Coming up for writing air

So on Monday, I missed an entry on this blog for the first time since October 1. I've been trying to publish something on here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as a way to maintain a regular writing practice, and I'd been successful up until Monday. A couple of times I was a day late, but I still got in three posts a week. The Monday post is usually an installment of the play I'm working on, and this Monday I just couldn't face it. I'm experiencing some real writing fatigue, and I'm trying to find my way out of it.

I've been working for a few months now on a book chapter, and the month of February focused on the revision process.  I moved through many drafts, agonized over it all, and finally submitted it to the editor on February 29. Then I went directly into writing a grant narrative that I submitted on March 7. I had been able to keep writing on this blog throughout the process until Monday. I usually write the Monday post on Sunday, and I didn't have it in me. It's kind of like when I tried to pedal faster in my spin class this morning, and I just didn't have anything else. I don't usually think of writing and exercising as similar in this way, like getting too tired to write, but I think that's what I'm experiencing.  It's like after running a marathon, I don't run for a week or so, as a way to recuperate from the 26-mile slog.  Maybe I need to think about giving myself the same sort of break when it comes to writing or any kind of creative output. I don't want to stop writing completely (obviously, that's why I'm writing now), but maybe that missed Monday should feel less like a defeat and more like a recognition that sometimes a missed day is a gained opportunity for something else?  Like sleep. Or thought. Or whatever.

I'm #grateful that these two writing projects are off my plate for now. That said, about 60 papers come onto my plate to grade before March 21. I'm on the other side of the equation now, and I'm not sure how that's going to feel. But I think I'll at least embrace the change in energy. Hopefully, reading the writing of others will stimulate my own urge to write. We'll see.

Coming through

I've had the pleasure of working on a new project over the past few days, and my brain is buzzing with lots of anecdotes.  I'm collaborating with a Canadian writer and performer named Jenny Macdonald on her new one-woman show, Enthroned, set to premiere in Dublin's First Fortnight Festival in January 2016.

We've been in the studio together over the last five days, refining the second half of the play through new writing and then workshopping various sections. Our time together reaffirmed many things for me as an artist and a collaborator, and then one of the most important takeaways came from Jenny after one of our sessions. We were talking about the creative process, the challenges of writing, the difficulties of "knowing" the state of a project when we're right in the middle of it all.  Then Jenny said the following:

Creativity is not something you do; it's something that you let come through you.

Can it be that easy? Uh huh. It can. "Doing" often prevents me from discovering, because I'm too busy to notice what's really right in front of my face.

Loosen the grip. Stop forcing it. Let it come through me.

This relates to last week's musing about equal distribution of weight and not leaning forward. Maybe not having to try so hard. Let it come through me. Let it present itself. Let it emerge when it's ready. What a concept...

Jenny shared that nugget and many other pieces of wisdom during our work together these past few days. A pleasure and a privilege to collaborate with her on finding the creative path to a new piece of writing while embracing the notion that it's not about finishing. Rather, it's about finding the next stopping place for a share out to those that gather to see.