I’m sure there’s been a time where you’ve thought “I wish I could just stay at home and write” and now the time has come where we have all been instructed to stay at home, but the question is, are you writing? Is this lockdown truly the writers paradise we thought we could make use of?
My answer is no, to even pluck up creative focus to write this article was a struggle. It took weeks of nothingness before I could finally collect all the focus cells in my brain, to focus on the mission of writing this article.
Once upon a time, I would’ve thought having unlimited time at home would naturally stimulate all the creative particles in my mind, however, I can confirm it hasn’t worked out exactly as planned. It’s very easy to say you want to do something, but it requires a different level of effort to actually do it.
Being locked in during a pandemic isn’t exactly a peak period for creativity
We need to take it easy on ourselves, real life human beings, we actually need balance and being instructed to stay indoors consistently on weeks on end. This will naturally have a ripple effect on multiple areas of our lives, outside of the tragedies and fear surrounding a pandemic.
I’ve come to realise that I am someone who takes inspiration from everything, actively living life is an inspiration. However, being locked in has put a hold on what and how I can be inspired – there’s only so much the four corners of my room can inspire me differently. So having that source of my creativity cut from me, in some way, hinders the way I write (if I write).
There’s a level of pressure we are applying on ourselves to be extremely productive, creative, ready to redecorate our entire homes, creating a business from scratch, having 7 streams of income, all whilst being mentally balanced, emotionally supportive of the world and in love with ourselves – help me make sense of these unrealistic expectations!
Doing nothing is also doing something
There’s something to be said about the problem we have with ‘nothingness’ and why we are obsessed with consistently trying to fill it up with things to do. There’s connotations attached to doing nothing as being lazy, unambitious, failure etc. but the truth is, doing nothing is also doing something. When are minds are constantly working on overdrive, there’s often little time for new and random thoughts to burst through.
We often find within boredom, we often find new ways to cope with life, by creating new things and sometimes with doing nothing it could actually be the same result. Even if during your time of nothingness, you don’t come up with the worlds best novel, the greatest invention or most unique story, just resting your mind and allowing yourself to have break, may just allow your mind to be refreshed to continue creating.
I know there must be some writers who are perfectly fine and are in a creative bubble, where everything seems to flow in bliss and in that case, I wish you the best lockdown ever.
However, if you’re someone, like myself, who has been struggling with the challenges of being super productive, there’s two things I suggest you do; you try or do nothing. Here’s an article that provides 4 unique tips to stay creative, which especially helpful for this trying method. But don’t worry so much, the choice of doing nothing is also doing something. Rest is important for a healthy mental, balanced lifestyle and trust me, when you get bored of resting, ammunition will come for that time get creating.
