Months ago I scribbled "orbiting ideas" on an index card. What I meant at the time was the feeling of having an idea, forgetting it, returning to the idea, not having energy of it, leaving it, and finally meeting that idea when the time was right.
I used to fight this.
Or feel extremely guilty about it.
But I’m learning that this rhythm is actually a healthy part of my creative ecosystem.
Rather than living in a perpetual state of creative burn out (I’m looking at you 2018) I’m even more productive since following the gravitational pull of my own orbit.
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It can be frustrating gliding right past a shiny idea that’s just out of reach. Or catapulting through sparkling space dust that you know is magic, but you can’t quite make out.
For example, right now I’m curious about the hard science of orbit and how NASA calculates the trajectory of space craft. 🚀
But, Davy’s at the end of his nap, Nathan is ready for dinner, and I find myself skimming right past.
That doesn’t mean I have to give up on the idea. I mean, it sounds fascinating (if potentially a little math heavy). Maybe when I reread the Lady Astronaut series I’ll revisit the idea and Hank Green will have made the perfect accessible Sci Show video to explain.
(Ok, while I was looking for an image to put here I found this link. This is why I have 500 tabs open on my phone.)
Trusting that I will come back to the mechanics of orbiting at some point I’m moving on. I think you get the basic idea.
So many of us, especially neurodivergent creators, are shamed for “shiny object syndrome” or “project hopping” or “lack of focus.”
But what I’m experiencing is far from a lack of focus, it’s extreme (yet somewhat unwieldy) hyperfocus. And when I let my hyperfocus take the lead I fall into a deeply productive creative flow.
This is how I’ve made more art and drafted three books in three years since my son has been born. The years before were a wash of structured “productivity” during which I spent a lot of time working, but didn't engage very deeply in my creative work.
Over the summer I’ve been preparing to give a talk on neurodiversity for my son’s school. When I started researching and the pull toward going deeper and deeper got stronger and stronger like I was being tugged into a black hole.
… I may have accidentally started writing another book.
And another chapter for my creative ecosystem book.
I’m going to ride this out and when Davy starts school I should have enough control of the spacecraft to land on a cozy asteroid and finish up Discover Your Creative Ecosystem.
For me to control the spacecraft I need a certain amount of quiet time to reset from the overstimulation of motherhood. Otherwise our escape pod is just spinning and I am putting out endless fires.
I’m also having a lot of fun with the space imagery for this project inspired by the term neurodivergent space time which I coined for an art project earlier this year. I was a massive space nerd in first grade and my inner child is living their best life. ✨
What about you? Do you orbit ideas a few times before you can really land on them?
Let’s talk about that.
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