“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” Arnold Toynbee, historian

“See life through the eyes of a child, then you become truly wise.” Fortune cookie saying

Blurring the line between work and play. What a wholesome, fruitful idea—and yet, we often forget how to do this, don’t we?

Do you remember when you were a kid,how you’d play for hours at some crazy game, giving it your full attention and all your energy? Totally absorbed, you lost all track of time—in fact, you weren’t thinking about time at all. It didn’t matter. What matter was the game you were playing or the thing you were building.

At my house, my brothers, sisters and I played endless games of “War” or “Go Fish.” Now, I can’t even remember a thing about what the rules were. All I remember is how much fun we had and how we were totally absorbed and in the moment.

Recovering that sense of fun is a gift we can all give ourselves: Bringing the spirit of play to our writing can be so enlivening and transforming!

When we bring playfulness to the page we open ourselves to magic and discovery. We forget about time and deadlines and editors and just get lost in the Land of Possibilities. Anything can happen — and it often does! When we view the world with a sense of wonder and bring fresh eyes to our writing, we open the door to adventure and our readers, whoever they may be, can step through that door with us.

So let’s be more playful. Let’s take our characters down a different road and see where it leads them. Let’s not be too precious or too concerned with what our output is. Let’s write on lilac paper or use green ink or draw a picture of something we’re trying to capture with words. Let’s “freelax” as my son Alex used to say, and just see what happens.

A relaxed mind is a creative mind. Write on!