How environment boosts creativity, or: how a drunken F. Scott was right all along

Of all the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books - as well as in his rich and colorful real life - one of our absolute favorites has to be Andrew Turnbull. Turnbull is of the real-life variety of characters, a then 11-year-old whose parents owned the estate Fitzgerald stayed in while he was writing Tender is the Night and his wife was being treated for schizophrenia. Still with us? Good. 

Turnbull reported that Fitzgerald worked in dark, disheveled rooms with notebooks scattered all over the place and a bottle of gin at the ready, and that he stumbled around the house looking dazed and wan in a bathrobe, and regularly took walks in his pajamas. While part of us desperately wants to read all the dirt that Andrew Turnbull can dish, the other part of us simply must point that according to research done on creativity, F. Scott was doing all the right things.

Turn out the lights

Or at least turn them down. Study after study has shown that darkened lighting helps your mind loosen up and churn out creative ideas. Experts think this is because dim lighting cuts down on a room’s distractions and therefore helps a person focus on internal reflection.

Clutter your work space

Though this tip seems to be in contrast to why experts think dim lighting helps with creativity, it’s also been proven in a multitude of studies that a cluttered workspace helps encourage the abstract thinking necessary for creativity. It’s thought that allowing yourself to have a non-tidy workspace encourages you to break free from convention and order and encourages the formulation of creative ideas and thoughts.

The exception to the messy desk idea is if you’re coming up against a deadline. A clean and tidy desk and workspace better allows you to focus and complete any necessary work quickly.

Get a little tipsy

It’s no secret that many of the writers we consider to be masters – Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Joyce – also happened to be big-time lushes. In some cases, this propensity for drink extended into alcoholism, most notably with Ernest Hemingway, so it’s always best to practice moderation when possible. However, studies have found that a blood alcohol level of about 0.075 not only improves problem solving, but also inspires sudden insights. 

Sell your heart

This has nothing to do with research studies or your work environment or how to encourage creativity. It’s just one final piece of advice from F. Scott Fitzgerald, originally written to Andrew Turnbull’s sister, who wanted to be a writer. He told her that in order to write she has to sell her heart, her strongest reactions, not the little minor things that touch her lightly or the experiences she might share at dinner.

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