This morning I broke a record for the most times I’ve hit the snooze button on my alarm. I’m not proud of that fact, but in my pandemic world, there’s no strong reason to rush out of bed. Now, I know if you still have your full-time job or if you’re rising early to get your kids started on school, you might be disgusted to hear my confession. But this is an honest blog, so there you have it.
I’m a 7 on the Enneagram, and I recently heard a podcast in which a fellow 7 who is also a writer mentioned that what has changed for her since March is she no longer awakens brimming with creative ideas, and she misses that. I miss it too! I fantasize about waking up again with just one really creative idea.
While I’m still waiting for some of my revenue streams to bounce back, I do have plenty of other work and volunteer work to keep me busy. But some days, I feel like that’s all it is . . . staying busy.
I tuned in to a concert by Johnsmith the other day in which he said people often tell him, “Boy, you songwriters must be producing so much work now that you don’t have to be on the road all the time.” And he confessed that while he’s written a handful of songs, it’s hard to figure out what to write about. He said most people don’t realize that songwriting is a symbiotic thing. You write a song and then try it out on an audience and see how it fits. That piece of the process is missing now.
I have plenty of friends who are still producing good work. Some have maintained longstanding routines, like my colleague who does one new sketch per day. Some are under deadline and working away. Some are finding that more time at home really has given them incentive to undertake projects they’ve wanted to do for a while.
But for those of us who are social or adventurous beings, those of us who get energy from being around other people or trying something new, all this isolation doesn’t feed our creativity, it drains it.
To some I might sound privileged. How nice that I don’t have to work and can sleep in as long as I want, you might think. While it’s true I don’t have to work to survive (I’m lucky to have a spouse who has a good job), my business operates separately from our finances, so I do have to work. I’ve done everything I can to survive this…
