creative writers and daydreaming

Freud on Creative Writing and Daydreaming

By maria popova.

Predictably, Freud begins by tracing the subject matter to its roots in childhood, stressing, as Anaïs Nin eloquently did — herself trained in psychoanalysis — the importance of emotional investment in creative writing :

Should we not look for the first traces of imaginative activity as early as in childhood? The child’s best-loved and most intense occupation is with his play or games. Might we not say that every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, rearranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him? It would be wrong to think he does not take that world seriously; on the contrary, he takes his play very seriously and he expends large amounts of emotion on it. The opposite of play is not what is serious but what is real. In spite of all the emotion with which he cathects his world of play, the child distinguishes it quite well from reality; and he likes to link his imagined objects and situations to the tangible and visible things of the real world. This linking is all that differentiates the child’s ‘play’ from ‘phantasying.’ The creative writer does the same as the child at play. He creates a world of phantasy which he takes very seriously — that is, which he invests with large amounts of emotion — while separating it sharply from reality.

He then considers, as Henry Miller did in his famous creative routine three decades later, the time scales of the creative process:

The relation of phantasy to time is in general very important. We may say that it hovers, as it ware, between three times — the three moments of time which our ideation involves. Mental work is linked to some current impression, some provoking occasion in the present which has been able to arouse one of the subject’s major wishes. From here it harks back to a memory of an earlier experience (usually an infantile one) in which this wish was fulfilled; and now it creates a situation relating to the future which represents the fulfillment of the wish. What it thus creates is a day-dream or phantasy, which carries about it traces of its origin from the occasion which provoked it and from the memory. Thus, past, present and future are strung together, as it were, on the thread of the wish that runs through them.

He synthesizes the parallel between creative writing and play:

A piece of creative writing, like a day-dream, is a continuation of, and a substitute for, what was once the play of childhood.

He goes on to explore the secretive nature of our daydreams, suggesting that an element of shame keeps us from sharing them with others — perhaps what Jack Kerouac meant when he listed the unspeakable visions of the individual as one of his iconic beliefs and techniques for prose — and considers how the creative writer transcends that to achieve pleasure in the disclosure of these fantasies:

How the writer accomplishes this is his innermost secret; the essential ars poetica lies in the technique of overcoming the feeling of repulsion in us which is undoubtedly connected with the barriers that rise between each single ego and the others. We can guess two of the methods used by this technique. The writer softens the character of his egoistic day-dreams by altering and disguising it, and he bribes us by the purely formal — that is, aesthetic — yield of pleasure which he offers us in the presentation of his phantasies. We give the name of an incentive bonus , or a fore-pleasure , to a yield of pleasure such as this, which is offered to us so as to make possible the release of still greater pleasure arising from deeper psychical sources. In my opinion, all the aesthetic pleasure which a creative writer affords us has the character of a fore-pleasure of this kind, and our actual enjoyment of an imaginative work proceeds from a liberation of tensions in our minds. It may even be that not a little of this effect is due to the writer’s enabling us thenceforward to enjoy our own day-dreams without self-reproach or shame.

For more famous insights on writing, see Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules for a great story , David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips , Henry Miller’s eleven commandments , Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques , John Steinbeck’s six pointers , and Susan Sontag’s synthesized learnings .

— Published October 15, 2012 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/10/15/freud-creative-writers-and-day-dreaming/ —

www.themarginalian.org

PRINT ARTICLE

Email article, filed under, books creativity freud history lynda barry psychology writing, view full site.

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy . (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)

The Uncanny

45 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“Screen Memories”

“The Creative Writer and Daydreaming”

“Family Romances”

Part 1, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”

Part 2, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”

Part 3, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”

Part 4, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”

Part 5, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”

Part 6, “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”

Part 1, “The Uncanny”

Part 2, “The Uncanny”

Part 3, “The Uncanny”

Key Figures

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

“The Creative Writer and Daydreaming” Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Essay summary: “the creative writer and daydreaming”.

In this essay, Freud explicitly examines the relationship between literary analysis and psychoanalysis. The essay begins with the memorable and oft-quoted line: “We may perhaps say that every child at play behaves like a writer” (25). He then adds that “the opposite of play is not seriousness–it is reality” (26). Freud continues by explaining that rather than forgoing the pleasure we once took in playing in adolescence, humans replace play with fantasy. People’s fantasies are less easily observable than children’s play, and adults are generally ashamed of these secret desires.

In his psychoanalytic practice, Freud has learned that healthy and neurotic people both fantasize, but happy people do not, only dissatisfied ones, as “every fantasy [is] wish fulfillment, correcting the unhappy reality” (28). Fantasies are either ambitious or erotic. Fantasies also inhabit three time periods: the present impression, which has aroused the desire; the past memory of an earlier experience; and the future fulfillment of this desire. For instance, an orphaned youth might fantasize about gaining employment and marrying into a wealthy family to repossess themselves of a happy childhood. Fantasies proliferate prior to a lapse into neurosis or psychosis.

Get access to this full Study Guide and much more!

• 7,400+ In-Depth Study Guides
• 4,900+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
• Downloadable PDFs

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By Sigmund Freud

Civilization And Its Discontents

Sigmund Freud

Moses and Monotheism

The Freud Reader

The Future of an Illusion

The Interpretation of Dreams

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

Featured Collections

Essays & Speeches

View Collection

Lecture Notes: Freud, "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming" [1907]

D) Freud’s answer to the second question, the reasons for the effect of literature. We take no pleasure in hearing the fantasies of real people, so why do the fantasies of creative writers give us such inordinate pleasure?

E) Summary: Consequence of this theory for definition of creative writer.

• Architecture and Design
• Asian and Pacific Studies
• Business and Economics
• Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Computer Sciences
• Cultural Studies
• Engineering
• General Interest
• Geosciences
• Industrial Chemistry
• Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Library and Information Science, Book Studies
• Life Sciences
• Linguistics and Semiotics
• Literary Studies
• Materials Sciences
• Mathematics
• Social Sciences
• Sports and Recreation
• Theology and Religion
• Publish your article
• The role of authors
• Promoting your article
• Abstracting & indexing
• Publishing Ethics
• Why publish with De Gruyter
• How to publish with De Gruyter
• Our book series
• Our subject areas
• Your digital product at De Gruyter
• Contribute to our reference works
• Product information
• Tools & resources
• Product Information
• Promotional Materials
• Orders and Inquiries
• FAQ for Library Suppliers and Book Sellers
• Repository Policy
• Free access policy
• Open Access agreements
• Database portals
• For Authors
• Customer service
• People + Culture
• Journal Management
• How to join us
• Working at De Gruyter
• Mission & Vision
• De Gruyter Foundation
• De Gruyter Ebound
• Our Responsibility
• Partner publishers

Your purchase has been completed. Your documents are now available to view.

I. Creative Writers and Daydreaming

From the book literature and psychoanalysis.

• Sigmund Freud
• X / Twitter

Supplementary Materials

Please login or register with De Gruyter to order this product.

