What are deviant strategies?
This term emerged when I was writing about oblique research, a method I use to break free of creative blocks. This means going on a deep dive into something that has nothing ostensibly to do with any of the projects you should to be working on (like why would someone create a fluorescent rabbit?)
I and many of the writers I work with struggle with perfectionism and guilt: even if it’s possible to carve out the time to do your work, do you ever struggle with feelings of shame about prioritising your own needs and desires? I know I do.
For years, I worried at this problem. I worked as an instructor on creative writing programs, and I worked as an editor and mentor. I tried to create a unified theory of book-writing as the route to a sustainable practice. I wanted to make this accessible to as many people as possible.
There were many aspects of this work that did help writers, but what I discovered was that what most people need is to feel safe enough to make their most fearless work.
I am familiar with the pain of wanting to create while being unable to feel safe enough to create the fearless, truthful work that my soul is thirsty for.
Almost by accident, I discovered a way to soothe the nervous system by not demanding too much at once. For some writers, consistency is key, but for others this is a way to replicate shame-based trauma. I asked myself what would happen if I didn’t shame myself for becoming absorbed in special interests when I was supposed to be doing something more “creative”.
If I tried to work on something I was supposed to be doing, it would begin to feel like pressure. If I took a deep dive online, followed an oblique rabbit hole, or wrote a surprise scene for a character in an existing story, I could overcome my own defence mechanisms long enough to write myself back into the work.
Because this felt like something secret – a little bit deviant – it silenced my inner critic who warned me not to try in case I failed.
When I realised that it was the deviancy that broke down resistance, I was able to see this as a strategy that could be applied across my practice and process.
Some of my recent oblique research has involved: coloratura sopranos, lichens, and Scheele’s Green: the story of arsenic-laced wallpaper and the most gorgeous colour ever to exist.
Oblique research is a deviant strategy, but so is entering an altered state, meditating on a specific sound or colour, or taking inspiration from a physical landscape. Almost anything can be a deviant strategy if it meets the following criteria:
It has nothing obvious to do with the task at hand.
It is an immersive experience.
It contains the seeds of a new idea.
Your deviant strategies may not look like mine, but mine may spark something new, and help to break down your creative blocks.
* I am indebted to the work of Adrienne Maree Brown, Brian Eno, and Michelle Pellizzon for their respective concepts of Emergent Strategy, Oblique Strategies, and Divergent Strategies, all of which informed Deviant Strategies. I also thank M. Forajter for her note in response to my original piece where she picked out “deviant” as the crucial term.