The primary reason I haven’t posted in 3 weeks is that I’ve been doing some writing that will pay me money (woohoo!). Even so, there are everyday obstacles that stop me from writing for the sheer fun of it. Here are some of the latest – all tongue-in-cheek, of course. Perhaps you can relate!
- My 9-month-old, Baby Ell, learned to crawl this month (enough said, right?!).
- I spent 2 hours researching play pens.
- I *had* to research what Pokémon Go is all about. (But no, I’m not playing it!)
- I’ve been consumed by watching the antics of people catching Pokémon on our street (some while driving; seriously?!).
- I wasted my downtime by reading stories about personal injuries that have occurred because of Pokémon Go.
- I started a bullet journal and obsessed over properly using signifiers, and migrating tasks. (This could be a future blog post.)
- Jey and I started to plan a road trip, but we halted our mission after deciding the money would be best directed elsewhere. (Such is the life of a new freelancer!)
- Baby Ell has decided that the only way he’ll willingly eat chunkier foods is to have his feet massaged at meal time. (I can’t seem to brainstorm for the blog—or eat my own meal—while massaging his feet.)
- Baby Ell had a growth spurt, which resulted in unplanned clearance-rack and consignment shopping, lest he be condemned to wear long sleeves in August.
- I’ve spent 30 minutes, every 2 nights, pouring buckets of water over our sad flower beds. Because our hose doesn’t stretch to the front of the house.
In seriousness, though, anything can be spun as an excuse for neglecting our creativity. It’s relatively easy for me to write for someone else (my chosen profession), because they tell me what they need and I deliver it. When I’m answering only to myself, it can be a different story. Fear of not being creative enough, or smart enough (for whom?, I wonder) interrupts my flow when I set out to work on something new.
It wasn’t always this way. Creative writing was my outlet for nearly 20 years, until I replaced this activity with writing the facts for a living. I was once well practiced and confident – frequently trading summer-time fun for days indoors, typing novels and forgetting to eat and pee. But like any muscle that goes without exercise, my knack for free-spirited, inventive storytelling appeared to weaken with each year I spent building an identity for myself in the workforce. (The operative word there is “appeared”, because we so quickly become what we tell ourselves.)
I must remind myself daily that I’m just one of billions of creative beings on this planet, and that the consequence of not nurturing my God-given creativity is far greater than the anxiety I might briefly feel about launching a piece of myself into the world as me – not as the professional writer. This blog is one way that I’m teaching fear to take a back seat.
If you feel like you, too, struggle with scheduling time for your own creativity, no matter which form it takes, I highly recommend reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. This exceptionally ingenious book gave me the push I needed to get back into writing for myself, and I keep it very close at hand! You might find me referencing it every now and then.
In the meantime, I’m already working on 3 blog posts that will be up in a more timely fashion!
I’m curious, though: what sorts of things have kept you from nurturing your creativity?
Life in Situ 