Daydreaming, Phantasy and the Artist's Process: A Response to "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming

• Patricia Townsend
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• Volume 78, Number 4, Winter 2021
• pp. 659-683
• 10.1353/aim.2021.0033
• View Citation

Additional Information

Project MUSE Mission

Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves.

2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218

+1 (410) 516-6989 [email protected]

©2024 Project MUSE. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries.

Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires

Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.

Creative Writing and Daydreaming by Sigmund Freud

He suggests that the superficial pleasure of the work releases to deeper psychic pleasure and thereby liberate tensions. Thus, reading a text is known the psyche of the author.

Human beings have innumerable wishes and desires that can't be expressed freely due to social boundary, morality and other restrictions. The desires remain suppressed in our unconscious level of mind. Somehow, we try to express those desires and, according to Freud, there are three ways to do so- Sex, tongue slips and writing . Artists take help of writing to express his repressed desires of their childhood. He fantasizes and creates daydreams in place of playing games of their childhood. Through writing, the author expresses his desires. He remembers his golden past and wants to express the experience of the past in the present but can't do so. Therefore, he fantasizes and manifests his wishes in the form of art.

During childhood, a child plays with the mother's body but later on he identifies himself with fatherly figure, who comes in between mother and child , and the bodily unity with the mother is broken but the desire to play with mother's body remains throughout his life. Children forget their imagination by indulging themselves in games. The writer has nostalgic towards the blissful past and the same romantic nostalgia becomes immense energy for creativity. So, there is some sort of similarity between children and writers. Both use their emotion and imagination seriously in game and writing.

According to Freud, wishes or desires are divided in to two parts as: Ambition : Ambition, which is found only in male not in female, is to uplift the personality. Erotic Wish: This wish is noticed in both- male and female. Freud focuses Id that enforces erotic wish in a person. Id is an irrational and immoral force located at the unconscious level of human mind. It guides sexual desire. However, Idic factor is controlled by a stricter factor, which carries the principal of morality, value and humanitarian, called Superego. Superego does not let id express those desires. There is the conflict between Id and superego. But Ego, that works with the reality principle stands as a mediator between id and superego. When unfulfilled desires are suppressed and pushed back in our unconscious, they manifest in the form of dream, tongue slips and literature. It is ego that helps the writers to express the repressed desires in a socially accepted form, not directly but in disguised form.

There are three phases upon which an artist undergoes while creating a work of art, they are: A. Condensation B. Latent C. Substitution E. Symbolic/ image stage manifest

The first two are the psychological stages that are invisible located in mind but the third one is expressed in language.

Author's mind possesses many desires so he selects the wanted desires but leaves out the unwanted desires. Those selected desires are combined in to single desire, and such process is called condensation. In substitution, those erotic and socially unaccepted desires are substituted by non-erotic ideas and are changed in to socially accepted one. In the symbolic stage, author takes help of symbols of pond, cave, ring and such other circular and concave symbols refer to ' vegina' whereas convex and vertical symbolizes like hill, stick, tree, finger etc, refer to ' Phallus'. While reading a text, the readers identify themselves with the writers and get the aesthetic pleasure.

In releasing unfulfilled desires, the poet uses' censors' but the meaning can be accomplished through analysis. He says, this reading is allegorical. The day dreaming and creative works both transforms the mental contents in to something where the latter is more creative and interesting.

Freud also talks of two kinds of dreams: latent and manifest. Latent dream can only be thought of in our mental imagination, which cannot be seen but manifest dream is the revelation of the disguised one, which we perceive.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it's official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings
• Browse Titles

NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

Callard F, Staines K, Wilkes J, editors. The Restless Compendium: Interdisciplinary Investigations of Rest and Its Opposites. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave Macmillan; 2016. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-45264-7_4

The Restless Compendium: Interdisciplinary Investigations of Rest and Its Opposites.

Chapter 4 writing and daydreaming.

Hazel Morrison .

Affiliations

This chapter was conceived during an interdisciplinary psychological experiment, in which geographer Hazel Morrison asked participants to record and describe in face-to-face interviews their everyday experiences of mind wandering. Questions abound concerning the legitimacy of interviewee narratives when describing subjective experience, and the limits of language in achieving ‘authentic’ description. These concerns increase when looking at mind-wandering experiences, because of the absence of meta-cognition during periods of self-generated thought. Here, Hazel explores the tensions at play in twentieth-century discourses around the self, fantasy and expression.

The experience of mind wandering – which tends, now, to be placed by the discipline of psychology under the umbrella term ‘self-generated thought’, along with associated states such as daydream, fantasy and reverie – is recognized as a ubiquitous component of everyday life. 1 ‘[I]n day-dreaming’, wrote Jerome Singer, ‘all of us are in a sense authorities because of the very private nature of our experiences’. 2 Yet when looking to the history of psychological research that underpins contemporary understandings of mind wandering, ‘all of us’, that is, the generic you and I who experience our minds wandering every day, are notably absent. This isn’t to say that the voices, experiences and narratives of everyday people are entirely obscured. Rather the reliability – or, one might say, the authority – of the subjective viewpoint is repeatedly denigrated. 3

This, argue Schooler and Schreiber, is because although our experience of mind wandering is in itself undeniable, our ability to accurately represent our experience is frequently inadequate. 4 A momentary loss of ‘meta-cognition’, or self-reflexive awareness of our mental state, is commonly recognized to characterize the transition to the mind wandering state. 5 And if we are unable to recognize our minds having wandered, the validity of our accounts of these fugitive mental processes must be questionable. There are historical precedents to this problematic. The psychologist William James, for example, famously compared the attempt to capture such fleeting subjectivity as that of grasping ‘a spinning top to catch its motion, or trying to turn up the gas quickly enough to see how the darkness looks’. 6

I agree that the aforementioned denigration of the authority of subjective experience may be traced to this long-standing issue of meta-cognition, and its absence during periods of mind wandering. However, James recognized a second impediment to introspection, which, until recently, has received little attention within mainstream psychology. This he identified as the limitation of language, claiming an ‘absence of a special vocabulary for subjective facts’, which hindered the study of all ‘but the very coarsest of them’. 7 More than a century on, Callard, Smallwood and Margulies, in a commentary on scientific investigations of the mind at ‘rest’, recognize a similar problematic. A ‘historical bias’, they write, ‘toward explicating external processing has meant the psychological vocabulary for describing internally generated mental content is relatively stunted.’ 8 Nonetheless, they suggest there exist pockets of literature, now ‘largely unknown or disregarded in cognitive psychology’ which once used heterogeneous methods to study and elicit states of ‘daydream, fantasy, mind wandering and dissociation’. 9

