I'm sure there are some amazing Creatives out there who have luck on their side and can work on the project of their choice every day, day in and day out, no matter what. Come rain or shine, fire or flood or famine, they are still fortunate enough that none of that effects them and they can do the creative work they choose, when and as they choose.
For me (and, I believe, for many out there) this just doesn't happen. Life gets in the way. Obligations rear their ugly heads. Work takes precedence. The sounds of lions and tigers and gazelles slithering unseen between the blades of grass outside tell you in no uncertain terms that you have no choice but to mow the lawn today.
Even for those people who have very regular, very predictable schedules, something comes up -- a doctor's appointment, an activity with the kids at school, or the house burns down. Whatever the cause, there are almost certainly going to be days where getting to the computer or the piano or the easel just isn't going to happen.
Today is just such a day for me. Leave the house at 6:40, drop my wife off at school. Head in to church where I'm giving a handbell and handchime demonstration for the children in our church's preschool. Then on to school where I teach for several hours before coming back to church for a few private lessons and a Lenten service plus a brief choir practice before finally heading home, getting in, hopefully, before 9:00. I didn't plan things this way, and if I had my druthers, I'd move some of those things around. It's the day I've got, however, so I have to make the most of it.
That begs the question: what's a Creative to do on such a day as this? Do I just write the day off as a total loss?
Well, the first thing to do is to accept that there are going to be days where you just can't work. You don't have to like it, and you certainly don't want to make it a regular habit, but when it does happen, accept that this is life, not some ideal pen-and-paper schedule, and that, as the song says, Mama said there'd be days like this.
Now, some of you will start screaming, saying that if I really, truly were committed to my work, I'd find a way to get the creative work in, no matter what. I just must not be dedicated. Yes, I could have woken up an hour early and tried to work, but as exhausted as I would have been, that hour would have yielded maybe five minutes of useful work, and at the expense of the rest of my day being a slog through a fatigue-induced swamp. To me, it's just not worth it. As much as this Creative needs to get his work done, he also needs to be kind to the Creative himself, otherwise the punishment I inflict on my body and mind and soul today will propagate throughout the rest of the week, and the rest of the week's creative work will suffer.
The second thing to do is to make sure you leave the house prepared should you find a spare five minutes or more when work on your project is actually possible: waiting in the doctor's office, sitting in the car until Little Jimmy gets out of school, during dinner when your wife becomes engrossed in her McChicken sandwich. Have a pad of paper, sketch pad, manuscript book, or note cards ready for these events.
The third thing is to try some alternative work. Even if I can't sit at the computer and work on revising my novel, I can think about what needs to be done: a new scene to be written, a way to rewrite an old scene. Even if I never sit down at a piano without a choir staring at me wanting me to accompany them, I can still think through the pieces I need to write or dream of new melodies or accompaniment patterns that I can use in my composing. This sort of mental play can not only be useful, but it can actually be good for the creative mind. This sort of play reminds us that what we're doing, even if it does technically qualify as "work," is still an enjoyable thing, and that we should be playful with our ideas instead of marching them where we want them as if they were prisoners.
Even if we end the day feeling like our creative work was a complete bust, it's still possible to go to sleep a better Creative, and further along on our projects than we were when we woke up. Applying the same creative mindset to how to work on our hectic days as we apply to the work itself, we can still bring our creative efforts closer to fruition.
No comments:
Post a Comment