While writing my next book recently, I was stuck on a particular element and couldn’t find a solution for driving the narrative forward using the free writing or mind mapping techniques I’ve mentioned before.

Then one day, somewhat ‘out of the blue’, I woke up with the solution almost fully-formed in my head, so made sure I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it.

This is an example of what happens in the unconscious when you’re wrestling with an issue.

It’s the third stage in the famous James Webb Young technique for producing ideas, or what Stephen King calls ‘the boys in the basement’ – who work on ideas while he’s not directly thinking about them, then deliver the solution ‘out of nowhere’.

John Cleese, in his book ‘creativity’, also shows how the unconscious mind can ‘do its thing’ overnight once you come up against a problem your conscious mind can’t solve.