Speed Pinterest: Writing Trick or Procrastination?

(Image courtesy of Brooklyn Museum)

Writing has been an effort lately. I'm still getting in my goal word count per day, but it's tough. My mind is resistant; nothing is flowing. It feels like a struggle. I'm used to days like these. I know that I'll pass through this period, and I'll move into the flow, where writing feels exhilarating.

I've got various tricks for getting through the tough patches.  Write or Die is my savior. Without it, I'm not sure I could meet my word count on the bad days. But sometimes it's not enough just to push yourself.  I feel like I need to free up my mind, and make it move in a different current.

Randomly, I decided to wander over to Pinterest. I joined a little while ago, but haven't done anything with it. Tonight, I decided to create a free association board. I picked a random concept: the color green, which is my favorite. Then, I gave myself a time limit of ten minutes or so, and pinned all the images I liked that related to "green."

I've found before that doing something totally unrelated can help loosen things up creatively. Clearly this isn't a revolutionary concept or anything, but I often forget that talking a walk can be way more productive than sitting at the computer and flipping back and forth between a gossip site and a nearly empty page. Right now, it's cold. I hate the cold. I don't want to take a walk. But I think Pinterest might be like a mental walk; a way to engage another part of my brain so that the writing part can get its shit together.

So: green. The board I made is not much more than a bunch of loosely related pretty pictures. There is also the distinct possibility that I'm rationalizing a new way to procrastinate. But I'm going to give it a fair chance as an exercise in free association. I'm so tempted to add a purpose to it; to collect a bunch of images that relate to my WIP and use them for inspiration. But for now, I'm going to use my flash Pinterest boards for play.