Artists need rest
Lauri Kubuitsile | Friday March 2, 2018 15:59
If it means writing Monday to Monday, 10 hours per day because that is what the muse demands, then they follow that mad woman until she says it’s time-up. I don’t agree with that either. In any case, everybody finds their own way.
I only know what works for me.
My way is to work Monday to Friday, normally from about 10 to six. I never work on the weekend.
If I’m forced to take my laptop out and head for the office at the back of my garden on a Saturday or Sunday, then I have failed at proper time management during the week, or someone I’m working with has. It means I’ve got myself into a corner and I’m not at all happy about it.
Yes, brilliant writing ideas pop into my head on the weekend, but I only write a note or two to remind me, and then put it to the side to be attended to when I’m back to work on Monday.
There are a few reasons why I know I must be strict about not working weekends. First, like all freelancers— and artists are primarily freelancers — my income is directly equal to the work I put in.
If you have a job where you get a monthly salary you will not easily understand this. If you go to work or not, if you have a productive day or you don’t, your salary will appear in your bank account. If I don’t work, I don’t get money.
This might push one to think that this is a perfect reason to work weekends, not to set them aside for other things.
But that’s just it. You could make yourself insane with work by trying to hustle 24/7 in the hope that month end you can pay the bills. That’s no kind of life. I’d rather reduce my life and have a bit of sanity, than work like a maniac and have a fat bank account.
The second reason why my weekends are not for writing is because I want the days I do work to be highly productive.
Creativity is something that must be handled carefully. It must be fed. It must be given space.
It must be held back sometimes to near-breaking point and then set free completely unhindered. Restraint on your creativity can be the best thing for it.
On my weekends I take walks. I paint. I play music, I meet friends and spend time with family. I travel. I walk my dogs. I sit and do nothing. I read, I swim, I pet cats, I clean the house, I garden. I prepare things for the coming week and I do all of the things that I love, the things that feed my writing creativity.
Sometimes on the weekend, while doing everything else but writing, my writing creativity gets antsy. It starts pounding around in my head, slamming doors to get my attention.
It’s trying to bully me to sit down at my laptop and let it loose. I ignore it. Like I said, I might write a note or two. But that’s it. My creativity, at least my writing creativity, must wait for Monday.
Creativity for me grows in those instances. It gains power. I’m not sure if it is the food or the rest, or the ignoring, but something about my weekends re-powers my creativity.
So come Monday, an exceptional day every week for me, when I let creativity out to get busy, she flies out ready to soar.
It’s easy to lose yourself in your art, this is good, but not to the point of exhaustion. Not to the point that the well is empty and there is nothing to re-fill it with. Rest. Do other creative things.
These will feed your writing in amazing ways too. And it will make your writing time far more efficient, at least that’s what I’ve found.