Being paid to practise your passion may sound like a dream come true, and for the most part it is, but what do you do when the creativity that drives your passion dries up?
Whether it is arts and crafts, being brilliant in the kitchen, or, as in my case, being able to write, there is something we are all good at.
I, of course, am lucky. I get paid to write. But being paid for my passion can come at a price – I have to be creative for hours every weekday.
It can be exhausting and exhilarating and exhausting and scary. Writing is not for the faint-hearted.
When you find your creativity, however, don’t for a minute think that it’s enough to carry you through.
I’ve learnt that maintaining high levels of creativity requires work, hard work. OK, I’m kidding; if you love what you do, then it won't be such a chore. No, I'm kidding again – it is hard work.
Like any craft, writing requires discipline; just like runners have to run and swimmers have to swim, writers have to write.
Writing can take on many forms. What started out for me as Facebook comments about my daily bus journey quickly gained a "cult" following (of sorts, OK, just my real friends on Facebook). Whenever I bump into one of my "fans", they say, "I’m loving your bus adventures – you should write more, you should write a book."
While the words for my bus comments may appear to come easily, I do actually have to think about what I am writing. Crafting a sentence in my head, discarding it, rewording it so that it makes sense. I confess that sometimes I laugh as I’m writing, and that’s fine too, because that means that my post is hilarious.
Writing also has the ability to transfer emotion into words. In my previous career as a journalist, I would often have to write incredibly sad stories. I would sit at my desk and tears would roll, and I would write. That’s fine; go with your emotions, but stick to the facts.
But it’s not always easy to maintain a high level of creativity. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, the simmering, bubbling words refuse to break the surface.
Years ago an editor said to me that writing is painful, and I agree with him. When creativity flows, it flows. But sometimes nothing happens. When my screen is a blank canvas and words won’t form, I know I have to do something.
Staring at my screen does not bring my creativity back, so how do I find it?
Creative people tend to get bored quickly. I often have more than one document open – so when I flag while writing one piece, I turn my attention to another piece.
I occasionally stare out of the window – at the Flow Cape Town office I have a view of Table Mountain. You would say it is more of a distraction, and sometimes it is, but it also makes me contemplate. Getting up from my desk and standing outside clears the cobwebs, and I let my mind roam a bit.
Sometimes inspiration hits when I’m halfway through writing a piece. This does not bode well when you are on deadline, but when it does happen what are you supposed to do? I go with my instinct and rewrite the piece.
When you are constantly creative, you will crash. I know I’m about to crash and run out of words when I backspace too often, not because I am making errors, but because I don’t like the words I’m writing. It may be just one word, a sentence or an entire paragraph.
When this happens I step away from my desk, have a cup of coffee, stretch and take a smoke break.
Being distracted can break my creative flow, so to prevent distractions I plug in my earphones. But I’m not listening to music, I’m just muting the office noise.
I also read, anything really. Sometimes it’s a news story, a fun piece of writing or catching up on my social media feeds.
I chat to my colleagues about the piece I'm working on, and they add their thoughts and often come up with great ideas. This often gets my creative juices flowing again.
And in the worst-case scenario, when all else fails, and no matter how hard I dig or how many of my own tips I follow, when my creativity escapes me, I have to call it a day and concentrate on a project that uses some of my other skills.