To bring some of these methods to greater visibility, this chapter looks back to the period 1908–23, a period during which daydream and fantasy were experimentally explored through diverse introspective practices, ranging from the free association methods of psychoanalysis to stream of consciousness literary techniques. Reading Sigmund Freud’s famous essay ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’ (1908), in relation both to his daughter Anna Freud’s essay ‘The Relation of Beating-Phantasies to a Day-Dream’ (1923) and to Virginia Woolf’s short story ‘The Mark on the Wall’ (1919), this chapter explores the place of writing within complexes of daydream and fantasy. These interconnected texts make clear the complexities of articulating inner, mental phenomena through the medium of the written word. In so doing, they offer additional paths through which we might understand why the subjective viewpoint has often been denigrated or downplayed within the history of daydreaming and mind wandering research. i

• Multiplicity of the Self and the Fragility of Self-Representation

Sigmund Freud’s essay ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’ (1908) is known for its long-standing contribution to studies of daydream and fantasy, phenomena now frequently brought into confluence with mind wandering. 10 Freud recognized imaginative activities such as daydreaming, ‘phantasy’ and building ‘castles in the air’ as normal human behaviour. Yet despite the ubiquitous nature of daydreaming, he understood it to necessitate concealment. 11

Why? Freud identified socially unacceptable egoistic and erotic wishes as significant motive forces that furnish the contents of fantasy and daydream. Freud wrote of the ‘well-brought-up young woman’ being ‘allowed a minimum of erotic desire’, and of the young man who must learn to subdue an ‘excess of self-regard’ to gain acceptance in society. At the extreme, to allow one’s daydreams to become ‘over-luxuriant’ and overpowerful was seen to risk the onset of ‘neurosis or psychosis’. 12

Only the creative writer, argued Freud, was uniquely able to articulate ‘his [sic] personal daydreams without self-reproach or shame’. The aesthetic qualities of prose were seen by Freud to ‘soften’, ‘disguise’ and sublimate the egotistical elements of the daydream, allowing author and reader alike covert indulgence in the pleasure of fantasizing. 13 ii

Creativity, Self and Sublimation: ‘The Mark on the Wall’

Virginia Woolf’s short story ‘The Mark on the Wall’ (1919) exemplifies the skill of the creative writer in giving expression to daydream, reverie and fantasy. Like Freud, Woolf recognizes the commonality of the experience of daydreaming: even the most ‘modest mouse-coloured people’, claims the narrator, cherish moments of self-referential imaginative indulgence, despite believing ‘genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises.’ 14 Moreover, Woolf’s text addresses how, for daydream and fantasy to be freely expressed, the writer must deploy tactics of disguise and deflection.

Woolf’s experimental approach to depicting inner monologue mimics the rhythms and effects of the wandering mind, as her writing gravitates from domestic space towards thoughts of childhood fancy. The sight of burning coals evokes description of a ‘calvacade of red knights … an old fancy, an automatic fancy, made as a child perhaps’. Distracted, her thoughts ‘swarm upon a new object’: a poorly perceived mark, ‘black upon the white wall …’. Rich and humorous, her prose flits from some current impression (a bowl, flower, cigarette smoke) to self-referential thoughts and fantasies. Intermittently her train of thought returns to the mark on the wall: lifting this new object up ‘as ants carry a blade of straw so feverishly’, before leaving it to be picked up later, afresh. 15

While Woolf’s text meanders, and on occasion tumbles, from one thought to the next, a succession of passages offers the opportunity to reflect on the thought processes that permit fantasized, egotistical self-expression. ‘I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought’, states the narrator, ‘a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself’. These, she continues, ‘are not thoughts directly praising oneself’. Rather, they express indirectly a figure of self, ‘lovingly, stealthily … not openly adoring’. This, declares Woolf’s narrator, ‘is the beauty of them’. 16

Woolf portrays daydreaming as a mode of thought that allows for the creation of a sense of self invested with depth, colour and romance. Yet the author also recognizes an inherent danger in giving voice to daydream and fantasy. Woolf’s text hints at deep motivations for concealment and sublimation, for like Freud, she writes of the urge to protect the idealized self-image from the gaze of the external world. If this idealized self-image were to be openly recognized, its integrity would become threatened. To have one’s fantasized sense-of-self disappear is, for the narrator, to become ‘only a shell of a person’, as seen by others. Indeed, writes Woolf, ‘what an airless, shallow, bald, prominent world it becomes!’ 17

For the protagonist of the story, the destruction of an inner self-image that exists within the realm of fantasy is a genuine threat. Fear lies with the potential for ‘idolatry’, for a sense of self being ‘made ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed in any longer’. In this sense, Woolf’s short story suggests why daydream, fantasy and mind wandering are states of mind that resist introspective redescription: to give self-expression to the wandering mind is to risk damaging the inner self. Writing, I suggest, emerges as a crucial intermediary for Woolf, through which the fantasized self may be given self-expression. 18

• Fragmentation

[I]n the daydream each new addition or repetition of a separate scene afford[s] anew opportunity for pleasurable instinctual gratification. In the written story … the direct pleasure gain is abandoned. 19

Anna Freud – as the quotation above from her essay ‘The Relation of Beating-Phantasies to a Day-Dream’ (1923) indicates – offers another model for the complex relationship between daydreaming, subjectivity and writing. In this essay, she presents the case of a young female patient, characterized by a strong propensity to daydream. The girl, Anna Freud writes, had a history of fantasy thinking in which two polarized thought patterns dominated. By encouraging the girl, during analysis, to express the contents of these daydreams, Anna Freud explores how processes of repression and transformation link the inner daydream to its articulation in the ‘real’ world. 20 In doing so, she postulates more precisely than Sigmund Freud how daydreaming experience is transformed and transfigured once communicated through the written word.

In Anna Freud’s essay, the girl’s early fantasies of beating are shown to have culminated in masturbatory climax. As the girl aged, these fantasies were increasingly repressed as the girl associated them with shame and displeasure. The girl was then reported to have developed seemingly converse daydreams, which she labelled ‘nice stories’. These are understood by Anna Freud as the transformation of the beating fantasy into stories acceptable to the girl’s sense of morality, which yet enable a similar degree of pleasurable gratification.

In both the beating fantasies and ‘nice’ daydreams, Freud relates that the girl ‘did not feel bound to work out a logical sequence of events’ of the kind that would characterize a written narrative. Rather she scanned forward and back to differing phases of the tale; she might ‘interpose a new situation between two already completed and contemporaneous scenes’, to the extent that the ‘frame of her stories was in danger of being shattered’. 21 Each repetition and addition to the daydream was understood to enable renewed opportunity for ‘pleasurable instinctual gratification’. Yet when the daydream became ‘especially obtrusive’, the girl turned to writing, reportedly ‘as a defence against excessive preoccupation with it’. 22

Anna Freud noted a sharp difference between the unbridled, multi-layered sequence of events that made up the daydream, and the structured, novelistic quality of daydreams transformed into a written story. iii No longer a series of overlaid, repetitive episodes, culminating time and again in pleasurable climax, once written down the ‘finished story’ reportedly did ‘not elicit any such excitement’ as during the experiencing of the daydream. Yet this, concluded Anna Freud, put her patient ‘on the road that leads from her fantasy life back to reality’. 23 Like Sigmund Freud, who wrote that even if an individual were to communicate his or her phantasies they would leave the listener cold, Anna Freud recognized the role of language in transforming the affects that accompany the daydream. Outside the psychoanalytic encounter, fantasy thoughts are placed within a more linear, textual framework that flattens the dynamic nature of such thinking. iv

Taking these three texts together, we might relate the suspicion of everyday introspective accounts of mind wandering at least in part to the complex relations tying daydream and fantasy to the written word. Language, embedded within distinct social contexts, is in many ways considered duplicitous in relation to the contents of consciousness. Even if literary techniques, such as Woolf ‘s, attempt to evoke the rhythms and affects characteristic of the wandering mind, writing itself is the site of an opacity that accompanies the unfurling of inner life into the social world. As James noted more than a century ago, the ‘ lack of a word’ imposes limitations on language’s ability to represent inner experience, complicating any straightforward relationship between experience and expression. 24

• Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.

