When creative habits stop working
WHY?
This newsletter exists to give you practical, doable ideas for 1) creating and 2) experiencing and enjoying stories. But there are facets of creativity that can’t be explained or summed up in bullet points. Sometimes I’m here to ask the unanswerable questions.
Why do creative habits sometimes stop working?
Why do interests peter out?
Why can excitement for a project evaporate without warning?
I used to do Morning Pages, virtually every morning without fail. After about two years, they stopped “working” for me. Instead of being an on-ramp to my morning of writing, they became a roadblock. Why?
For the last two years, I’ve been guided by monthly reading lists, book lists that I prepare (sometimes months) beforehand so I know exactly what I want to read next. But instead of giving me the mental space to know I’ll get to the books I’m excited about, my set reading lists have started to feel like a chore. Why?
I don’t have exact answers to these questions. I can’t explain why sometimes I can’t wait to read a book or work on a new project and then the excitement and interest evaporate before I get there. But in the newest episode of my book podcast, Reading Like an Adult, I’m doing my best to explore the how — how best to respond when a creative habit suddenly stops serving you.
For 2022, I wanted to explore a year of nonfiction, the counterpart to the year of fiction that guided me two years ago. I’m excited about so many of the books on my nonfiction reading lists, and I don’t want to lose that excitement, so I’m being very gentle with this structure.
For February’s narrative nonfiction theme, I read one book, just one, from an author I already trusted with my precious reading time. Yes, I’d love to get back to my 2020 habit of getting a huge stack of books in one genre, trying out each one, and then sticking with the reads I love, but right now, the thought of a large stack of books is too much pressure. This time around, following my structure of a reading theme for each month while carefully choosing just one book at a time feels right.
Have you dropped or tweaked a creative habit that stopped working? I’d love to hear about it. Please feel to reply to this email (or any newsletter) to reach me directly, and I’ll see you around the inbox.