Movement does it for me, both my own and that of the world around me. I have seen, with my mind’s eye, some of the most relevant images for my stories when walking, running, and swimming. To get out of the trying-too-hard-to-chase-a-story mode, I need to move, preferably outdoors, ideally with music only I can hear. If something is stuck, I let the bits of the story that I do know sit with me for some time while my body feels something else (maybe sweat or my own heartbeat). Once outside, I see dogs that know exactly where they want to go, children who chase each other, couples arguing over small things, people rushing to get home. It’s a reminder that the world keeps turning, that I too am a part of it, and so are the stories we make up inside our heads. In my experience, when I leave the house and “pretend” to be busy with something physical, the story—with its characters and pulse—tends to return to me.
For the opposite, I do nothing. If I’m writing and it’s all happening, I don’t really take any breaks!
—Marta Pérez-Carbonell, author of I Made You Up Inside My Head
(Riverhead Books, 2026)