A professor at school often told us that you can't hold down a full-time job and be a full-time writer. Choose.
I always thought this was unfair. She encouraged bar tending/ waitressing... anything that didn't tap into your
brain juice. Five years after college, I see the grain of truth embedded into that statement. I'm a full time creative lead with an organization where the work sucks up every ounce of my creativity. And I come back home dead tired and too burnt out. It takes me most of the weekends to re-energize and get back to full steam. By then it's Monday and I'm back to being burnt out again. But my passion for writing was strong enough that after much reading up on Zen and the art of living in the moment, I came up with a few of my own tips and tricks to employ my creativity for myself.
The early morning call
My mind is at its freshest when I wake up in the morning. So I began setting my alarm clock to ten minutes earlier than the time I usually wake up at. The moment I'm awake, I take 2 minutes to center my focus, grab the pen and notepad from beside my pillow and write... it could be a continuation of a story from the previous day or just hashing out a plot...whatever it is, I'm training my brain to think when I want it to think
Take a breather
I find that it helps when I take a few moments off from my heavy work load to breathe, really breathe deeply. Just 3 deep breaths leaves me feeling more focused, and I can then segway into my ten-minute doodling
The ten minute doodling
Every two hours, I take ten minutes to put down a ideas and simply write on anything that my brain
happens to think about at that point. This is difficult if you're under a deadline but with practice you'll
be able to sashay in and out of ten minutes of pure creative writing. It's akin to shifting gears when you're on the highway...you go from 4 to 1 and cruise along for a while before you have to get back to 4 again.
Time out Saturday
I tell myself that Saturdays is my writing time. This is the day I take time (I'm a morning person so that's when I work best) to collect all my ten minute doodlings and make sense out of it. Some of the ideas wil see the light of day as short stories or poems, most of them will be filed away for the future. But whichever idea I pick, I make sure I spend atleast an hour on it. When you're in the throes of writing, you can sometimes write a story in half an hour... it's just a matter of dedicating time to it.
The Practice
Let's face it, all writing is a matter of discipline. A good writer writes often, a great writer makes it a matter of discipline to write atleast a few pages everyday. So practice practice practice. Sometimes when it seems like the words just won't flow or the story is stuck, don't stop, keep writing. Because practice makes perfect.
I always thought this was unfair. She encouraged bar tending/ waitressing... anything that didn't tap into your
brain juice. Five years after college, I see the grain of truth embedded into that statement. I'm a full time creative lead with an organization where the work sucks up every ounce of my creativity. And I come back home dead tired and too burnt out. It takes me most of the weekends to re-energize and get back to full steam. By then it's Monday and I'm back to being burnt out again. But my passion for writing was strong enough that after much reading up on Zen and the art of living in the moment, I came up with a few of my own tips and tricks to employ my creativity for myself.
The early morning call
My mind is at its freshest when I wake up in the morning. So I began setting my alarm clock to ten minutes earlier than the time I usually wake up at. The moment I'm awake, I take 2 minutes to center my focus, grab the pen and notepad from beside my pillow and write... it could be a continuation of a story from the previous day or just hashing out a plot...whatever it is, I'm training my brain to think when I want it to think
Take a breather
I find that it helps when I take a few moments off from my heavy work load to breathe, really breathe deeply. Just 3 deep breaths leaves me feeling more focused, and I can then segway into my ten-minute doodling
The ten minute doodling
Every two hours, I take ten minutes to put down a ideas and simply write on anything that my brain
happens to think about at that point. This is difficult if you're under a deadline but with practice you'll
be able to sashay in and out of ten minutes of pure creative writing. It's akin to shifting gears when you're on the highway...you go from 4 to 1 and cruise along for a while before you have to get back to 4 again.
Time out Saturday
I tell myself that Saturdays is my writing time. This is the day I take time (I'm a morning person so that's when I work best) to collect all my ten minute doodlings and make sense out of it. Some of the ideas wil see the light of day as short stories or poems, most of them will be filed away for the future. But whichever idea I pick, I make sure I spend atleast an hour on it. When you're in the throes of writing, you can sometimes write a story in half an hour... it's just a matter of dedicating time to it.
The Practice
Let's face it, all writing is a matter of discipline. A good writer writes often, a great writer makes it a matter of discipline to write atleast a few pages everyday. So practice practice practice. Sometimes when it seems like the words just won't flow or the story is stuck, don't stop, keep writing. Because practice makes perfect.
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