Spinning wheels

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what does the following sentence mean?

"a creative process that often looked to outsiders like 'spinning wheels'".

I cannot see the meaning of the image "spinning wheels".

Thanks! Sara

My instant reaction was to think of spinning wheels as in the legend of Sleeping Beauty, spindles and all. However, I would suspect that in your quotation "spinning wheels" refers to the wheels of a car stuck in mud or loose dirt, wheels spinning frantically, but no progress being achieved. This would make more sense I think, although you don't provide much context - whoever is being described creates whatever he's creating via a process that to the casual observer would seem to be aimless and futile.

When you're trying to solve a problem and all you get is mental meanderings that don't help, you're "just spinning your wheels." At least that's a common enough saying in the U.S. Like the car stuck in the mud, the person shows some activity but goes nowhere.