As I began writing this post, my mom, my husband and the kids were out at the movies watching Wall*E (or however you write it!) and I was wracked with guilt because I begged off in order to take some time to get organized, and do some writing. Okay, so I’m not really wracked with guilt. But I was feeling so unfocused and scattered that I felt I just needed to be in a quiet house, alone, and get some thinking done.
The first thing I did was a huge braindump of “to do’s” over at Remember the Milk. One thing that I took away from reading Getting Things Done was that if you don’t write down the things you need to do, they become uncompleted loops or energy drains. I have been feeling that energy drain over the past few days — a sort of low-lying anxiety that I am forgetting to do things, and that there are creative ideas, plans and projects that are disappearing into the ether. The other thing I took away from GTD is that if there is a task you can complete in less than two minutes, you should complete it right now. So I knocked a few of those tasks off my list.
That felt good, and freed me up to do some writing for my writers’ group on Tuesday, inspired by this wonderful prompt from Eve, via Charlotte. After everyone was in bed, I finally found some time to do a brief, relaxing yoga practice (WoYoPracMo is going strong for July!) and now I find myself again at the keyboard, well past the time I should be asleep. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, and I think it is partly due to all of the creative energy buzzing around in my head all the time. Last night as I drifted off to sleep, I was writing copy in my head for a website I’ve been working on.
In all of the books on writing and creativity that I’ve read, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone really discuss the consequences of not getting your creative work done. Or perhaps they did, but the passages didn’t jump out at me. Or maybe I’m the only weird one who gets antsy and cranky when contemplative time disappears, when the “to-read” stack of books piles higher and higher, who craves occasional solitude more than chocolate. I am learning that sometimes I just need to take that time, even if I miss a movie or a family dinner goes by the wayside.
July 13, 2008 at 12:48 am
Glad you were inspired by Eve’s prompt. I would love to see what you wrote, sometime.
As for not getting my creative work done, I know how that feels. If my day, or week for that matter, prevents me from getting to my creative writing, I find I spend idle time on the computer, getting more and more irritable. Very dissatisfying indeed. That time of solitude and quiet to get on with is so important, and sometimes so hard to access in the busy round of family life.
July 13, 2008 at 11:09 pm
I think you should take five days next year and plan to come to Grand Lake July 12-17th. Really.
July 14, 2008 at 12:34 am
Charlotte, I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one!
Lisa, I might just be able to do that next year!
July 15, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Hi, I too would like to see what you wrote! I’m glad to have provided some inspiration.
I recently watched the DVD of a two day writer’s workshop at Pacifica Graduate Institute. John Cleese (the actor) and Richard Tarnas were among the presenters. Tarnas spoke at length about what happens when writers don’t heed the call of their creative energies; and then this morning I happened to read Joseph Campbell’s second chapter of “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” who writes about the unheeded call to adventure. In both cases, the results were comparable; I don’t know why more writers don’t talk about it.
I’ll be posting what stood out sometime within the next week. And hello, by the way.