WEBVTT - Find time to be creative 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.400 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.760 Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.200 Today's tip is about how to be creative when you 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.520 already spend your work hours doing something semi creative. Having 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.079 a regular nine to five job where you write or 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.960 design or do something with music could sound like a dream, 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.400 but there's a reason some artists prefer straightforward day jobs. 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.360 And that was the question from a listener who recently 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.920 wrote in. She says that I work exactly full time, 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.720 forty hours though fifty when you build in the commute, 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.120 and I've been writing a novel for twenty eight years. 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.400 I want to write every day. But since I work 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.479 full time writing and then come home and feed and 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.280 walk the dog, work out, and get some kind of 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.680 dinner on the table, It's seven pm and I have 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:58.360 three hours before I need to go to bed to 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.920 get enough sleep, and I've got nothing left. I am 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.000 so tired, she says. Is it possible to get personal 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:10.480 writing into or am I being unrealistic. I've tried lunch breaks, 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.080 but they're just not long enough. When it ends and 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.280 I've just started rolling, I get upset. On the weekends. 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.160 I routinely work on my novel from seven am until noon, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.240 or often all day, so it does get done, but 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.119 I'd like to do it daily. Sometimes I just think 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.360 about my novel as I fall asleep, kind of like brainstorming. 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.720 But is that really the best I can do? I 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:33.640 agreed that it's hard to write all day and then 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.559 write more at night. Writing is my day job, too, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.560 and though I've written two novels, any rational analysis of 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.600 my time finds that I could have produced a lot 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.319 more creative output over the last decade or so than that. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.600 I often take long spells between working on purely creative 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.240 stuff that I don't see an immediate economic opportunity for. 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.520 It's human nature to treat stuff that pays the bills 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.160 as important, and speculative stuff as well, stuff that can 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.000 be dropped when we're tired the TV is calling. But 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.840 I do think it's possible to do paid creative work 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.920 and then speculative creative work too. The first step if 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:11.960 our listener truly wants to work on her novel daily 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:16.400 is to lower her expectations. I'm a little concerned that 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.120 she dismisses writing on her lunch breaks because there's breaks 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.040 just aren't long enough. If her idea of the right 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.080 writing time is five hours, like the seven am two 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.959 noon stretch she gets on weekends, that's gonna be hard 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.360 to replicate daily. Instead, a good daily requirement might be 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.840 to write just one hundred words or edit for just 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:41.400 ten minutes. That's it. Those steps are so small that 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.120 they should inspire no resistance. It's pretty hard to look 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.760 at the three hours before bed from seven to ten 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.800 pm and say there's no way I can make myself 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.560 work on my novel for ten minutes. But that small 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:58.160 requirement will have her interacting with her creative work daily. 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:03.200 She will make some progress, and some progress is better 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:08.320 than nothing. Some progress also has this benefit. She will 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.960 change the story she tells herself. She is now the 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.840 sort of person who does make time for creative writing. 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.639 I think the small daily requirement will also ease up 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.840 on some of the guilt. Our listener is beating herself 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.360 up that she's not doing more creative writing. But it 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.799 turns out is the rare person who becomes more creative 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.320 in response to scolding. When she sets her expectations low 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.600 and then meets them, she can celebrate. She can reward 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.640 herself by doing whatever she wants guilt free. That could 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.400 be watching TV or surfing the web all night if 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.960 she wants. But my guess is that there will be 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.440 a reasonable number of nights when she'll feel like doing 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:54.640 an extra ten minutes, and then she'll make even more progress. Finally, 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.560 many people benefit from accountability. For both my novels, I 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.640 had some system in place for my book called The 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.440 Courtland Boys. I checked in with an accountability partner every 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.600 Friday for Juliette School of Possibilities. Well, the publisher who 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.640 had published all my nonfiction books had expressed a strong 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.320 interest in the outline, meaning a book contract was potentially 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:19.400 in sight. I saw a compelling reason to finish. If 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.400 our listener has been trying to write this novel for 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:25.960 twenty eight years, she might likewise benefit from some external accountability. 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.279 The most straightforward way to get a deadline and accountability 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:31.480 would be to sign up for a fiction writing class 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.240 at a local university. Ideally, this would be an evening class, 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.279 perhaps once a week, where she'd have to turn in 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.719 chapters and get them critiqued by her instructor and fellow students. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.840 This would give her something constructive to do during one 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.800 of those evenings when low energy tempts her to the TV. 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.120 It would also provide quite a nudge to keep the 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.440 project moving forward. In our listeners case, I really think 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.839 it needs to be an in person class. I've taken 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.200 online writing classes in the past and they're great. I 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.320 found them very helpful, but I've also noticed that a 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:07.000 ton of people drop out. Often more than half the 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.240 class stops before the end. If our listener has been 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.279 struggling with getting this project going, I wouldn't want this 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:16.919 to happen to her. If you've made progress on a 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.160 big creative project while doing something similar for your day job, 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.560 I'd love to hear about it. How did you make 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:26.479 it happen? What are your tips for our listener? As always, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.839 you can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.200 media dot com. You can also email me questions about 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.240 your schedule or your time management dilemmas. Just let me 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:38.000 know if it would be okay to use the question 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.640 and a future show in the meantime. This is Laura. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.919 Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:54.560 our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.479 You can send me your tips, your questions or anything else. 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.640 Just connect with me on Twitter, fay Book, and Instagram 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:06.640 at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four, then 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.160 Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.920 email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.920 com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:19.600 Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch. 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.520 Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.680 more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.120 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:35.720 favorite show.