“I wish I didn’t have so much to write this week,” I said. It was exhaustion speaking, since I haven’t slept in days because of pregnancy-related discomfort.
And it’s Christmas, so it’s a short week and I still have gifts to finish and wrap, and all of that hangs over my head in these moments when my guard is down.
“I’m sure your followers would understand,” my husband said, and, yes, I’m sure they would.
But it’s not as much about the people who read as it is about me, because what if taking a day off moves too quickly into taking more time off, since all that extra time to sleep and read and sleep and play and sleep might be nicer than I want it to be, and then it will all snowball and I’ll never find my way back into the routine of writing.
There was a time, two years after I got married, when I just folded up my writing and set it on a shelf, thinking there was just no time to pursue it and it didn’t make any money anyway and I had responsibilities to my family.
It was whole years before I picked it back up.
What if that happens now?
I’ve worked hard to establish a routine, rough draft of this today, final tomorrow, along with a rough draft of that, and every day builds on another day so if one day is skipped, I fall too far behind to ever catch up.
But what about when we need to take that time off? What about when we can feel the burnout creeping in because we’ve been working so hard for so long? What about when our mind feels fatigued and overworked and ready to quit?
What if our writing is better for the resting?
Sometimes we can work ourselves so hard, and we can have all these impenetrable pieces of time we have set aside for creating time, with boundaries that say, “No trespassing,” and that’s all well and good, but there comes a time when rest is necessary.
If all we’re ever doing is cranking out words on a page, and we don’t allow a cushion for those needed days off, we will wear ourselves down to a half-version of ourselves.
I want to be a whole version of myself every time I pick up the pen.
And so sometimes that means putting down the pen and letting that notebook rest for a day or two or a whole week.
I have been in a place of not creating anything, and it is stale and stuffy there. I have been in the place of creating too much, and it is stale and stuffy there, too.
The secret to unleashing our greatest creativity is to find balance between the work and the rest.
That’s not easy for someone like me, because there are so many ideas and so much to do with so little time.
The other day I sat in a music service, and my kids were in childcare and I had an hour and a half of uninterrupted time to create.
I opened my writing journal and readied my pen, and I could not write a thing.
Maybe it’s something that happens often to other writers, but usually, when I open my notebook and ready my pen, I always find something to write about.
That block got me thinking, about how I am creating all the time, because it’s something I must do to keep from exploding. But there is something else I must do to keep from imploding: Rest.
So, on that note, I will take next Wednesday off from the Ink Well Community, because it’s Christmas and New Year’s for me and my littles.
See you in 2015.
Do you think there is such a thing as creating too much? How do you survive the burnout? What is your balance between creating and resting?
Welcome to The Ink Well Creative Community.
The Ink Well Community is evolving. While this used to be a place where I posted a prompt for writers to share their creative works, I have been receiving several inquiries about my process, how I create and read and manage a household with half a dozen little ones. So I thought we could turn this into a community of people who share about the creative process in all its many facets, from where we find our inspiration to when we find time to create (especially if we work other jobs). I’ll be sharing struggles about my creative life and logistical information about my particular creative process and what I’m learning about creativity, among many other things. I hope you’ll weigh in with your own struggles and observations and lessons. Let’s start a conversation. Let’s encourage one another. Let’s live the creative life together.
And if you have your own questions about creativity or process or inspiration, feel free to visit my contact page and send me a note.