See Chap. 5 .

Cf. Chap. 7 .

Cf. Chap. 10 .

Cf. Chap. 6 .

Jonathan Smallwood and Jonathan W. Schooler, ‘The Restless Mind’, Psychological Bulletin 132, no. 6 (2006): 947. [ PubMed : 17073528 ]

Jerome L. Singer, The Inner World of Daydreaming (New York: Harper, 1966), 6.

See also Anthony Jack and Andreas Roepstorff, ‘Introspection and Cognitive Brain Mapping: From Stimulus-Response to Script-Report’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 6, no. 8 (2002): 333–39 [ PubMed : 12140083 ]; Felicity Callard, Jonathan Smallwood, and Daniel S. Margulies, ‘Default Positions: How Neuroscience’s Historical Legacy Has Hampered Investigation of the Resting Mind’, Frontiers in Psychology 3 (2012): 321 [ PMC free article : PMC3437462 ] [ PubMed : 22973252 ].

Jonathan Schooler and Charles A. Schreiber, ‘Experience, Meta-Consciousness, and the Paradox of Introspection’, Journal of Consciousness Studies 11, no. 7–8 (2004): 17–18.

Jerome L. Singer, ‘Daydreaming, Consciousness, and Self-Representations: Empirical Approaches to Theories of William James and Sigmund Freud’, Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies , 5, no. 4 (2003), 464.

William James, The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1 (New York: Dover, 1950), 244.

Ibid., 195.

Callard, Smallwood, and Margulies, ‘Default Positions’, 3.

Sigmund Freud, ‘Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming’ (1908), in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , trans. and ed. James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press: The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1953–74), 9: 144–45.

Ibid., 144–5.

Ibid., 146–7.

Ibid., 152.

Virginia Woolf, The Mark on the Wall (Richmond, Surrey: Hogarth Press, 1919), 4.

Anna Freud, ‘The Relation of Beating-Phantasies to a Day-Dream Freud’ (1923), in Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Lectures for Child Analysts and Teachers, 1922–1935 (London: Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1974), 154–5.

Ibid., 157.

Ibid., 146.

Ibid., 154–5.

James, The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1, 195–6.

• Further Reading
• Callard, Felicity, Jonathan Smallwood, Johannes Golchert, and Daniel S. Margulies. ‘The Era of the Wandering Mind? Twenty-First Century Research on Self-Generated Mental Activity’. Frontiers in Psychology: Perception Science 4 (2013): 891. [ PMC free article : PMC3866909 ] [ PubMed : 24391606 ]
• Corballis, Michael C. The Wandering Mind: What the Brain Does When You’re Not Looking . Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2015.
• Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams . Translated by Joyce Crick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Schooler, Jonathan W, Jonathan Smallwood, Kalina Christoff, Todd C. Handy, Erik D. Reichle and Michael A. Sayette. ‘Meta-Awareness, Perceptual Decoupling and the Wandering Mind’. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15. no. 7 (2011): 319–26. [ PubMed : 21684189 ]
• Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse . Edited by David Bradshaw. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, a link is provided to the Creative Commons license and any changes made are indicated.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the work’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if such material is not included in the work’s Creative Commons license and the respective action is not permitted by statutory regulation, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to duplicate, adapt or reproduce the material.

Monographs, or book chapters, which are outputs of Wellcome Trust funding have been made freely available as part of the Wellcome Trust's open access policy

• Cite this Page Morrison H. Writing and Daydreaming. In: Callard F, Staines K, Wilkes J, editors. The Restless Compendium: Interdisciplinary Investigations of Rest and Its Opposites. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave Macmillan; 2016. Chapter 4. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-45264-7_4
• PDF version of this title (6.1M)

In this Page

• Creativity, Self and Sublimation: ‘The Mark on the Wall’

Other titles in this collection

• Wellcome Trust–Funded Monographs and Book Chapters

Related information

• PMC PubMed Central citations
• PubMed Links to PubMed

Recent Activity

• Writing and Daydreaming - The Restless Compendium Writing and Daydreaming - The Restless Compendium

Your browsing activity is empty.

Activity recording is turned off.

Turn recording back on

Connect with NLM

National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20894

Web Policies FOIA HHS Vulnerability Disclosure

Help Accessibility Careers

Cookies: We use our own and third-party cookies to improve your experience of our website. Cookies remember your preferences and track site usage. By continuing, you accept their use.

Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Everything you need to craft your first draft.

Get your thoughts onto the page and explore the connections between them.

Join the conversation. Ask a question or just get to know your fellow users.

What we’re working on, interviews with users, and general prolixity.

How Daydreaming Can Enhance Creativity for Fiction Writers

Kirk McElhearn  /  27 SEP 2023

Daydreaming can help you be more creative in your fiction writing.

I remember, back in second grade, my teacher chastising me because I was daydreaming. She rapped a ruler on my desk and told me to come back to the world. I don't recall what sort of thing I was thinking about at that young age. Fantasies about animals or monsters? Thoughts about getting let out of class to play? Or perhaps something related to a book I had been reading recently?

From the youngest age, at school, we're forced to pay attention, we're told not to daydream because it's bad. If you spend too much time staring out a window and daydreaming at work, you'll be reprimanded by your boss. Yet it has been shown that daydreaming can enhance creativity, and help us maintain good mental health.

When we daydream, our minds wander, letting seemingly random thoughts take over from the rigid goal-based ideas that we have most of the time. Daydreaming is defined as " a pleasant visionary usually wishful creation of the imagination ," " a series of pleasant thoughts, usually about things that you would like to happen ," and " A series of thoughts or yearnings that distract one's attention (esp. pleasantly) from the present ." Note the use of the word pleasant in all those definitions. Daydreaming is an enjoyable, satisfying event that takes us away from the present.

Daydreaming is a door opened, just a bit, to the part of the brain that imagines and creates. And it's not hard to start daydreaming. Often, looking out a window allows us to make a break with reality. Instead of looking at our computers or our desks, we relax our eyes as they no longer focus on things close at hand, and allow our minds to also relax.

