My new year's resolution is to preserve time in the work week for writing and developing creative projects. In the past I've made progress after being really stalled by a writer's block, by committing to at least five minutes a day just to write in a journal. I'm hoping to improve on that this year. My health has improved by scheduling in exercise; my writing "diet" has similar rules and I am going to try to really make a shift. It's so easy to defer the creative time I need when there's a thousand things on the "to do" list. I'd love to hear from other writers, artists, thinkers, about how they have managed to find the time to work creatively even in the midst of work and family responsibilities that sometimes seem all consuming.
Kudos to you for this resolution, and for posting it openly so you feel accountable! I find that it is always easier to do the To Do list than the real work. The To Do list gives us the feeling of accomplishment — we can cross stuff off the list. But, it is not the stuff that matters. I actually schedule the time. I put it in my appointment calendar, often a month at a time: Monday, 7AM-10AM, write chapter 5, for example.
Many years ago (in the Dark Ages before computers), I knew a guy who defined a writer as someone who rolled a clean white sheet of paper into his typewriter and prayed for the phone to ring. For me, writing is a continuum. A daily routine. Every morning, I get up and exercise (for many years I ran 3 miles a day, now I do ten miles on a stationary bike). At the same time, I try to set out several story problems from my previous day's writing. Doing physical exercise that takes time allows your mind to refocus and discover fresh perspectives. An old writer I knew named Jack Sowards (sadly no longer alive) once told me: "When you're trying to figure out a scene, take the first idea you have and throw it away because everyone's thought of that; then take your second idea and throw that away as well because many people will have thought of that, too. But by the time you have dug deeply enough into your subconscious to find a third approach, you're actually starting to get creative." By the time I come back from my run or climb off the bike, I have 3-4 new ideas. Instead of having breakfast or making phone calls or taking a shower, I go directly to my desk and jot down the ideas. Then I turn on my computer and begin to write. Only after I reach the point where I feel I've at least roughed out these new ideas, do I take a break. Later — either that afternoon or sometimes at night — I go back and re-read, revise, and rewrite. In doing this, I discover new problems which I will attack on tomorrow's run or ride. Writing, at least for me, is a way of life — a kind of therapy that allows me to make sense of the chaos. Hope this helps.
charity Hume
January 12th, 2012 at 6:49 PM
Thank you so much for this idea. It's definitely worked for me for exercise, as I commit to certain classes. This seems like such an obvious step, but it's something I have never done. I will definitely give it a try this coming month and see where it takes me.
RE: The Artist Life:
Yellow tulips exploding in bold color across a face of the canvas, my wide yellow strokes heavy with paint inside delicate outlines, every petal embraced in a cusp, long green stems, strong licks of green leaves graceful, bending, protecting, undulating, alive, spilling in profusion out the crystal vase, masses of stems, leaves, yellow wide mouthed open petals, closed yellow buds hiding breathless in expectation; perfection frozen in perpetuity, blazing yellows against the deep Prussian blues of a night sky.
Share your experiences about living life as a creative person by entering a comment below.
Comments (6)
Charity Hume
January 3rd, 2012 at 8:07 PM
My new year's resolution is to preserve time in the work week for writing and developing creative projects. In the past I've made progress after being really stalled by a writer's block, by committing to at least five minutes a day just to write in a journal. I'm hoping to improve on that this year. My health has improved by scheduling in exercise; my writing "diet" has similar rules and I am going to try to really make a shift. It's so easy to defer the creative time I need when there's a thousand things on the "to do" list. I'd love to hear from other writers, artists, thinkers, about how they have managed to find the time to work creatively even in the midst of work and family responsibilities that sometimes seem all consuming.
CulturalWeekly
January 7th, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Kudos to you for this resolution, and for posting it openly so you feel accountable! I find that it is always easier to do the To Do list than the real work. The To Do list gives us the feeling of accomplishment — we can cross stuff off the list. But, it is not the stuff that matters. I actually schedule the time. I put it in my appointment calendar, often a month at a time: Monday, 7AM-10AM, write chapter 5, for example.
Garner Simmons
January 9th, 2012 at 6:01 PM
Many years ago (in the Dark Ages before computers), I knew a guy who defined a writer as someone who rolled a clean white sheet of paper into his typewriter and prayed for the phone to ring. For me, writing is a continuum. A daily routine. Every morning, I get up and exercise (for many years I ran 3 miles a day, now I do ten miles on a stationary bike). At the same time, I try to set out several story problems from my previous day's writing. Doing physical exercise that takes time allows your mind to refocus and discover fresh perspectives. An old writer I knew named Jack Sowards (sadly no longer alive) once told me: "When you're trying to figure out a scene, take the first idea you have and throw it away because everyone's thought of that; then take your second idea and throw that away as well because many people will have thought of that, too. But by the time you have dug deeply enough into your subconscious to find a third approach, you're actually starting to get creative." By the time I come back from my run or climb off the bike, I have 3-4 new ideas. Instead of having breakfast or making phone calls or taking a shower, I go directly to my desk and jot down the ideas. Then I turn on my computer and begin to write. Only after I reach the point where I feel I've at least roughed out these new ideas, do I take a break. Later — either that afternoon or sometimes at night — I go back and re-read, revise, and rewrite. In doing this, I discover new problems which I will attack on tomorrow's run or ride. Writing, at least for me, is a way of life — a kind of therapy that allows me to make sense of the chaos. Hope this helps.
charity Hume
January 12th, 2012 at 6:49 PM
Thank you so much for this idea. It's definitely worked for me for exercise, as I commit to certain classes. This seems like such an obvious step, but it's something I have never done. I will definitely give it a try this coming month and see where it takes me.
Elena Irving
January 12th, 2012 at 11:03 PM
RE: The Artist Life:
Yellow tulips exploding in bold color across a face of the canvas, my wide yellow strokes heavy with paint inside delicate outlines, every petal embraced in a cusp, long green stems, strong licks of green leaves graceful, bending, protecting, undulating, alive, spilling in profusion out the crystal vase, masses of stems, leaves, yellow wide mouthed open petals, closed yellow buds hiding breathless in expectation; perfection frozen in perpetuity, blazing yellows against the deep Prussian blues of a night sky.
CulturalWeekly
January 13th, 2012 at 5:52 AM
Come back here in a month (if not before) and let us know. Your experiences, and the tools you use to get your work done, may help others as well!
Leave a reply