Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Writing on Wednesday

Maintaining Balance in a Creative Life

by Sheila Webster Boneham


Balance. I’ve long been a great believer in balance in life. Not necessarily moderation, mind you, but balance. Hard work balanced against hard play, or hard rest. Think very long nap on a rainy afternoon.

Indian Paintbrush looks to me like creative inspiration feels.
©2010 Sheila Boneham. Evans Canyon, Reno, Nevada


For creative people – writers, painters, musicians, whatever – balance can be hard to achieve. The siren that is creative work is seductive. It can sing its way into our brains and make us attend to its needs until our joints lock. That same siren, though, can be painfully shy, hiding itself at the first hint of distraction. Good show on tv? You can write that poem later! Friends want you to come play parcheesi? The painting can wait. The socks in your sock drawer are rebelling? Clearly more important to organize them than to write that novel.

I jest. Sort of. The truth is that there’s ALWAYS something else to do. Some distractions even look from the outside very much like actual work. You’re a writer, you’re on the computer – checking what’s happened on Facebook in the last ten minutes, and reading the latest writers’ group digest post, and checking the five hundred blogs you frequent because HOLY COW! You might miss something that will make or break your career!

There's always some seductive path calling, "Follow me!" ©2011 Sheila Boneham, Wrightsville Beach, NC



I confess. I do all those things. Sometimes. But in the past fifteen years I’ve also written twenty three and a half books, sixteen tons of articles (more or less), several poems (very recently!), and the various related documents – query letters, proposals, blurbs, bios, bull..., er, marketing materials. So, rumors to the contrary aside, I do maintain some degree of balance.

How? A surprising (to me, anyway) number of people ask me that. It’s no mystery, really. I compartmentalize my time, and have done so for so many years that my "time habits" are part of me. I write in a local café every morning, beginning around 7:30, ending around noon, with a half hour or so off for breakfast with my husband. I go home, have lunch, have tea. I read for a couple of hours. Take a short nap most afternoons. Go for a long walk, sometimes with my dog Lily, sometimes with my camera, sometimes just with my thoughts. I often write more in the evening, or meet my writers’ group, or friends, or go to an event or movie, or paint and listen to music, or watch a movie at home. And ok, maybe an hour of Frasier reruns. We all have our vices. I read some more late at night, when everything is quiet. I sleep. And things get done, because I know I have those four or five hours of dedicated writing time, and I use them to....write!

Painting provides a different kind of creative outlet, and balances my writing time. ©Sheila Boneham, "Daisy," watercolor


Balance, of course, should extend to all of life, not just work. Because creative work is so personal, it can be very difficult to separate the artifacts of our creativity – the books, the paintings, the beaded book covers – from our Selves. But the truth is that our creativity comes from without as well as from within. We need experience of the world to feed the fire inside. The precise experience each of us needs varies, but we all need something. A few days without my writing time make me crave my keyboard, but I know from experience that if I lock myself away to do nothing but write for more than a day or two, my siren stops singing. I need time in nature, travel, long walks, cuddles with my dogs, talks with my husband, flowers, music, my friends, good books, photography, art. What do you need to balance your creative work?



17 comments:

  1. I agree with balance. I try to get that walk in with Raft and once a day walk our bulkhead along the river. Tracking garden and river life keeps me connected to the seasons. I also need my daily fix of reading, usually last thing at night to cool down
    the setting a daily goal let's me leave my desk when things like the new Sherlock calls ...

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  3. Marni isn't being censored. The same post posted twice. :-)

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  4. Balance is always difficult - especially with a day job that always seems to demand more and more time - but those moments when I can escape into my little cave to sink into fiction is bliss. Pity, then, that we also have to pay bills ;-)
    Cheers,
    Grant
    http://grantmckenzie.net

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    1. Maybe not a pity, Grant - all part of the balance, eh?

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  5. Ah, a post written just for me. How did you know???

    All-or-nothing, OCD, Type A, immersive... however I describe my personality it all boils down to a lack of maintaining balance. The best I can manage so far is to move from one activity to another (writing, jewelry, sewing, crafts, misc. work, etc) but introspective quiet time needs a bigger allotment than my morning shower. ;)

    Seems like I used to have days like you describe...somewhere in my distant past...? hehe

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    1. From where I stand, Jennifer, you look pretty balanced.

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  6. I still struggle with combining writing, reading great blogs like this, my own blogs, author events (from 6 to 10 per month) and a normal life. I'm not even sure how one defines normal any more. But I'm still having fun and as long as I have my cat on my lap, my daily dose of chocolate and a great book to read right before bed, it's all good.

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    1. Cindy, that all sounds better than good! Thanks for finding time to read and comment!

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  7. Difficult finding the right balance, but I'm doing my best as well!

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  8. Nice blog entry. Worked on two levels for me. First read-through it got me back in touch with my need for a schedule to write (sometimes tougher to write when retired and plenty of time than when trying to fit in writing time). Second read-through found help in adding non-creative things to my scedule (fitness, improving my French prior to a trip to West Africa). Thanks.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Tom. Isn't there an old saying abotu busy people getting more done? I too have found that when time is unstructered and seemingly unlimited it's easy to fritter away. I'm not in favor of punching time cards, but blocking out times for specific things, and making those blocks of time habitual and inviolable (mostly) really makes a difference.

      And lucky you! Where are you going in West Africa? Obviously not the Anglophone countries. ;-) Bon chance at bon voyage!

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  9. Sheila, I followed Tom over from SMFS. :) This is a great reminder that we do have control over our time. My entire life does work best when I make writing a priority. Terrie

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    1. Thanks, Terrie! I hope you'll come again. You never know what you'll find because I'm a tad eccen, er, eclectic. ;-)

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  10. Sheila, great post! It took me years to learn that the reason I was getting burned out on my writing was that I wasn't doing much else. At different periods of my life, I was either an artist, or a writer. I got a lot more productive when I started doing both at the same time, but switching them out. Now, I write for a few days, then take a few off to do the gardening/painting, then go back to the writing. Daily, I do blogging and such. It seems to work for me. Oh, and the nap thing. Definitely need the nap thing. LOL. Happy trails! bobbi c.

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    1. Thanks, Bobbi! I agree, multiple pursuits create synergy. I've been thinking lately of switching out my system for a while - that's sometimes a good idea, too, I find. Thanks for commenting!

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