I tend to believe that creative inspiration comes to us when our guard is down, when we're least expecting it. "Shower thoughts" is a real phenomenon, as is the flash of enlightenment in line at the grocery store. I wrote 90% of my historical trilogy in my car commuting to work because that's when I had unforced time to think about my story, but also that's when my mind was free and scenes or dialogue would pop into my head. Were they perfect? Definitely not. But they served their purpose.
Exhausted, distracted, depressed shouldn't matter to the core creative process. Sitting down in front of a keyboard and willing perfect plots and prose to come almost never works. Give me the imperfect product of imperfect situations any day. Those, as you say, I can shape into something more later. But at least I've gathered the raw materials. You can't polish a diamond until you've mined it first.
I tend to believe that creative inspiration comes to us when our guard is down, when we're least expecting it. "Shower thoughts" is a real phenomenon, as is the flash of enlightenment in line at the grocery store. I wrote 90% of my historical trilogy in my car commuting to work because that's when I had unforced time to think about my story, but also that's when my mind was free and scenes or dialogue would pop into my head. Were they perfect? Definitely not. But they served their purpose.
Exhausted, distracted, depressed shouldn't matter to the core creative process. Sitting down in front of a keyboard and willing perfect plots and prose to come almost never works. Give me the imperfect product of imperfect situations any day. Those, as you say, I can shape into something more later. But at least I've gathered the raw materials. You can't polish a diamond until you've mined it first.