On the work-writing/creative-writing balance and finding inspiration
In the beginning of the year, I had some pretty ambitious hopes/plans about how much writing I was going to do. And... It's not that I didn't do any writing at all. It's just that I never finished any of it.
As my 30th birthday approach, I started to wonder why that was.
I remember feeling so optimistic at the beginning of the year. Now that I wouldn't have chemo anymore, I would have so much more free time. Yet I never seemed to have time to write. Part of it was that I was writing an average of four articles a week, and after writing for a while, you want to do everything but write. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wasn't quite it. Not fully.
So I decided to take a cue from one of my mom's time management advice posts and pay careful attention to just how I was spending my time. And I realized just how many hours I spent not really doing a whole lot. Like browsing the Internet without much purpose. Or watching videos on Youtube. There was something to be said for decompressing after several hours of working hard, but not for quite that long.
Writers like to talk about inspiration, about writing when the mood strikes, about struggling to fill pages. But journalism writing doesn't really work like that. You do research, you interview people, and you write. Because once you have the information, you can write even when you don't feel like it. Deadlines loom, and the path is crystal clear. All you have to do is follow it.
Heck, you don't even have to be fully awake to write articles. On the day my post-chemo diagnosis came back, I barely slept, and I spent the rest of the day struggling to stay awake. And napping wasn't an option, because I had an article to write. Which I managed. Somehow.
warren_ellis once said something along the lines of "writer's block doesn't exist. When you got a family to feed, you write. The bills aren't going to pay themselves."
It's not that I don't have any ideas. I have plenty. It's getting them down on the (proverbial) paper that's been the problem.
Except now, it's more clear than ever that I do have time. I have opportunities. I just don't take advantage of them.
Maybe I should treat creative writing more like journalism writing. Write what you can. Write even when you don't feel like it. Write something, and if other parts don't come, write them later.
Thing is - I do want to write creatively. Because I do have ideas bouncing around in my head. And as the nine month of a post-chemo year comes to a close, the fact that those ideas aren't on the proverbial paper are starting to bug me more and more. Especially now that my job status has reached something resembling stability.
And, I have to admit, there's the part where alliancesjr is writing something of the creative kind. I'm not sure what it is, but if his twitter account is anything to go by, he is making progress.
It's not a competition. More like an inspiration. If that's something that gives me the extra push to actually go through with my writing plans, I'm sure as hell going to use it.
As my 30th birthday approach, I started to wonder why that was.
I remember feeling so optimistic at the beginning of the year. Now that I wouldn't have chemo anymore, I would have so much more free time. Yet I never seemed to have time to write. Part of it was that I was writing an average of four articles a week, and after writing for a while, you want to do everything but write. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wasn't quite it. Not fully.
So I decided to take a cue from one of my mom's time management advice posts and pay careful attention to just how I was spending my time. And I realized just how many hours I spent not really doing a whole lot. Like browsing the Internet without much purpose. Or watching videos on Youtube. There was something to be said for decompressing after several hours of working hard, but not for quite that long.
Writers like to talk about inspiration, about writing when the mood strikes, about struggling to fill pages. But journalism writing doesn't really work like that. You do research, you interview people, and you write. Because once you have the information, you can write even when you don't feel like it. Deadlines loom, and the path is crystal clear. All you have to do is follow it.
Heck, you don't even have to be fully awake to write articles. On the day my post-chemo diagnosis came back, I barely slept, and I spent the rest of the day struggling to stay awake. And napping wasn't an option, because I had an article to write. Which I managed. Somehow.
warren_ellis once said something along the lines of "writer's block doesn't exist. When you got a family to feed, you write. The bills aren't going to pay themselves."
It's not that I don't have any ideas. I have plenty. It's getting them down on the (proverbial) paper that's been the problem.
Except now, it's more clear than ever that I do have time. I have opportunities. I just don't take advantage of them.
Maybe I should treat creative writing more like journalism writing. Write what you can. Write even when you don't feel like it. Write something, and if other parts don't come, write them later.
Thing is - I do want to write creatively. Because I do have ideas bouncing around in my head. And as the nine month of a post-chemo year comes to a close, the fact that those ideas aren't on the proverbial paper are starting to bug me more and more. Especially now that my job status has reached something resembling stability.
And, I have to admit, there's the part where alliancesjr is writing something of the creative kind. I'm not sure what it is, but if his twitter account is anything to go by, he is making progress.
It's not a competition. More like an inspiration. If that's something that gives me the extra push to actually go through with my writing plans, I'm sure as hell going to use it.