ARCHIVE FOR Henriette Lazaridis

Studies have shown that the abstracted mind is an agile and creative mind. Scientists have found that when we distract ourselves from our work, we arrive at solutions and inspiration. The way to creativity, their experimentations suggest, lies through tasks that take us momentarily from our work and allow our minds to wander.

We might conclude, then, that New Englanders are poised to claim the title of Most Creative of Americans by virtue of the time they have been required of late to spend away from their jobs and family and recreations in order to shovel snow

It's the start of a new year and everybody is going to the gym. If you're a writer, you might look at all this athletic activity and think it has nothing to do with you. Or you might conclude that going to the gym is a necessary evil. But in fact, writers have a lot to gain from the world of sports. Rather than see physical and creative activity as incompatible, writers can borrow valuable tools from sports to help them be more productive

A few weeks ago, I wrote a little piece about silence--a condition I found myself embracing despite its obvious impracticality for the writing life. With the exception of that brief essay, I had not written anything for nearly two months. My novel was (and is) finished, and though I had several ideas to explore in essays, I was choosing not to write them down. Here is what I wrote back in mid-November.

Chances are you're online right now because you're looking for a recipe. Or you're checking directions to the house or apartment or restaurant you're going to tomorrow to eat yourself silly. Admit it: you only made it to Grub's blog today because a) you got the email reminder and clicked out of habit or b) you thought you would bone up on all things publishing so you could better answer those pesky questions from family members around the Thanksgiving fowl, like "How come James Patterson sells so many books but you don't?"

Back when I was sending out query letters to agents and pining for publication, I felt as though I had my nose pressed to the windows of a giant room. On the other side of the glass, writers were engaged in the lively conversation of a cocktail party. Dickens chatted with Helprin, McEwan with Austen, Lorrie Moore with Howard Norman (because I first came across their work at the same time). All I wanted was to be let into that room, the room of books of all kinds speaking to each other over the centuries