WTF Friday: Other Creative Endavours

If you’re like me, and I know many of you are, while you’d like to be writing for a living, your writing has been relegated to hobby status.  Serious hobby, but hobby nonetheless because kids, diapers, food, coffee, shelter, cat food, etc.  You grab every free moment for it because it’s the only way to make any real progress.

What about all those other things you did before? Knit, craft, scrapbook, paint?  Cook, grow plants? Build model rockets?

You think, someday, when I’m a real writer, I’ll get back to that or I’ll learn how to do that.  Because when you’re desperate to be a writer, anything that drains your precious free time feels like a waste of time.  Right?

Right.

Taking some time to do it now may not be a bad idea.

I’ll admit straight off I’m as bad at this as any other wanna be author.

But here’s what I’ve realized.

It’s all worth the time.

Why?

First: doing these other things gives you time to breathe.  Between money job and beloved job, between a hectic day and settling in to do sprints or meet a word count.  I don’t know about you, but because of the way my brain works, I have a very, very hard time downshifting on a dime.  It takes me a while to settle.  Time I often spend staring at the screen or type-babbling shit I eventually toss.  I get angry at myself for not being productive in a situation in which I’ve set myself up for failure.

Bad me!  Bad!

When I cook first, or doodle first, or even watch an hour of TV first, I get that time.  Chaos is never far below the surface for me, but the transition time gives me a chance to tame, or at least channel it, to my own purposes, which is getting to the meat and gristle of whatever story I’m working on at the time.  Time to inhale and exhale without yelling, “I told you not to choke your sister” or “Damn it, get down off that razor wire,” in between.

Second: It’s all part of writing.  How?  Writing should be about every sense.  About that tired, desiccated adage, “show, don’t tell.”  Maybe your character is sick and her grandmother’s chicken soup always makes her feel better; make some chicken soup.  See what it does for you.  Write it down not as a series of events but a series of impressions.  Maybe she needs to learn how to fold origami cranes to give hope to a friend who needs some luck. So learn (or try to).  Record what it feels like when you get frustrated: do you start to sweat, does your heartbeat go a little wonky?  Do your feet get cold?  What does it feel like the first time you get a perfect crease?  A viable crane.  Not the what.  We know the what.

This is about the how.

It’s all research.  Life is research.

Last: There are plenty of people who have more than one hobby.  And yes, you may have to spend the majority on writing if it’s your goal.  But it’s okay to cook and garden also, not because you have to, not because it’s research, but because you want to.  Because it makes you happy.  Because a happy writer is a better writer.  A writer who doesn’t get stuck and who cherishes her writing time.  A writer who loves doing the thing she loves most.

Hey, it can’t all be rage bees.