Many studies have shown that daydreaming can help enhance creativity and problem solving. When we daydream, our brains slip into a state where we don't need to accomplish anything, but where the mind can wander from thought to thought. As we follow these trains of thought in daydreams, the brain makes connections that we might miss when thinking intentionally. This is why we often come up with ideas when in the shower, or when walking .

As Jerome L. Singer explains in his book Daydreaming and Fantasy , "daydreaming represents a shift of attention away from some primary physical or mental task we have set for ourselves, or away from directly looking at or listening to something in the external environment, toward an unfolding sequence of private responses made to some internal stimulus."

Daydreaming and writing fiction

When you write a novel, you make things up, you invent, you create worlds and characters and situations where they interact. You create a story out of thin air, out of your mind, your unconscious. The characters aren't real, the plot is made up, and the events of the story never happened. Yet when someone reads them, they can believe that they just might be real.

In Where do you get your ideas? , Neil Gaiman says, "You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it."

As you work on a novel, daydreaming can help you create those worlds and characters, and open us up to ideas that we wouldn't discover when we try to solve problems. When you get stuck and don't know which way to go, when you don't know what your characters should do, take a break and daydream.

How to daydream

It may seem like everyone knows how to daydream, but that may not be the case. We're so used to not daydreaming - because we're told not to at work and at school - that we may have lost the habit.

The biggest impediment to daydreaming is our smartphones. We used to have plenty of opportunities to daydream: on busses or trains, in waiting rooms, and when standing in line at banks. As Jenny Diski has pointed out , "Travelling alone on a train was no longer a space to read or daydream, but a boredom hole to be filled with phone conversations." She wrote this before the advent of the smartphone, and that boredom hole is now filled with social media and games. Instead of taking out your phone when you have nothing to do, why not try to daydream instead?

One of the classic ways to daydream is to look out a window. As a video from The School of Life explains, "The point of staring out of a window is, paradoxically, not to find out what is going on outside. It is, rather, an exercise in discovering the contents of our own minds." If you have a window whose view is uncluttered, this can be helpful. But even if you are in a city, and your only view is other buildings, looking out a window with the intention to not look at anything can spur daydreaming. You could do this on a bus or train, just watching the world go by. (Get the window seat if you can.)

Remember when you were a kid, you looked up in the sky and imagined what the clouds looked like? You can still do that as an adult. Clouds flowing slowly against a blue sky can help put you in a state of daydreaming.

You could sit on a park bench or in nature, and look out at the plants and trees, but without paying too much attention to them. If you can't do that, lie in bed or on the floor, relax, and think of a beautiful place you have been to or you would like to visit. Or find a beautiful painting or photograph and look at it for a few minutes, then look out a window or lie down.

Any of these methods can help you slip into that state where your mind conjures up new ideas, often ideas that have been lurking in your subconscious. When you are writing fiction, many of these ideas may be related to your novel, and you can use these to move ahead and send your characters in new directions. Try daydreaming when you've hit a wall in your writing; it could free you and open up new ideas.

Different Ways of Setting Up Scrivener’s Binder for Your Projects

Write now with scrivener, episode no. 31: mary robinette kowal, science fiction and fantasy author, you may also like to read..., got the blank page blues take a walk. how walking boosts creativity..

When you’ve hit a wall in your writing, one of the best ways to make progress is to take a walk.

Overcoming Writer's Block: How to Rekindle Your Creativity

Does writer's block exist? Some writers believe it does, but others think it's a myth. What should you do if you're blocked?

Use Writing Prompts to Help Spur Creativity | Literature and Latte

Writing prompts are a good way to exercise and help break through writer's block.

Keep up to date

Sign up for the latest news, writing tips and product announcements. Delivered straight to your inbox.

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

On Freud's "Creative writers and day-dreaming"

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

7 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by station62.cebu on January 15, 2021

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

• Kindle Store
• Kindle eBooks
• Health, Fitness & Dieting

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Buy for others

Buying and sending ebooks to others.

• Select quantity
• Buy and send eBooks
• Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Creative Writers and Day Dreaming Kindle Edition

“ creative writers and day dreaming ” was originally delivered by sigmund freud as an informal talk, before an audience of ninety in a room at the viennese publisher hugo heller , on december 6, 1907. an accurate summary of the talk appeared the following day in the viennese daily “ die zeit ”., the speech, on the relationship between unconscious fantasy and creative art, is a truly remarkable piece of work, given the fact that it was delivered seven years after the publication of his “ interpretation of dreams ”., in his talk, freud traced the similarities between children's play and creative writing. like creative writers, children at play create worlds of their own. however, freud points out that although our experience of mind wandering is a component of everyday life, our ability to accurately represent our experience can somehow be inadequate., freud makes clear that the ability to articulate inner mental phenomena, through the medium of the written word, belongs to a creative elite who have the dexterity to channel it., freud 's argument, that artists can revisit childhood memories, daydreams and play activities became widely influential to the modernists movement. daydreaming and fantasy were explored as a novel literary technique by many writers., diverse introspective practices, ranging from free association, stream of consciousness, and self-generated thought methods, allowed many blocked writers to re-emerge from their introversion and return to public life., sigmund freud is well known for his contributions to the study of daydreams, fantasy, and other mind wandering phenomena. original title of his the talk is “ der dichter und das phantasieren ” in german..

• Print length 13 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publication date January 24, 2020
• File size 1247 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0846SP3LD
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ ASI (January 24, 2020)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 24, 2020
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1247 KB
• Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 13 pages
• #990 in Psychoanalysis
• #2,100 in Performing Arts (Kindle Store)
• #2,965 in Medical Psychoanalysis

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

No customer reviews

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Brain scans of Philly jazz musicians reveal secrets to reaching creative flow

Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Drexel University

Adjunct Instructor of English and Professional Writing, Widener University

Disclosure statement

John Kounios currently receives grant funding from DiagnaMed Inc. for research on brain aging and has in the past received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for cognitive neuroscience research on memory, problem-solving, and creativity.

Yvette Kounios does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Drexel University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

View all partners

Flow , or being “ in the zone ,” is a state of amped-up creativity, enhanced productivity and blissful consciousness that, some psychologists believe, is also the secret to happiness . It’s considered the brain’s fast track to success in business, the arts or any other field.

But in order to achieve flow, a person must first develop a strong foundation of expertise in their craft. That’s according to a new neuroimaging study from Drexel University’s Creativity Research Lab, which recruited Philly-area jazz guitarists to better understand the key brain processes that underlie flow. Once expertise is attained, the study found, this knowledge must be unleashed and not overthought in order for flow to be reached.

As a cognitive neuroscientist who is senior author of this study, and a university writing instructor, we are a husband-and-wife team who collaborated on a book about the science of creative insight . We believe that this new neuroscience research reveals practical strategies for enhancing, as well as elucidating, innovative thinking.

Jazz musicians in flow

The concept of flow has fascinated creative people ever since pioneering psychological scientist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi began investigating the phenomenon in the 1970s.

Yet, a half-century of behavioral research has not answered many basic questions about the brain mechanisms associated with the feeling of effortless attention that exemplifies flow.

