This description of the good days is perfect:”The work just comes flowing out of you, not exactly effortlessly but with a feeling of deep engagement and even a feeling of inevitability.” I am thinking that expecting to have that feeling all the time is like expecting to feel joyful, or even in love, every day of a long marriage. The work is not just the painting, or the writing, but cultivating the patience and skill to arrive at those moments. For me, anyway, I have to find ways to keep showing up for the work (which definitely might mean taking a walk!!) even when I am having trouble. “Bergman Island” is a lovely film about that process
This really resonated with me! I‘m so happy to hear Substack has helped you cultivate an easier voice. I think it’s done the same for me too--mostly because it helped me shed a lot of academic weight. But I haven’t started writing a new book yet, so we’ll see if it translates.
Yay I am so happy to hear that you’ve found your voice and that things are flowing for you and that the community you creates with your wonderful newsletter was part of it. So inspiring! We’re all in this together!
This reminds me a lot of Samuel Johnson. He dictated his first book from bed during a spell of depression and was very much not the initiator of the Dictionary. He wrote to deadlines which put him in the necessary frame of mind!
It's taken me years to figure out that my most creative days are not typically days defined by great effort. Attempts to force creative flow typically result in me inadvertently squeezing so tight that the thing I was trying to grasp slides right between my fingers. Most of us can't force creativity any more than we can force a garden to produce food. That's nature's job. Our role is not entirely passive, but oftentimes we yield the best results by merely tending to the soil to try and foster an environment where creativity has the potential to grow.
I find this to be true. And it’s an interesting idea to shift the pervasive creative advice of “be consistent” from being consistent at making art to this idea of “being consistent” at keeping yourself in the mindset and healthy headspace to create... providing yourself a consistent foundation for the work to flow. I like it. I think I’ll adopt it as my own ❤️
As I find myself this morning in a rare state of not hating everything i write (which is about as good as I can ask for, and also when the connections between disparate things seem easiest to make), I appreciated reading this and being able to put a name to it. ok back to the writing before I get lost in that other place I go when I don't feel terrible - distraction lol
I appreciate this so much. My patterns are irregular - sometimes dictated by my day job, sometimes by own scatterbrained tendencies - and different things work at different times. One thing is for sure, the more I try, the better it gets. Thank you for sharing.
I really liked this post. You spoke from your heart and inner self. That's where the best writing comes from. I call it getting into the zone. It's when you're moved by (passionate) the story you're trying to share. I do my best writing when I've got something to say. Something that moved me to voice my perspective (, opinion, anger, etc) I'm not motivated when my planned subject is blah in nature. When it doesn't spark my emotions. It's like phoning it in when I write. Trying to make yourself moved by bland is very hard 😉
Thank you for sharing this. IDENTIFICATION! I am working on a memoir and for the last 8 months it felt impossible to write any of that. So I took a poetry class which was so far out of my comfort zone
but it worked. But then it went away again. I feel like I did all the things you mentioned "make a coffee, or go for a walk, or take a nap, or go to a museum, or have lunch with a friend, or lay on the couch and stare at the ceiling" Including revisited my newsletter. Thank you for keeping it so real and reminding me I am not alone in my often on and off flow of writing. YOU ARE DOING GREAT!
You have made me realize that I can approach the writing of my novel as if I am putting a skeleton together. I assemble the bones one day, and add the flesh another.
This description of the good days is perfect:”The work just comes flowing out of you, not exactly effortlessly but with a feeling of deep engagement and even a feeling of inevitability.” I am thinking that expecting to have that feeling all the time is like expecting to feel joyful, or even in love, every day of a long marriage. The work is not just the painting, or the writing, but cultivating the patience and skill to arrive at those moments. For me, anyway, I have to find ways to keep showing up for the work (which definitely might mean taking a walk!!) even when I am having trouble. “Bergman Island” is a lovely film about that process
This really resonated with me! I‘m so happy to hear Substack has helped you cultivate an easier voice. I think it’s done the same for me too--mostly because it helped me shed a lot of academic weight. But I haven’t started writing a new book yet, so we’ll see if it translates.
Yay I am so happy to hear that you’ve found your voice and that things are flowing for you and that the community you creates with your wonderful newsletter was part of it. So inspiring! We’re all in this together!
This reminds me a lot of Samuel Johnson. He dictated his first book from bed during a spell of depression and was very much not the initiator of the Dictionary. He wrote to deadlines which put him in the necessary frame of mind!
It's taken me years to figure out that my most creative days are not typically days defined by great effort. Attempts to force creative flow typically result in me inadvertently squeezing so tight that the thing I was trying to grasp slides right between my fingers. Most of us can't force creativity any more than we can force a garden to produce food. That's nature's job. Our role is not entirely passive, but oftentimes we yield the best results by merely tending to the soil to try and foster an environment where creativity has the potential to grow.
I find this to be true. And it’s an interesting idea to shift the pervasive creative advice of “be consistent” from being consistent at making art to this idea of “being consistent” at keeping yourself in the mindset and healthy headspace to create... providing yourself a consistent foundation for the work to flow. I like it. I think I’ll adopt it as my own ❤️
Would buy a picture book of artists and their dogs !!
As I find myself this morning in a rare state of not hating everything i write (which is about as good as I can ask for, and also when the connections between disparate things seem easiest to make), I appreciated reading this and being able to put a name to it. ok back to the writing before I get lost in that other place I go when I don't feel terrible - distraction lol
I appreciate this so much. My patterns are irregular - sometimes dictated by my day job, sometimes by own scatterbrained tendencies - and different things work at different times. One thing is for sure, the more I try, the better it gets. Thank you for sharing.
I really liked this post. You spoke from your heart and inner self. That's where the best writing comes from. I call it getting into the zone. It's when you're moved by (passionate) the story you're trying to share. I do my best writing when I've got something to say. Something that moved me to voice my perspective (, opinion, anger, etc) I'm not motivated when my planned subject is blah in nature. When it doesn't spark my emotions. It's like phoning it in when I write. Trying to make yourself moved by bland is very hard 😉
I can relate so much.
Thank you for sharing this. IDENTIFICATION! I am working on a memoir and for the last 8 months it felt impossible to write any of that. So I took a poetry class which was so far out of my comfort zone
but it worked. But then it went away again. I feel like I did all the things you mentioned "make a coffee, or go for a walk, or take a nap, or go to a museum, or have lunch with a friend, or lay on the couch and stare at the ceiling" Including revisited my newsletter. Thank you for keeping it so real and reminding me I am not alone in my often on and off flow of writing. YOU ARE DOING GREAT!
I fully share the idea that the difficulty of making art is to be in the right state of mind.❤️
This resonates with me. Just brilliant, thank you for sharing.
You have made me realize that I can approach the writing of my novel as if I am putting a skeleton together. I assemble the bones one day, and add the flesh another.
"I feel like I’ve gradually been finding my voice, or a more authentic version of my voice, which has been joyful" -- so awesome to hear