“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
Toni Morrison
For the last few years, I’ve had a ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride’ mentality where my own writing is concerned. Partly, this is due to a combination of domestic complications and the need to be taking on a lot of editing work. By the time the evening comes, I’m either still stuck in editing/proofing mode – which is not good for creativity at all – or I’m knackered.
I saw the Toni Morrison quote a few weeks ago. There are two books that need to come out of my head and appear on the paper if only to stop my mind from doing laps at two in the morning, when I should be resting. My characters are becoming increasingly real to me, and I need them to be doing what they need to be doing rather than constantly imagining them doing it.
It’s not very often that inspirational quotes have any kind of impact on me whatsoever, but there has been a little bit of a shift in my mindset since I clapped eyes on it. Given that I work for myself and can edit at any time of day, why not get more writing done in the daytime, while my inner Oscar Wilde is actually up and about, sipping coffee? There something very deeply engrained into the psyche about the importance of the 9-5 ritual, which can leave us feeling ‘less’ if we don’t keep to those hours, whatever job we’re doing, and wherever we happen to work.
Okay, so I am releasing myself from that particular work pattern. Let’s see if it makes a difference in my creative productivity.
Have you been creatively jammed by your work patterns? Is there anything you can change to give yourself (and your characters) room to breathe?)