For some of us, coffee shops, pubs or public places where people are moving around are ideal spots for day-dreaming. Or, indeed, somewhere where there is running water, by a river or stream. The constant movement seems to stimulate thought and ideas in a way that perhaps a library or the solitude of a study does not. It may not be possible to hone the finished text sitting around in a noisy cafe, but the challenge of holding together thoughts against adversity, as it were, is a great galvanizing force. In the peace of one's home there are even more distractions, like the TV and the phone. People who are not familiar with the creative process may find it hard to accept that places like coffee bars are a source of stimulation. But why certain places and things motivate the creative individual and others do not is difficult to fathom.
Is day-dreaming an innate ability or something that can be taught? While I personally am prepared to accept that inheritance of ability does play a significant role in the process, I am more inclined to the idea that the environment, and perhaps chance, plays a much greater role. It is said that genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. The coffee shop experience bears this out: a place of turmoil to engender the ideas and then back to the nest to flesh them out. The 90 percent is a notional figure. If one looks at the work of the great inventors and artists past or present, one can see that more than 90 percent of perspiration, as it were, went into the execution of their work.
SUMMARY:
Busy places, where there is a lot of movement, are {{U}}(51) {{/U}} places to day-dream. Such environments help to produce thoughts and ideas. In one's {{U}}(52) {{/U}} there are even more things to divert one's attention. It is not clear why the creative individual is {{U}}(53) {{/U}} by certain places and things. The question is whether day-dreaming is {{U}}(54) {{/U}} or can be learned. Inheritance, environment and chance all play a role in the creative process; supposedly only 10 percent is the result of {{U}}(55) {{/U}}