This just dawned on me...

Glad to hear you're coming to find what helped you be so prolific Sean. I listen to music all the time and I am lucky that it inspires me to write, it doesn't take away from my inspiration as it is part of my inspiration. I also watch TV all day whether I want to or not because my son is here and my husband likes to watch movies. So I get a lot of ideas from watching their shows and movies.

I hope your plan helps to reactivate your past ability to be so prolific, I know I go through phases where I am unable to write due to stress here at home, like my son. I don't know if you remember but he's autistic and about six months ago I stopped writing because I was having a lot of problems with him and had to devote all my time to him and trying to help him overcome his problems which he's still dealing with sadly. But I have found time to write when he's at school or in bed sleeping, and I have begun two different projects this month that I figure I will have to work on through the spring at the very least.

It's really nice to be writing again, I missed it so much and it was making me depressed, but then I was depressed about my son's problems. He's hitting puberty and that's half of what is going on, his meds aren't working like they used to anymore and we're stumped as to which ones to try next because he's been on everything. I knew this was coming and it's just as bad as I feared. Anyway, didn't mean to hijack your thread Sean, just wanted to share my POV on the subject since music is very close to my heart.

That's really interesting.

If I may add w/o completely threadjacking here:

I've been off work on a leave of absence for the last five months and thought I'd be incredibly prolific but I've realized that so much of my material comes from interactions at work (I'm an elementary teacher). The kids and staff and parents and administration fueled my imagination and I'd always come home with dozens of little notes that I'd work into my writing.

Without work the ideas are harder to come by, but with work the time to write is scarce.

Damn.

Sean D. Schaffer said:

1) I plan on not listening to any music today (Sunday). I'm thinking this will give me an incentive to either read or turn on a good movie. This would help feed my imagination more than listening to more music.

Click to expand...

Am I the only one that sees something weird about this?

"No Honey, I'm not vegging out here on the sofa. I'm fueling my imagination!! Honest!!"

Hey it's okay Sean, you can PM a mod to lock this okay? Just do it. I know how hard it is adjusting to meds, they can really kick your backside sometimes. Hang in there and keep posting!

Honestly, I see nothing wrong with this topic. The idea of what fuels are imagination and what turns it off or detracts from it is a good and solid topic. For example, I find that when I'm reading books to analyze them, as I'm often required to do academically, that I'm less creative or relaxed, than when I just curl up with a good story to read. Last summer, I read books just to read them. Nothing else. No other purpose. The next thing I know, I'm having all kinds of ideas, that parts of my brain that weren't firing before were firing again.

Different things work for different people.