The Drexel experiment pitted two conflicting theories of flow against each other to see which better reflects what happens in people’s brains when they generate ideas. One theory proposes that flow is a state of intensive hyperfocus on a task. The other theory hypothesizes that flow involves relaxing one’s focus or conscious control.

The team recruited 32 jazz guitarists from the Philadelphia area. Their level of experience ranged from novice to veteran, as quantified by the number of public performances they had given. The researchers placed electrode caps on their heads to record their EEG brain waves while they improvised to chord sequences and rhythms that were provided to them.

Jazz improvisation is a favorite vehicle for cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists who study creativity because it is a measurable real-world task that allows for divergent thinking – the generation of multiple ideas over time.

The musicians themselves rated the degree of flow that they experienced during each performance, and those recordings were later played for expert judges who rated them for creativity.

Train intensively, then surrender

As jazz great Charlie Parker is said to have advised , “You’ve got to learn your instrument, then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”

This sentiment aligns with the Drexel study findings. The performances that the musicians self-rated as high in flow were also judged by the outside experts as more creative. Furthermore, the most experienced musicians rated themselves as being in flow more than the novices, suggesting that experience is a precondition for flow. Their brain activity revealed why.

The musicians who were experiencing flow while performing showed reduced activity in parts of their frontal lobes known to be involved in executive function or cognitive control . In other words, flow was associated with relaxing conscious control or supervision over other parts of the brain.

And when the most experienced musicians performed while in a state of flow, their brains showed greater activity in areas known to be involved in hearing and vision, which makes sense given that they were improvising while reading the chord progressions and listening to rhythms provided to them.

In contrast, the least experienced musicians showed very little flow-related brain activity.

Flow vs. nonflow creativity

We were surprised to learn that flow-state creativity is very different from nonflow creativity.

Previous neuroimaging studies suggested that ideas are usually produced by the default-mode network , a group of brain areas involved in introspection, daydreaming and imagining the future. The default-mode network spews ideas like an unattended garden hose spouts water, without direction. The aim is provided by the executive-control network, residing primarily in the brain’s frontal lobe, which acts like a gardener who points the hose to direct the water where it is needed.

Creative flow is different: no hose, no gardener. The default-mode and executive-control networks are tamped down so that they cannot interfere with the separate brain network that highly experienced people have built up for producing ideas in their field of expertise.

For example, knowledgeable but relatively inexperienced computer programmers may have to reason their way through every line of code. Veteran coders, however, tapping their specialized brain network for computer programming, may just start writing code fluently without overthinking it until they complete – perhaps in one sitting – a first-draft program.

Coaching can be a help or hindrance

The findings that expertise and the ability to surrender cognitive control are key to reaching flow are supported by a 2019 study from the Creativity Research Lab. For that study, jazz musicians were asked to play “more creatively.” Given that direction, the nonexpert musicians were indeed able to improvise more creatively. That is apparently because their improvisation was largely under conscious control and could therefore be adjusted to meet the demand. For example, during debriefing, one of the novice performers said, “I wouldn’t use these techniques instinctively, so I had to actively choose to play more creatively.”

On the other hand, the expert musicians, whose creative process was baked in through decades of experience, were not able to perform more creatively after being asked to do so. As one of the experts put it, “I felt boxed-in, and trying to think more creatively was a hindrance.”

The takeaway for musicians, writers, designers, inventors and other creatives who want to tap into flow is that training should involve intensive practice followed by learning to step back and let one’s skill take over. Future research may develop possible methods for releasing control once sufficient expertise has been achieved.

• Neuroscience
• Productivity
• Philadelphia
• Brain scans

Faculty of Law - Academic Appointment Opportunities

Operations Manager

Senior Education Technologist

Audience Development Coordinator (fixed-term maternity cover)

Lecturer (Hindi-Urdu)

A Literary Tour of Moscow

It’s hard to count the exact number of great Russian writers who showed their love for Moscow. The city has attracted and prompted stories for a long time now, inspiring many to express their writing talent. Thus, Moscow’s literary sights are fully deserving of our attention, and this guide gladly presents you six of them, from museums to apartments.

1. nikolay gogol museum.

Library, Museum

2. The State Museum of Mayakovsky

3. Turgenev's Family House

Become a Culture Tripper!

Sign up to our newsletter to save up to 500$ on our unique trips..

See privacy policy .

5. The Apartment of Dostoevsky

Building, Memorial, Museum

6. The Mikhail Bulgakov Museum

KEEN TO EXPLORE THE WORLD?

Connect with like-minded people on our premium trips curated by local insiders and with care for the world

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.

A Guide to Cautionary Russian Proverbs and What They Mean

The Soviet Union’s Best Heart-Throbs and Pinups

Guides & Tips

A 48 hour guide to astrakhan, russia.

Zhenotdel: The Soviet Union's Feminist Movement

Unusual Facts About the Soviet Union

A Soviet Pilot Went Missing in Afghanistan and Was Found 30 Years Later

Food & Drink

The best halal restaurants in kazan.

Russian Last Names and Their Meanings

The Mystery Behind Russia's Buddhist "Miracle"

Incredible Photos From the Longest Bike Race in the World

See & Do

Russia's most remote holiday destinations.

Restaurants

The best halal restaurants in kaliningrad.

• Post ID: 411829
• Sponsored? No
• View Payload

17 Exciting Things to do in Moscow

Written By: Linda Voltaire

Updated On: December 21, 2022

Visiting Russia? These are the top 17 things to do in Moscow to help you plan your trip.

If the western world has New York City , the first great metropolis on the eastern side of our planet is Moscow. A huge city with a complicated and impressive history, Moscow gets a bad rep over Russian politics – but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. Capital to the largest country in the world, Moscow takes the grandeur of its standing very seriously.

This is a place where luxury is king and where opulence takes a front seat in every aspect of life. The buildings are grand and imposing, the parks are luscious and enormous, and even the subway stations look different in Moscow than anywhere else in the world.

Table of Contents

Best Things to do in Moscow, Russia

Walking around Moscow is also going through the tumultuous history of the 20th century, which had Russia as one of its main protagonists. There are fascinating remains of these times everywhere in the former Soviet capital, from the gorgeous Seven Sisters skyscrapers to the Orthodox cathedrals that were closed for the better part of a century.  Still, Moscow is also a completely modern city, with a vibrant social and party scene, incredible restaurants, and some of the most luxurious hotels in the world.

After living in Russia’s capital as an ex-pat for four years, I got the privilege to experience not only the main attractions in Moscow but also the everyday life in this huge city and quickly found my sweat spots off the beaten tracks! So here is my list of my top 17 things to do in this exciting metropolis!

Attractions in Moscow

When visiting a famous city like this one, it’s a must to go through the most iconic landmarks first. Moscow has plenty of those, most of them in the center of the city, which is very well-planned for tourists.

1. The Red Square, Kremlin & Surrounding Area

No place tells the story of Moscow’s power in the past century the way the Red Square does. This is where the biggest political meetings in the USSR occurred for many decades, and you can feel the power on each step.

