But why do creatives need time to sit around and do nothing?
And a very specific gift guide for the creative person.
There is a scene in Mad Men when Don Draper explains eloquently as always how it’s totally fine for his copywriters to be slacking off playing darts, telling jokes - one was even napping. How some would see all of that as fooling around, indeed slacking off, the copywriters were actually doing nothing. And from doing nothing, they were in fact, working. Don’s reasoning was that the reason the copywriting team comes up with brilliant pitches is because letting them be unproductive, until they are, is part of the whole creative process.
I do nothing a lot and maybe 70% of the time I feel creative from not having done anything. There are days when what Don Draper said is absolutely correct. Then there’s awful days when I see the result of procrastination staring me in the face, laughing and I don’t like that. The only reason those days are awful is from the second I scroll on social media and come across an author who’s promoting her newest bestseller or another fellow writer sharing how she wrote the perfect book proposal and got an offer within two weeks. That happened while I was doing nothing.
What nobody talks about when they hear that phrase, ‘creatives need time to sit around and do nothing’ is that most of the time, nothing is where the magic lies. It hides somewhere in the hour you spend watching that favorite film again for the 10th time. The magic waits in your subconscious, where it was formed a month ago, on some random morning when you were walking to work, then something you heard in a restaurant later that week, and for some reason while you were on a run, you remembered what it was and it percolates, percolates more, you go to sleep, you wake up, you lay back down and then it isn’t until a word you hear the protagonist say in the film you’re watching that something really good clicks. Dots start to connect. That’s what Don Draper was talking about.
The creative spark happens when you’re the least productive. By doing nothing, you’ve alleviated stress factors and left the door open for absolutely anything to present themselves. I like to think of it as my brain having an open house. All ideas, sounds, voices, people, words are welcome to enter, some stay permanently, while others are fleeting. My mind weeds out the ones that bear some kind of fruit. If not now then much later and items, topics, anecdotes, ideas are filed away without my acknowledgement, which is okay because the right side of my brain handles all of that. I fully trust in whatever unconscious thoughts travel from my gut to my brain. Sometimes the stuff that stayed longer in my brain, the ones that have been sitting in a file drawer gathering dust, suddenly gets ignited by a new phrase heard in a show dialogue or the way a film scene cuts to another scene that reminds you of someone or even a place. And dare I say it, but lately a particular song used in a TikTok can trigger sparks of creative emotions. Things have to connect unexpectedly. Creatives aren’t scientists, nothing is validated or even hypothesized or tested to reach a false or positive outcome. You can’t force ideas to connect and most of the time when it does, rarely does it make sense. But, the amount of personal knowledge that a creative brain can hold versus say a scientist’s, the two are totally different human beings. Creatives can’t get answers through working out a formula, nor do we run on facts. We can accumulate facts and figures, but then it gets intertwined with random experiences, people, places, nostalgia. Then once nostalgia finds its way into the synapses, things can really start to percolate. So if my brain connects an idea with an experience while I was distracted watching Netflix or even napping and I’m hit with the “what if” … There’s two words that play out like hallelujahs on a Sunday morning. The “what if” is the winning lottery ticket for a creative person. Suddenly I’m curious, intrigued, exhilarated all at once by this growing notion that’s about to escape my brain, that happened when I was doing nothing.
You can’t train for something like that and it can’t be taught. (Though there are some that try to teach it) Then there’s the irony when they say that creativity never sleeps. Turns out that sometimes it needs to take a nap in order for the magic to happen.
〰️ gift guide for the creative person 〰️
*BTW, why are we doing gift guides so early? Tariffs.
Shopping for the creative person in your life is aggravating because you can’t get items that they would have already gotten themselves. If they’re a painter, they’ll have everything needed to paint. Plus creative types are the pickiest, you’re dealing with artistic tastes all around. And so the average gift won’t do, spare the back-up present that you could easily give to your aunt. Be more thoughtful and think outside the box.
The design student living on bowls of pasta at SCAD or Central Saint Martins: Tekla striped cotton duvet cover and matching pillow sham
The architect who if you’ve ever known one personally, are not that into material things, so better to inspire them: Tadao Ando. Sketches, Drawings and Architecture
The creative director who dreams, eats, speaks aesthetic: Loewe Perfumes Home Fragrance
The fashion designer/student who is too busy sewing or sketching: Crown Affair Silk Pillowcase
The writer, who doesn’t necessarily need a good candle to set up the mood to write (especially if they’re writing before dawn or late into the night): Faherty Highland Fairisle Cardigan
Under $50 options
〰️ now hiring 〰️
Young Artists (Robyn, FKA Twigs) is hiring a Social Media Content Creator (London, UK)
Awe Inspired Jewelry is hiring a Brand Copywriter (Remote/U.S.)
Baggu is hiring an Asst Print Designer (San Francisco/Hybrid)
ThirdLove is hiring a Sr Copywriter/Brand Storyteller (San Francisco/Hybrid)
Are you hiring?
〰️ 5 good things 〰️
No One Saw Us Leave (Netflix) is a Spanish drama series that is based on a true story. A friend cancelled on dinner w/me this week because she had to finish watching it. So now I just started watching it and it is goooooood. I’m only on episode 2, but every second is a must-watch, that means I put my phone down and set myself on mental do not disturb. Not many shows can do that to you.
Moss and Freud, the movie. That’s Moss as in Kate and Freud as in Lucien, the reclusive British painter and descendant of Sigmund Freud. The film takes place in 2001, when Moss went to sit for the painter. Apparently, she was heavily pregnant at the time. There is no trailer as of yet, but recently screened on October 10th at the BFI London Film Festival. Including this on the list, because it just sounds juicy and cannot wait for the trailer to be released.
Valerie Cherish is returning! Everyone’s favorite Hollywood bae is making a Comeback (see what I did there) to HBO. We so need this show right now.
This shrunken brown striped s/s tee on sale at Cos that I’m going to wear with black barrel jeans, ballet flats and a cardigan and pretend I’m that girl in a Goddard film.
British Artist Issy Wood’s painted cover of Charli xcx for Vanity Fair.
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