I swear by naps, especially when I’m stuck. I know that sounds like just another word for procrastination but hear me out! Most of my breakthroughs come to me right as I’m drifting off or waking up. Of course, I must also be really working on the material during my waking hours for these naps to do their magic. I can’t be phoning it in. But if I’m deeply, diligently into something and still not cracking the code—still just spinning—that liminal space between waking and sleeping seems to allow solutions to dislodge, float up, and present themselves.
I also get out art supplies if I’m stuck. Paint, glue, ink, yarn, colored pencils, paper, foil, clay.... Collaging, painting, or sculpting an essay can clarify things for me. I take the concepts, sections, questions, etcetera, and assign them a medium/supply, and I play around. I’m still working with the ideas in the essay, still trying to articulate them—I’m just not using words. It lets me see things I missed while limited to language. Like, Oh, this entire thing is red—it needs other colors or It’s the yarn that’s interesting, not the ink. It’s like cross-training, and it can be generative, and fun.
—Savala Nolan, author of Good Woman: A Reckoning (Mariner Books, 2026)
Photo credit: Senay Inanici