I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown.

When I see the word productivity, it's hard not to see the word product

nestled inside it, reminding me again of capitalism.

I think we should try to keep whatever we can from getting chewed up and spit out by capitalism.

Creativity included.

Creativity especially.

I'm often asked questions about my writing process because people are curious about how the sausage gets made. What a gross analogy,

but a useful one too. The truth is my writing process, like cooking, is messy, and it hasn't changed

much since I wrote my first poem at 13 years old. I usually start with a scrap of

language, a metaphor, an image, one phrase that occurs to me, and then I listen and wait to see what else

might want to come along for the ride. That listening and wait to see what else might want to come along for the ride.

That listening and waiting part of the creative process looks a lot like doing nothing.

If you walked into a room full of writers writing,

you might catch more than half of them, not scribbling with a pen in a notebook,

not typing furiously on a laptop, but staring into the middle distance for a period of time.

Spacing out, you might be tempted to call it. But it's not spacing out. It's dialing in.

It's listening and waiting for whatever else the mind has to say. It's pausing to make connections.

Sometimes it's even listening to, or eavesdropping on others in the room to borrow a bit of dialogue.

Whatever is happening inside the writer, that far-off look on their face is evidence of thinking.

And thinking is part of the writing process. Thinking,

though it looks like doing nothing, is the job. When I'm in the shower washing my hair and an

idea comes to me, I'm writing. When I take a little extra time getting out of bed in the morning,

...