Creative Juices
I'm a night owl. Always have been. Before 10:00am I have been lovingly described as resembling the "ruler of the underworld and darkness." Whatever.
Fortunately I have a job that allows me to set my own hours and is conducive to having afternoon/early evening clients. One would THINK that being a night owl is perfect for one with writing aspirations. And it is.
There's only one problem: creative juices.
Pre serious writing era this is not a problem that would have occurred to me. I worried about writers block or running out of story ideas. Things that I now realize are silly. A writer writes. Words go onto the page whether they're good or not and you can worry about all that other stuff later.
The thing is with creative juices is that it's not the same thing as creativity. Writing takes a great deal of emotional effort. Forming the correct words and phrases to make the scene in your head come out just right is almost akin to crying or deep conversation. Every writer has their cut off point for when it happens but eventually every writer has to call it quits for the day before their brain turns to mush. The creative juices have been spent.
And just like physical exercise, I find that my brain needs some down time before it can go at it again. I may have the time to write and, if it's late at night my brain may be focused enough to write but if I already had a major writing session earlier in the day, that could be it. I open up the work in progress, look at where I left off and my brain says, "nope, not gonna happen."
But in comes a fresh day along with a fresh pot of coffee and I'm right back in the saddle (read: office chair). I'm excited to open up the work in progress and even though I might be distracted by emails my brain is more than ready for another creative expenditure.
As I become a more prolific writer I'm also hoping that my stores of creative juices will increase with time. It seems a shame to have to waste all those wonderful night hours.
Fortunately I have a job that allows me to set my own hours and is conducive to having afternoon/early evening clients. One would THINK that being a night owl is perfect for one with writing aspirations. And it is.
There's only one problem: creative juices.
Pre serious writing era this is not a problem that would have occurred to me. I worried about writers block or running out of story ideas. Things that I now realize are silly. A writer writes. Words go onto the page whether they're good or not and you can worry about all that other stuff later.
The thing is with creative juices is that it's not the same thing as creativity. Writing takes a great deal of emotional effort. Forming the correct words and phrases to make the scene in your head come out just right is almost akin to crying or deep conversation. Every writer has their cut off point for when it happens but eventually every writer has to call it quits for the day before their brain turns to mush. The creative juices have been spent.
And just like physical exercise, I find that my brain needs some down time before it can go at it again. I may have the time to write and, if it's late at night my brain may be focused enough to write but if I already had a major writing session earlier in the day, that could be it. I open up the work in progress, look at where I left off and my brain says, "nope, not gonna happen."
But in comes a fresh day along with a fresh pot of coffee and I'm right back in the saddle (read: office chair). I'm excited to open up the work in progress and even though I might be distracted by emails my brain is more than ready for another creative expenditure.
As I become a more prolific writer I'm also hoping that my stores of creative juices will increase with time. It seems a shame to have to waste all those wonderful night hours.
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