Here, you’ll also find the historic museum at the entrance, showcasing the decades of history behind this iconic landmark. The Lenin Mausoleum, perhaps the most famous resting place in the world and home to the remains of the former communist leader, is also here.

On one side of the Red Square you’ll find the Kremlin, the fortified complex that now hosts the presidential residence. This is also home to the most iconic of all Moscovite landmarks: St. Basil’s Cathedral, a 16th-century marvel of colors. This is the best spot to take a selfie and show the world you’ve reached the Russian capital!

• Get your Kremlin Skip the Line Tickets and Kremlin tour here.
• Free cancellation up to 24-hours in advance of the tour.

2. Bolshoi Theatre

You can easily spend a couple of days just exploring the Moscovite city centre, and the Bolshoi Theatre should be your second stop. Walk past the Red Square and then head to the nearby Bolshoi Theatre, one of the oldest and most renowned houses of opera and ballet on Earth.

Visit for the impressive early 19th-century architecture, but if you’re seeing a ballet performance, make sure you book between 3 and 6 months in advance! I can strongly recommend this as it is a truly unique experience!

• Book a private 2-hour tour of the legendary Bolshoi Theatre.
• See the presidential box reserved for tzars, watch a rehearsal and skip the lines through a separate entrance.
• Free Cancellation up to 24-hours in advance.

3. Luxury Shopping at GUM and TSUM

While many might think of Moscow as the sad place with the long bread queues from the USSR days, it’s been quite the capitalist haven for a while.

If you’re up for some shopping, you’ll find one of the biggest luxury malls in town, TSUM, right behind the Bolshoi and GUM, at the red square. GUM is the most famous department store in town, where you’ll find luxury everywhere and all high-end brand. 

All in an imposing late 19th-century building with lots of history, worth a visit just for the design, its bridges and the glass roof even though you are not up for shopping!

4. Christ the Savior Cathedral

A newer addition to the gorgeous Moscovite cathedrals and my grandeur neighbor during my years in the city Don’t let the young age of this building fool you. After the perestroika in the early 90s, the newly revived Russian Orthodox Church received permission to build a cathedral on this site. They did the location honors and built the largest temple of the Christian Orthodox Church.

The façade is as grand as you’d expect, but it’s the inside that will mesmerize you, with its domes as tall as the skies in bright gold and gorgeous paintings and decor! Bring a shawl to cover your hair to adjust to the local tradition.

Head to the back of the cathedral and you will find one of the most photographed bridges in Moscow, the Patriarshiy Most. This is the perfect spot to get a good view and photo of the cathedral but also to see the Kreml and Gorky Park from a distance. Or why not just enjoy a moment watching the river and its boats!  

• Get around Moscow with ease using the Hop On Hop Off boat and Bus ticket. 24, 48 or 72-hour tickets available.

5. Gorky Park

Cross the river and head to Gorky Park along the Moscow river. The most famous green area in town, similar to New York ’s Central Park and the weekend hangout for locals. There are many beautiful parks in the city, but if you’re only visiting for a few days, this is the unmissable one! 

With fair attractions to entertain children, beautiful artificial lakes and gardens, and lots of outdoor activities, it’s a lovely place to relax. A place of rest in the middle of the metropolis. The area in front of the New Tretyakov Gallery & the Muzeon Park of Arts is actually one of my favorite oasis as a bit more quiet and peaceful than Gorky itself.

Why not spend some time in the museum to get a great tour of Russia’s history through art or just enjoy the art exhibition outside where local artists spend their weekends. 

6. River Cruising

One of the best ways to experience Moscow is from the Moscow River. There are many stops for the boats and one is just next to Gorky Park. See the city from another perspective – and turn the ride into a romantic one by taking the evening cruise. Moscow is magic during the night.

If you’re looking for a truly luxurious experience, take the Radisson Blu cruise – or the Erwin for a delicious seafood dinner. Both stop at Gorky or at the luxury Radisson Royal Hotel, set in one of the Seven Sister’s skyscrapers.

• We use Get Your Guide when booking city tours and they offer a River Sightseeing Cruise seeing all the main tourist attractions in Moscow

7. Metro Hopping

First inaugurated in the 1930s, the Moscow subway system is one of the oldest in the world, and certainly the most beautiful. Started under Stalinist times, each metro station is dedicated to grandeur and oozing personality.

Visiting the subway stops is an attraction in and of itself, and Komsomolskaya, Mayakovskaya, Kropotkinskaya are my favorites. Those surrounding the Red Square are also mesmerizing – in general, these are kind of like underground palaces.

Most of the signs at the Moscow Metro now have Latin letters, so it’s very easy to get around!Unfortunately, the trains are not as beautiful and pleasant as the stations but still, this is a true Moscow experience.  Take a guided tour of the 9 most beautiful Metro Stations including the award-winning art deco station. See more details here.

8. Arbatskaya & Artsy Moscow

Novy Arbat Street is one of the most touristy areas in the city, with lots of shops and cafés directed at visitors. When you walk a little beyond, you’ll find a different part of town, where the hip scene thrives because so many artists live in the area. Just follow the small streets with fewer tourists!

9. Moscow State University View

In his effort to create a grander Moscow, Stalin had seven skyscrapers built in different parts of town; they’re called the Seven Sisters. The largest of these buildings hosts the main building of the Moscow State University, one of the most prestigious colleges in Russia – and the one with the best view.

Although this is a little outside the city centre, the sight from above is more than worth it, with the nearby fountains and park and then the whole of the city behind them.

10. Russian Market

If you love to visit markets wherever you go, Moscow has one of the most impressive ones in the world – the Izmailovsky. You can easily take the metro here and feel like you’ve been transported to another time.

This place was first built in the 16th century and retains the look of an old fairytale, with a lineup of colorful old castle. A lovely local experience beyond the confines of the bustling metropolis, where you can also try some delicious Russian barbecue.

Here, you’ll find beautiful souvenirs at great prices.

Off The Beaten Track Moscow

Once you’ve covered the most touristic spots, Moscow still has plenty to offer – and the places below will also be full of locals! Moscow is a city for hipsters, full of trendy and arty spots where you can literally feel the creativity oozing! So for some local vibes, I would strongly recommend my sweat spots below!

11. Patriarshiye Prudy

This is my favorite area in the entire city! While Moscow is generally a very noisy metropolis, Patriarch Ponds is far quieter, yet such a vibrant place. This is a very hip and trendy area making you think you are rather in Paris than in Moscow. Here the streets are narrow and full of chic eateries and clubs to see the local crowd.

A little bohemian and with an air of peace you won’t find anywhere in the city this is a great spot to spend an afternoon with your thoughts.

12. ArtPlay

Barely 15 minutes away from the city center you’ll find the artsiest Moscow district: ArtPlay. For decades, this block was a factory, but it was renovated to become a hub for the arts not too long ago.

