Stop wasting time trying to become what and who you already are
creative devotion & all it offers us now, if we can just remember
I love to tell people to share their creative gifts with the world because I truly believe creative offerings are gifts. But the creative cycle can be exhausting. It takes devotion.
Devote some time, folks. It’s worth it. You are worth it.
Creative devotion can feel out of reach due to deficits in our discipline or self-belief. It can also seem constrained by time and access. I am feeling rather spoiled at the moment. I just got back from not one but two residencies, which gave me a lot of time and access. But even before I learned about the residency circuit, I learned that I could create in any situation.
True devotion is about understanding what you need to say—be that at a residency (I’ll post about Brier Island next week) or simply by slowing down your routine so that you are better able to listen.
“Every action you take, you can indeed take in love.” —Jericho Brown from his recent offering at the Writers for Democratic Action Townhall.
Many writers I know are discouraged. It’s understandable.
This era of violence, coupled with overstimulation and unreliable news, makes it easy to feel full and overwhelmed. When we create, we release what we take in. All of it contributes to feelings about what we write and its relative value.
Some of us feel we should be creating more, others wonder if writing even matters in a time of automation, plagiarism, and censorship. Then there’s time. Those with little time, or who try to do things quickly, often produce works that contain a sort of fever pitch. We think we can only produce in fits and spurts.
But all of this can work to the benefit of the outcome of our writing and our ability to connect on a human level. The seeming lack of IP forces us to adopt the “write for myself” mindset. Lack of time might add momentum if it is not forced.
We need to come back to this reminder. Creative effort is worth it. We must believe in ourselves and our unique messages. You, my friend, cannot sing my song. And I cannot sing yours.
“As any classically trained singer or actor can tell you, trying to make your voice sound like someone else’s can do all manner of damage to it.” —Lauren Elkin
To my mind, we don’t have the luxury to wait to share our messages. Easy to say, I know, but fostering creative confidence is the order of the day.
I’ll be honest that what follows hints at a sort of creative destiny that I buy into. You don’t have to, of course, but I find more grace in reminding myself of the call to authenticity over the pressure to strive.
Sure, we are in an environment that tells us otherwise, that tells us our worth is defined by the few with funds. We are in a time that pressurizes artists and tries to diminish contributions by replicating them en masse. Got it, got it! but! Here’s my message.
Stop wasting time trying to become what and who you already are.
You are where you need to be. You are creating what you are supposed to be creating. There is no ideal timeline. The ideal audience is those who find your work, whether that’s a few friends or many strangers. Despite what you sometimes think, you are on the right track, and it matters, and it matters in the way it should. Share your messages in the way you are sharing them, not from a place of pressure or guilt or fear or competition or even urgency. Share what you are called to share and nothing more.
Again, stop wasting time trying to become what and who you already are.
Yes, our voices matter, but perhaps the more important message is that we will say exactly what we need to say and release what we observe in our own time. All we have to remember is not to get in our own way or psyche ourselves out.
The dystopic narrative is just that, after all—another story. And we’re the writers.
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Halona Black: In the age of AI, I write because it helps me learn more about what I’m thinking about. Writing organizes my thoughts. It tells me where I’ve grown in my life. I get to see where I’m still struggling AI can only reflect where I am in life, it cannot fully write from my perspective. Yes, it can spit out writing, but it isn’t fully me.
Why do you write?
Just what I needed. Advice I can do because I am me. If you see what I mean?
I feel like you wrote that with me in mind. Love you Jen.