Switching off to switch back on, by Bryony Pearce

It’s been a fantastic month for me.  On the 1^st my new book, The Weight of Souls, launched with Strange Chemistry.  It already has some great reviews.  

Then on the 8^th, I went on holiday.  Two weeks in Turkey (I returned to England last week).  It was brilliant, not only because I got to spend some real quality time with the family, or because we enjoyed wonderful food and weather, or because we went on excursions to amazing places (The Lycian Tombs, Turtle beach, Mud baths, Camel Beach etc), but because my brain got to completely turn off from the to-do-lists and daily grind. 

When I look at the presentation I do for school visits, one thing really stands out: that I got my inspiration for Angel’s Fury from two holidays (Bali and Spain).  

Holidays are a genuine source of inspiration for me.  I love to discover the history and culture of other countries, to experience what it is like to be in new places, to look at the local religious and political environment.  All of that feeds into the melting pot from which my stories come.

Going to Turkey has enabled me to store a whole lot of story pieces. 

The most important thing about getting away from the day-to-day though, is the fact that my brain can turn off (it doesn’t often happen). 

That meant that half way through the holiday I found myself grabbing Andy’s crossword book and using the back to scribble notes for my next book.  Allowing my brain to switch off allows my creativity more fertile ground and permits the ideas to brew.

Hopefully I now have enough to keep me going for another year and one day my presentation will cite Turkey as an inspiration for a storyline. 

Do you need to switch your mind off in order to get the creativity moving?  

How do you do it?