Fallen off the wagon? How to climb back onto your creative horse.

Post 19  of Dream, create and make money in the arts – My Series on becoming a Successful Creative

My recent illness struck just as I had got stuck with my series on becoming a successful creative, yes I appreciate the irony! I  know what I want to say, I have the years of experience to draw on but writing this series blog by blog, every day, I had hit a structural problem. Just like everyone does whether they building a play, a cabaret show, a piece of music, the difficult one third mark of the new novel. There is always a point where we say to ourselves:
Where am I going here?
What am I trying to say again?
Is there any point to this?
Will it be useful?
Everyone will hate it, or worse think it’s boring.
I know nothing. Why am I bothering again?
I know too much.
I have a vague idea but am stuck in a wood. Forget the trees all I can see is moss.
This is terrible, the worst idea anyone has ever had in the history of the world.
I am useless. I am kidding myself about a through line, this is just unstructured waffle.
I am lost, I may never find my way out.

There are other doubts that creep up and if you don’t have a daily habit of creativity or when life problems arise (and they will arise sooner or later) these doubts and questions just lead to more procrastination, more fear and more negative worries. Us creatives are spectacular about dreaming up creative pitfalls, damning reviews or creating monster drama in our lives to utilise our excess creative energy that is not being used up in our art form. Forget writing about an all encompassing lust with no substance affair that goes wrong, let’s just have the affair and subsequent heartbreak instead! (Oh, is that just me?)

I have been very ill for the last 2 weeks – A&E/Surgery/Recovery, been in so much pain and my ichinen (my drive/life force) had waddled off in a sea of pain, painkillers and hospital ice-cream. However I am back in London and have just started the last 2 days putting some new daily habits in place that  had started before I got ‘struck down’.

These habits are
Morning pages – 3 long hand free writing with coffee first thing, ideally in the garden
A morning walk/jog (a run would be using serious artistic license). Walking worked for Wordsworth & Einstein so enough said!
Breakfast then chant with an affirmation on fulfilling my creative potential for myself and humanity (That based on Liz’s advice – podcast with full transcript here, she is a Royal Shakespeare Company Associate Artist due to her work as a movement director plus a painter of note with her work hung in the National Portrait Gallery)

After just TWO days of this routine (albeit not starting anywhere nearly early enough for my liking, that snooze button may be the most dangerous weapon of all to a creative), but the next section of the series suddenly flowed out in a beautiful order at the end of my morning pages.. all my angst for nothing.
So I have the structure for the middle third section which follows this post in the series.

So if you are having problems with your first draft, your event, too many ideas or none, and the doubts are piling up, try your own morning routine. Add things, see what works, can you get up 30 mins earlier to meditate or be silent, to write a quick blast of fiery words onto the page before breakfast?

Or maybe listen to the podcast on how to feel good every morning

If you have any ideas on what helps you pick yourself back up I would love to hear them 😉

Image courtesy of Karen Shaw / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About this series – Being a Successful Creative – The Business of Creativity

This is a series of daily blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make.