One of my favorite creativity blog writers, Orna Ross, recently wrote a post about artists needing to be alone. She cites psychologist Howard Gardner, “The only attribute that all creative people share, he concluded, is a large capacity to be alone.”

Throughout history creative people such as writers Ernest Hemingway and Henry David Thoreau, actresses Helen Hayes and Greta Garbo, and many others recognized the need to take a break away from their craft to unwind and relax the brain.

Virginia Woolf - In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us.

During those alone times, creative people reflect, review and refuel. This is where new ideas begin.  Refreshed they are then able to return to the studio, the study or their work place to begin a new project.

Pablo Picasso - Without great solitude no serious work is possible.

Creativity is defined as the ability to develop new and original ideas and things.

The beginning of the creative process doesn’t really start with an idea. It starts with preparation to accept the idea.  If I compare an idea to a seed and the soil the seed is planted in to solitude, then soil becomes a metaphor for quiet and solitude. It is in this solitude that new ideas are cultivated.

Actual development of the seed comes after it’s planted and nurtured. This is a slow process where it is protected, fed and watered. This is the incubation period. When it takes root during the germination stage, it starts to grow and develop.

Some artists get a little worried during this quiet time, wondering what happened to all those ideas. Unless there is a definite creative block, that time "without ideas” can be the most rewarding "down time" in the creative process. These periodic breaks from creativity are actually necessary for the development of new ideas.  When artists take a breather, they travel, go for a walk, listen to music, take in a movie, or whatever it takes, so they can renew themselves and generate new ideas. In the blog, Harmonious Living, the author, Ririan, lists all the ways in which to enjoy solitude.

Take the time to unwind, relax and recognize that solitude is a natural step in the creative process.

Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous—to poetry. –Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

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