The image of the writer is often portrayed in extremes: either they are frantic, fanatical creators forever focused on their work, or they are paragons of procrastination, prone to constant daydreaming and self-distraction punctuated by (rare) outbursts of creative output.
The truth, as always, is a little more complicated than that. Do writers daydream a lot? It depends on the writer.
Daydreaming As a Writers’ Distraction
Maladaptive daydreaming occurs when the mind wanders too far, too frequently. When it becomes disruptive to a person’s life or work, it becomes a psychiatric condition that may require professional treatment.
But not every case is so extreme. In some instances, we simply daydream to escape work we don’t want to do or situations that make us uncomfortable or bored.
Is it the best use of time specifically blocked off for writing? No. Is it conducive to beating a looming deadline? Not usually. But it’s so much easier to get lost in a reverie in which the book is already written (and successful) than to do the hard work of making the book in the first place.
However, daydreaming isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, for writers, it can be a powerful source of inspiration.
Daydreaming As Creative Fuel for Writers
Writers who do daydream a lot, and know how to do so productively, have the advantage when it comes to mitigating creative blocks. Allowing the mind to wander from time to time gives it the space and freedom it needs to explore ideas that might otherwise be forever overshadowed by more urgent, more “important” thoughts and feelings.
Daydreaming, for writers (and creative people in general), provides an opportunity to:
- Expand creative horizons and make mental connections that might otherwise be overlooked
- Fully immerse oneself in an imaginary situation or location that is impossible to explore through other means
- Plan ahead by mentally working through all possible outcomes of a given choice or scenario
- Exercise creative “muscles” and maintain an active imagination
- Explore our own individuality—no two people think or imagine things in exactly the same way
- Build confidence by imagining positive outcomes for creative projects—e.g. an aspiring author picturing herself at a future book signing
- Face and cope with fears safely—e.g. an aspiring author imagining how she can move forward if her book is rejected by publishers
As long as daydreaming time is kept separate from actual writing time, it can be an incredibly potent weapon in a writer’s creative arsenal.
Do Writers Daydream a Lot—or Not Enough?
The sad truth is, I think most of us writers don’t daydream as often as we should.
I know I was guilty of this for a time. As a kid, I spent a lot of time sick in bed, mostly with migraines. I didn’t have a TV in my room, and computer screens were anathema to my recovery, so my options for entertaining myself came down to three things: listening to my radio, reading, and daydreaming.
This is why I still know every lyric to every song on the All-American Rejects self-titled album, and this is also probably why I’m still such an avid reader today. Getting lost in stories saved me time and time again, and when I got bored of sing-alongs and my eyes grew too weary to scan another line on the page, I turned my own imagination into an escape hatch.
But as I got older, I got busier, and once I found ways to minimize the amount of time I spent completely knocked out by my migraines, I fell out of practice. I stopped cloud watching and stargazing; I never seemed to have time to just lie on my bed and think. My heart surgery back in 2015 compounded the problem; it made me hyper-aware of my own mortality, and the thought of simply whiling my time away terrified me.
It’s only recently that I’ve begun to rediscover the pure, simple joy of daydreaming for daydreaming’s sake. Not every minute has to be optimized to be worthwhile. Not every memory needs to be a whirlwind adventure. Balance, while never my strong suit, is more important to me than ever—and that includes finding a good balance between work and play, “off” and “on.”
Do writers daydream a lot? I certainly used to—and I hope to do more of it in the future. It’s where I get some of my best ideas.
Kim Berkley is a fantasy author, narrative designer, and freelance writer who believes in the healing and creative power of dreams. She is the creative mastermind behind such works of fiction as The Harbinger’s Head and contributes regularly to the Speaking Out About Self-Injury blog on HealthyPlace.
