 Short Stories: April 22, 2020 Issue [#10138] |
This week: Creativity in Chaos Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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This issue:
Creativity in Chaos
What to do when you're sharing your space, or working more alone than before. |
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Hey all! As the ongoing struggle with Covid-19 keeps us all indoors, I thought I would spend a little time this month talking about some of the strategies I use to preserve my creative energy, with my household in, well, a much different state than usual.
I've been a freelancer for five years now, and I have learned a lot of strategies for fencing off my work time from my off time, but all of that was upended six weeks ago and change. I'm very accustomed to working from home, but my partner hasn't worked from home in nearly a decade, and the circumstances here are very different as there's not exactly anywhere else either of us can go to get some private time in our one-bedroom apartment. We've had to totally rebuild our work lives around this and while that's actually a relief--there is still work to do!--it wreaks some havoc around time that was previously quieter and
There have been some growing pains around scheduling--the current best practice we've found is to keep a calendar of our upcoming meetings, classes, and virtual happy hours--and of course, there's a lot of alone time that simply isn't alone anymore, for us. We're lucky in that our neighbors are close but not too close, and a daily walk around the block staves off monotony.
What about you? How are you managing? Are you an essential worker now working from home or facing the public? Have you been furloughed or laid off and had to rearrange around this new and terrifying normal? Are you juggling home, school, and work from said home? There are a lot of demands for your time and attention right now, and just getting through this is a perfectly admirable way to get by.
If you're at home more often than you used to be, routines can help you keep yourself together--but if your day-to-day schedule is too unstable for routine, it may be more useful to simply have a few activities or actions that are useful to "reset" or reframe the moment.
I find that setting a regular timer to make sure that I go get a glass of water around 2pm is a good way to break up chunks of my day. It's a tiny task, but making it mandatory allows me a little time to take stock of what I want to do with the rest of my day. Find things that are small and ideally short tasks that you need to do and assign yourself times to do them if you find that time management is going haywire. Sometimes imposing a little structure with small gestures can make it easier.
I've found this especially helpful as my creative work is slowly overtaking the work I was doing as a freelancer--I'm now doing a lot of my creative work during the day. (In theory, it helps be to be on twitter less...)
If you are suddenly more alone than usual, try scheduling a writing date (or a gaming session, or another relaxing activity you can do remotely!) with a friend via the internet. For a lot of us on here that may be second nature, but for folks who haven't given it a shot, it might be worth a look if you're feeling creatively isolated. One friend of mine and I do a writing date every week where we take 5 minutes to chat and 25 minutes to sprint, meeting back up on the hour and at half past. It gives us something to look forward to every week, which leads into my last suggestion:
Find little things to look forward to! Having plans is really important in tumultuous times. Set little goals for yourself; make plans that are attainable, and put them on the calendar. Be flexible, of course--the world is in flux right now--but find things that are still on the way, projects that are still unfurling, to collect some joy in and expect. Wonder and hope are powerful things, and what we can weave from them are numinous fabrics.
Until Next Time,
Take care and Write on!
Jay |
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Feedback from "Sheltering in Place"
SB Musing  writes:
I agree that there's no better time to be creative, but we gotta be in touch with our own emotional weather. Please be safe, jay, and take care of yourself. It's weird, strange, terrifying out there at times. If we can make amazing that's great, but to be overwhelmed... it's not unreasonable to be overwhelmed by this.
Absolutely true! I'm working hard to spend less time online during this, because it very quickly turns into a click spiral of misery, but I'm also trying to make the time I do spend online a more proactive way to check in with friends.  Hope you stay safe and well too!!
Quick-Quill  writes:
I’m using this time off to finish the last two chapters of my novel. Then start the rewrite. I have no excuse. Except I need to start downsizing in case we have to move to a smaller and cheaper house/apartment.
That sounds like a valid excuse to me--hope you are making the most of it, whichever project you're working on! |
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