Bank pens and vacuum cleaners: the keys to Emily Scott Robinson's songwriting process.

Robinson and I both agree that having a writing ritual is important. Rituals give us confidence and comfort. But they also help us achieve a flow state where the writing just happens: you don't have to think about the words because they issue forth. It's when you're on a roll.

Achieving this flow state is hard, so that's where the bank pens and vacuum cleaners come in. Robinson is a pen-and-paper person for her lyrics. And there's something about the smoothness of those cheap ball point pens from her local bank that she finds irresistible. When she writes with them, the words flow. So if you see Robinson in your local bank branch when she's on tour, she may be doing more than just a bank transaction.

As for the vacuum cleaner, that's for generating ideas. We talked a lot about the role of movement to the songwriting process. Most songwriters tell me that they get ideas while walking, running, hiking, biking, swimming, or driving. I've also heard cooking and gardening. But Robinson is the first one to cite an upright vacuum. It's not the vacuum itself that gives her ideas, but the repetitive and monotonous movement that helps her brain focus on the writing process, just as it does with the repetitive motion of walking, running, or cutting vegetables. And when your brain can engage in an activity that involves minimal higher order thinking, it can then use that space for creativity.