A lot of creative work is completing things and no one ever knowing. Getting through a rough draft? Well, no one is going to really see it. Finished revising a tricky chapter? Cool! No one will probably see that work; they’ll just enjoy the full project. And a lot of times, creative work has multiple steps, so completing one just means more to do, always and forever more things piling up.
So, what do you do? Keep running on the treadmill of non-stop work?
Gross no.
I get exhausted with it, but I also get easily wrapped up in the pace of the world around me, which is breakneck: faster, faster, faster. If you’ve only done 1-3 things a day, then you’re failing at the ‘race of life’ and what a waste of your potential.
Even if you’re lucky enough to not have people around you who think and feel like that, it’s impossible to not absorb that message from the culture we live in especially here in the US where productivity is the altar that everyone is expected to sacrifice everything to.
I’ve burnt myself out over and over again trying to keep up with the brutal pace that so much of the world demands. Constant, never-ending sprinting from one project to the next without ever taking time to look at where I was going or even where I was coming from.
Now I am trying to get better at that, and at taking time to celebrate and, GASP, relax between projects.
I finished the draft of my next novel and rather than instantly leaping into the next project on my to-do list; I took time to just... not.
No panicked reshuffling of my schedule or calendar adjustments to see if I could fit just one more project onto my plate. I just was done. Took a nice bubble-bath and had a yummy dinner to celebrate. Then, the next day, I read and relaxed for a bit, and let the novel draft and the other unfinished projects sit.
Now, this is absolutely something that I can afford to do because I am not dependent on my work to keep a roof over my head, but it’s something that more and more I remember is vital to my process. Taking time and space to catch my breath. It’s especially important before diving into revisions for me; the distance from the project helps me see bigger-picture issues and find new ways I would have missed if I had just jumped straight back into the project.
This is where I am fighting against my own type-A, overachiever nature to slow down and let myself just be at the finish line.
Most runners do not race from finishing a marathon to start a second marathon on the same day.
They give themselves time to recover, and then begin again with the training process, building up to a marathon, not just constantly running without taking the chance to recover. (And okay, I know there are people out there who do, do that, and just marathon all day long, and good for them, but eventually that will end. The human body cannot marathon forever, and the first guy that ran a marathon dropped dead, so maybe not a #goals that you think??)
What I want for myself (and for other creatives) is the chance to breathe and rest between things, to get to play and daydream with no commitments if you want. I think there’s so much lost in the hustle between projects that we lose things we’ll never be able to regain.
I also think it’s the fastest way to burn yourself out. I know, for me, it has been. Over the years I’ve often felt like a candle burning at both ends, and secretly somehow also on fire in the middle as I leap between projects with overlapping timelines and no breaks.
So, the next time you finish anything, from a rough draft to a single sentence after a long period of no writing, give yourself a few minutes at least to celebrate. Text or call a friend and tell them! My friends and I often text each other: “Please clap, I did *insert thing here*” and then we all respond with celebration and cheers. Creating can be isolating and demoralizing, so these moments are really nice and recharging.
Just remember you’re not a machine, and you need rest. It’s a vital part of being alive (annoying as it can be sometimes) and if you want to keep creating, you need it. Take the time to embrace what makes your work and you uniquely human; celebrate little victories.
As for me, to celebrate writing this blog post, I’m going to have a little piece of chocolate and play some games for a little while.