’s it. There really isn’t a magic bullet. (Although I can strongly recommend not using cliches). It’s actually simple: Just keep trying. Keep blocking off time. Keep sitting down and getting to it. Keep asking other people to refine. Keep yourself open to inspiration, even in the unlikeliest of places. And definitely keep asking yourself, is it working? And when you hear the little voice in your head saying, “I think so?” You’ve found your process.

Interested in learning more? Come to our session at Dreamforce and learn how to write the Trailhead way.

How to Write the Trailhead Way

  • Tuesday, October 4; 2:30–2:50pm PT
  • Moscone West, Admin Meadow Theater

Can’t make it in-person? The session won’t be streamed, but we’ll be posting the materials afterward on the Success Community in the Trailhead group.

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Fiona Moriarty
The Trailblazer

Runner, Cyclist, Writer, Swimmer (not in that order) East coast at heart.