The Creative Rollercoaster
On a scale from change-averse to forever moving on, where do you put yourself? This question of being comfortable with change was on-again, off-again conversation between me and several of my fellow creatives recently. We tentatively concluded that most people avoid change but with passionate of creatives, it’s almost a way of life. However, we wonder… is this a condition of the creative mind, or is it because living a creative life is such a roller coaster of uncertainty?
Our discussions have drawn no definite conclusions so far, other than agreeing that living a creative life requires being open to change, whether or not you’re comfortable with it. We did figure out that I’m a bit of a weirdo as I get quite antsy and almost fearful when things stay the same. It’s not that I’m averse to constancy or have problems committing, I’m just afraid that if I settle or become content, the things I am in awe right now will become ordinary and unappreciated, that my world will feel banal.
I don’t think that my penchant for change is behind my 2021 decision to make my own work my main priority for the first time in 10 years but it might explain why I have thrown myself into it with such fervor. Mind you, there was some hesitation. After a decade of running Tenth Muse Arts, my art centric publication company, and almost 2 decades of freelance nonfiction writing, I am returning to fiction writing and artwork with no foreseeable income coming from either activity.
However, I did plan for this. Money has been saved, belts have been tightened, and now, the train is ready to leave left the station, to chug uphill in a slow and arduous climb as I shake the rust from my wrists and take on one of the few forms of authoring I have not yet attempted in my long writing career—a novel of fiction. Well, not just a novel but a series, complete with the whispers of sequels and prequels off in the corners of my all too busy mind.
For those of you who know me, it won’t surprise you to hear that I’m taking on this venture quite earnestly. I am putting myself through a self-prescribed intense course on the craft of novels while writing a minimum of two hours a day. These sessions are interspersed with short periods of world building, character building, and plot notes based on ideas gleaned from my studies. My audiobook players are stacked with every well-reviewed and freely available audiobook on the craft so I can continue my research as I cook dinner, fold laundry, and rearrange my studio space. I joined a local writer’s group and co-created another one online. All other business and writing jobs have been relegated to the last three hours of my day. It has gotten quite intense!
As you might surmise, I don’t enjoy doing things in half measures. Nor do I question my potential success. That’s not out of some ill-placed arrogance. I simply don’t see the point of worrying that I might fail. Instead, I have plans A, B, and C, along with rechargeable batteries full of determination.
This very website is one of the necessary steps in each of those plans, being key to an online presence and future social media plans. Another thing I’ve included in my planning is an outlet for one of my other principal passions—teaching. Having some way to teach what I know and what I am learning serves two very important purposes.
For one, both writing and creating art are isolating professions, but I find that if I carve out an avenue through which I can share, teach, and connect with other creative minds, it staves off the sense of isolation. This also makes me feel like I am doing something useful in the present. Sure, I believe the work I create now will be of value as well, but in the future. In the meantime, it truly helps the soul to know (or at least hope) that I am contributing, in some minor way, to the regular growth of others.
As I see it now, this blog will be a major part of that step in my plans. And, sure, I’m going to share things I’ve written, things I’ve discovered, and keep you up-to-date on my progress, but isn’t that, in varying degrees, teaching? It won’t always be teaching from a place of absolute knowledge, but we learn from other people’s journeys as well as from their expertise, don’t we?
So, would you like to join me on this wild ride? Your company would be an honor. And if you are out there documenting your own creative journey, please let me know (click Contact above) so we can collectively trade our war stories and our wins.
Alright. It’s started. I can hear the clacking of the train car being pulled up the lift hill of this ride and I’m thinking there’s no way to get off now. The question is, did I get on It’s a Small World or Space Mountain? Or something that skates between the future fictional lands of Oberdam and Greer? I am hoping for the latter.
