All Good Things… Creative In An Uncreative Place · 1:19pm Jun 6th, 2020

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6th June 2020

Hello, Chaps and Chapettes,

Have you ever felt that you are being stifled? You know what you want to do and you may even have all of the energy to do it, but there’s one big ol’ problem that’s stopping you. You’re not in the right place and it isn’t the right time. There’s hope, but to get to that hope we have to crawl through the dung first.

(Photo: https://latetothegameoutdoors.com/blog/2017/10/25/i-could-never-do-that-and-other-lies-we-tell-ourselves )

Let me put this into a context. Some jobs are not made for people who want to get up, do something, and enjoy what they are doing. There are jobs that are necessary where the fun has to grind to a halt because if it didn’t, nothing would get done and there would be nobody around to have fun with. Sometimes, that job is not for you, but you have to do it because A) you have bills that you cannot contentedly screw up and ignore because then ALL OF THE FUN WOULD STOP AND HOMELESSNESS WOULD START, and B) no matter how much you want to enjoy life, a livelihood has to be a staple to overcome first.

You’ve probably heard a lot of people say that if you’re looking for a job you enjoy, then you should go out there, quit what you’re doing and go get it! Or, you should work hard for it and eventually the hard work will pay off! While I cannot say the former would work, because I frankly haven’t had the balls or the healthy bank balance to try it, I can say with certainty that the latter is extremely hard. Especially if you have spent a lot of your life saying ‘I’ll do it later’ and sitting on your ass doing just enough important stuff to get by without people shouting at you. For me, it was mostly raised voices but nothing that constituted an actual bollocking (that means getting a serious talking to, to those not familiar with it).

There’s another reason why being creative is hard, while trying to keep up a job, pay bills, do everything to make your home feel like you definitely ARE NOT homeless, and all the other fun stuff that constitutes being human. That reason is that it is tiring. You come up with a great idea, maybe MANY great ideas, and they’re all exciting and wonderful, and you jot some of them down, you make a start on them, and you’re not even halfway through when… What? Where’s the energy for this gone? Where are the enthusiasm and eagerness and promises that THIS TIME it won’t fall on its arse?

The answer is that a lot has happened since the point you first got excited. You’ve been to work, you’ve made a meal, you’ve done laundry, done the shopping. Maybe you’ve rested but then done all that again, probably spoken to a few people in between, get excited about something else, even gotten invested in somebody else’s visions on TV or in a book. In the space of an hour of having an idea, you’ve already thought of a hundred other things and done at least a couple of them. The matter is that your body and mind is constantly doing the Tasmanian Devil from the Looney Tunes, spinning about and yelling and spitting, but we’re not cartoons and it is tiring after one rotation.

(Photo: https://www.standingstills.com/taz-the-tasmanian-devil-looney-tunes-cardboard-cutout-standup-standee-cac522 )

So, where is the hope for any of your projects to see a finishing line? This is the hard lesson I’ve had to learn and it was summarized nicely in a chat I heard Ricky Gervais having with his fans online the other day:

“I've got my next idea, but I mustn't even think about it yet because you've got to put everything you can into every series. Leave it in the ring, don't leave it up to the judges.”

(Gervais, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qlOJPEeGDc, 2020)

If you are coming up with exciting new ideas while working, and paying bills, and breathing, then it is best and easiest to task your mind on only one of those things until you have mastered it. In Gervais’ context, he was discussing his own projects, explaining that he wanted to keep his mind on his current one (Afterlife on Netflix) and complete that before he started anything new. He realized in himself that if he tried to do too much at once, he did not make a satisfactory job of it. Here’s another quote I like that explains the same premise.

"Never half-ass two things. Whole ass one thing."

(Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson, Sweet Sixteen” Season 4, Episode 16, Parks and Recreation)

This does not mean you must dismiss other ideas while working on your current one. There’s nothing wrong with writing things down and holding onto them for future endeavors. In fact, in the Creative Writing degree, I’m currently studying, it actively encourages keeping a writing journal at all times for scribbling all the new ideas, titbits and potential plots that come to you from the world you live in. That also leads to another good point.

(photo: https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/12/18/wishing-you-ron-swanson-christmas-12269 )

Don’t treat your world, work, even bill-paying life, as an albatross around your neck. Instead, treat it as inspiration. Look at work with new eyes, look at the characters you meet, the crazy things that happen, the serious stories that come from that happen to you, and the people around you and use that. Don’t use people by name, of course, because that could get you in hot water, but perhaps there’s more to it than just a grindstone. Dawn from the office could inspire that lady with all the juicy gossip in your next play, story, or drawing. The trouble you had paying that last bill will encourage you to find a new, better way to help people with their money or stress. Just because the world is a grindstone, doesn’t mean you can’t imagine it as a carousel with lights and a jaunty tune instead.

The world, no matter how big or small yours is, has a lot more going for it than you think.

So next time you feel bored, fed up, lonely, sad or angry, ask yourself one thing.

How can I make something more interesting out of this? Don’t let boundaries get you down.

All good things,

Love, Scaramouche.

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