Now, you’ll find it’s full of exhibitions, showrooms and art schools – and some of the most creative people in town. Writers, painters, and young hip people use ArtPlay as a rendezvous, and you can feel the creative energy here. The industrial design with modern interior decoration is also a feast for the eyes!

13. Shopping Local Designs

If you’re into design, both international and local, you’ll find lots of cute things at Patriarshiye Prudy. Department store Podium Market is also a great spot for shopping, as a department store everywhere in town, with lots of local and international brands. There’s one in the Four Seasons Hotel next to Red Square. My favorite Moscow mall is Tsvetnoy Central Market, a cool spot with great brands, lots of inspo, and even a cute café!

14. Moscow City

Like many other great capitals of the world, for the past few decades, Moscow has hosted a super modern area full of modern skyscrapers – Moscow City. With a completely different vibe than the rest of town, it’s like a mini Dubai, with lots of impressively tall glass buildings. Here, you’ll find the best rooftops in towns, such as Ruski and Sixty they are perfect spots for dining or enjoying a glass of wine with a view. There are also a relatively new shopping mall with lots of international brands called Affimall!

Wine, Dine, and Party in Moscow

Gone are the gloomy Moscow days – cold as it might be in the winter, Russia’s capital is a place for the senses. Great food and drinks abound – and the clubs are hot, too!

15. Where to Eat in Moscow

Moscow is a great metropolis where people love to dine out, and there are endless options for delicious food. The flavors are as diverse as you’d expect from a big city, with options of fine dining and little hipster eateries. 

• For traditional Russian flavors, I can’t recommend Café Pushkin, Dr. Zhivago, and Turnadot enough.
• When looking for international cuisines, Italian is always the way to go, and my local favorite is Probka.
• Fine dining is best done among the clouds at White Rabbit, with European flavors.
• As for the hip spots, you can spend a full day just eating around trendy places, from burgers to Asian fusion.

More Dining Options

• Patriarshiye Prudy offers a lot of small and classy spots with cool concepts, like breakfast restaurants I Love Cake and Fresh.
• For dinner, I love the NYC experience of Saxon & Parole, and the wonderful trendy Pins, with its delicious food and drinks.
• For delicious Asian food head to CutFish. 
• Lastly, there’s a recent revival of food markets in Moscow, offering lots of great choices of international flavors at affordable places.
• Don’t miss out the Vietnamese food stand at the Danilovsky market, and everything at Usachevsky!

16. Rooftopping

Big cities deserve to be seen from above, having a cocktail among the clouds. These are my recommendations for rooftop bars in Moscow.

• As I mentioned in the Moscow City section, Sixty & Ruski are two of my favorites, overlooking the newest part of town. 
• White Rabbit and its fine dining is also a lovely place for a fun dinner looking down on Moscow.
• O2, in the city center, has an advantage above all others: amazing views of the Red Square.
• Buono, above the Radisson Royal Hotel, might be the most romantic rooftop hotel in town, with its candlelit setting.
• Also on the Radisson stands the Mercedes. It’s a luxurious and posh experience with delicious cocktails.
• The Sky Lounge offers a peculiar experience, mixing an old Soviet building with futuristic additions.

17. Moscow by Night

Party the night away! The city is full of bars everywhere, but there are some areas where you’ll find more than others.

• Patriarshiye Prudy has lots of hip and small clubs and great bars, including the super fun private club Clava, which has a great vibe and people from all walks of life.
• For more hipster style bars, Red October is the place to go.
• Streak is a summer favorite, with a lovely terrace to catch a beautiful sunset – plus, their mozzarella bar is delicious.
• At night, Red October lights up with clubs everywhere, including the cool rooftop one Gipsy.
• Jagger is also a great spot during summer with a more relaxed vibe in garden setting. 
• For the traditional Russian luxury experience, go to SohoRooms, a whole other world including all-night go-go dancers.

There are so many things to do in Moscow at night and during the day, you definitely need several days to explore this exciting destination.

Moscow is a must-see city, a city like no other ! I hope you will enjoy this Russian metropolis as much as I did!

If you enjoyed this article on the , share it to Pinterest for future travel planning.

• Mother Russia Stands Proud at Volgograd
• 25 Haunting Chernobyl Pictures – 3 Decades after the Disaster
• 10 Reasons to Add Tbilisi Georgia to Your Bucket List

Follow Linda on  Instagram  guides! For more inspiration, follow my journey also on Facebook and Pinterest and see Linda’s bio below for more at her website.

Travel Planning Resources

Looking to book your next trip? Why not use these resources that are tried and tested by yours truly.

Flights: Start planning your trip by finding the best flight deals on Skyscanner

Book your Hotel: Find the best prices on hotels with these two providers. If you are located in Europe use Booking.com and if you are anywhere else use TripAdvisor

Find Apartment Rentals: You will find the cheapest prices on apartment rentals with VRBO . 

Travel Insurance: Don't leave home without it. Here is what we recommend:

• Allianz - Occasional Travelers.
• Medjet - Global air medical transport and travel security.

Need more help planning your trip? Make sure to check out our Resources Page where we highlight all the great companies that we trust when we are traveling.

You May Also Like

16 Interesting and Surprising Facts About Russia

12 Beautiful Reasons to Visit Tbilisi, Georgia

Motherland Calls – Mother Russia Stands Proud Over Volgograd

About Linda Voltaire

Linda Voltaire is the owner of Travel with a Silver Lining, home to reviews of gorgeous boutique & design hotels, hip & trendy eateries as well as authentic and personal travel experiences beyond the crowd. She started blogging after a life-changing trip across South America. Follow Linda at TravelWithASilverLining / Facebook / Instagram /

Join thousands of others who get our monthly updates!

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

10 thoughts on “17 Exciting Things to do in Moscow”

These places look so awesome! Moscow is truly a beautiful city

Very good article, you have explained so nicely. Russia has always been a part of history and its good to know about much more about architecture and other things, wish i could see the inside of façade

Thanks for sharing such a nice article.You have very beautifully explained everything that one need for a trip to Moscow.

Nice article. Love the hidden gems and graffiti art, would love to visit Artplay. Thanks for a comprehensive guide to Moscow!

Moscow is a city where the past and the future live side by side. Here we can find everything from medieval fortresses and Soviet monoliths to glass skyscrapers and innovation centers.

Your article is good and meaningful .

Thanks for sharing about ArtPlay district, we didn’t know about it and it looks amazing 🙂 Hopefully there’ll be a second time in Moscow, we visited last May and really liked the city!

Wonderful stuff! I’ve been to Moscow, but not properly – it’s a long story lol!

Anyhoo, my next thing is to fly from Berlin to Moscow and then travel from there to Beijing via the Trans-Mongolian / Trans-Siberian train. Now, if only I could just find the time …!

I hear Moscow is very beautiful at night. I hope to get out there one day. A friend of mine went to St. Petersburg and had a great experience. Despite all the tension we see on the news with Russia and other Countries like the U.S. I wonder what the sentiment is with Russians and foreigners visiting their country for tourism. Especially Americans.

that looks like quite a beautiful place. 🙂