sunday life: in which i go bush to write my book!
This week I do creative work
I’m not sure why, but I think I’m going to feel better for sharing the following with you. I’m writing a book. But here’s the thing. I was commissioned almost a year ago. It’s due next month. But, oh my, I’ve not written a word. At least not one fit enough for print.
Seriously, a whole year has passed as Henry David Thoreau once said (about life in general),
“frittered away by detail.”
That is, getting back to people, paying parking tickets and working through bottomless to-do lists. And that magical day when I “finally get on top of things” and can focus on creative outpouring keeps getting pushed back and back.
I think it’s a fact of modern life that no one gets anything done anymore. Anything of worthwhile, creative value.
Productivity expert Jason Fried spoke at TED.com recently about how work doesn’t happen at work now; it gets done on the train, on weekends and when we come in two hours early before the email avalanche descends. I was talking to my friend Kerry, a CEO of a charity organisation. “I need a long plane trip to come up soon,” she said. “So I can get my mid-term report finished.”
This is how we get our meaningful work done, because our “working days” are completely shredded up by interruptions and meetings and we never get the momentum and locked-out languid space required for creative stuff. But it’s the creative stuff we’re all crying out for, isn’t’ it! It’s the reflective report, the well thought-out blog post, the inspired company mission statement we all want to be measured by. It’s what makes work worthwhile and our lives meaningful. We. Just. Need. To. Learn. How. To. Get. To. It. And in my case, quicksticks.
So. What. To. Do.
A big part of the problem is that most of our day is spent doing what Scott Belsky, author of Making Ideas Happen, calls “insecurity work” – keeping our inbox clear, checking Twitter, rewriting to-do lists. We succumb to insecurity work because it’s instantly gratifying, and it quashes the general nervousness I think we all feel at our core much of the time. And so we fail to “sharpen the saw”, as Stephen Covey put it in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey described the woodcutter frantically and ineffectively working with a blunt saw and getting very little done. He’s too busy to stand back and take the time to sharpen it.
This week, though, desperation saw me stand back. And sharpen.
Getting creative work done is mostly about finding languid, uninterrupted space. Fried stresses booking out time for this in your diary. And then not focusing on getting things done, rather, the process of exploring. And witnessing what’s created.
Another approach is indeed working where we’re not meant to and when we’re not meant to – on public holidays, on a park bench down the road. Leadership evangelist Harrison Owen observed most creative ideas at conferences happen in the coffee breaks and advises his clients to proactively seek out these kinds of unexpected “fringes”.
HG Wells once said,
“If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise: attack it at an hour when it isn’t expecting it.”
As it happens, I nutted out my own book proposal one hot, sticky night when I couldn’t sleep. I got up to make a chamomile tea, saw my open computer and wrote it standing naked in the kitchen, start to finish, inspired and riding the wave. On Tuesday I lingered in my car, instead of dashing into the office, and scribbled out this very column. Locked-in and languid.
It’s precisely this off-kilterness and spontaneity that’s conducive to being creative. It works because it’s a change of scene, which jolts the creative spirit awake. Ah! Something fresh! It’s also a kooky pause. A space off the beaten 9-5 track where ideas can pour in as they need to.
Mostly, though, getting creative work done requires enforced solitude. Poet Rilke says “vast inner solitude” is required for artists to create.
“To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours — that is what you must be able to attain.”
He acknowledges it’s bloody difficult, but that it’s our very rallying against this difficulty that forces spontaneous creation.
To this end I’m booking out three months in my diary and heading bush, to the fringes, on my own to write. I guess it’s a good thing I’m dead scared.
Ha! Now I understand Anxiety Girl! There is nothing wrong with a little bit of fear (of looming deadlines) to get you motivated, just as long as it’s not so great that it paralyses. Good luck with the book and enjoy the journey.
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I will quote you Sarah from your INN interview I listened to the other day…
‘You don’t grow the wings until you jump!’
Bon chance!
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I’d say, use the panic to your advantage, but don’t get down on yourself – most authors are bad at meeting deadlines, and publishers usually build fat into the schedule to accommodate this fact.
And here’s something that may comfort you: it often takes far less time to write a book than you think. Particularly if you’ve been mulling over the ideas in it for a while. I bet you’ll be done and dusted in six weeks or less!
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writing a book is like driving a car at night, you can only see as far as the headlights but you can make the whole journey that way.
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February 14th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Absolutely…as with all things in life. Nice bit of Zen there x
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Good on you Sarah,!!!! Sounds heavenly ….enjoy!!!
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Good luck Sarah, enjoy the serenity and inspiration that hopefully where you are headed can provide.
I look forward to reading your book, travel safe. You will pass within 500 metres of my home on your journey north , I am around 3 and a half hours north of Sydney, just off the highway … I will be waving
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by sarah wilson and Clodagh S. Higgins, Foodies Online. Foodies Online said: #Foodies sunday life: in which i go bush to write my book! – This week I do creative work I’m not sure why, but I … http://ow.ly/1bj835 [...]
The vast tracts of time thing is a creative myth, I think. I have never written more, or been so organised with my writing, since I had kids. I wrote full-time before having kids and now have just 9.30am-2.30pm three days per week, but I get a lot more done than I did way back when. When I have writing time I have to write, or I don’t meet my deadlines.
Good luck with the writing!
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This is a great article Sarah – I related to so many of the points that you raised. I felt like I was reading about my life :0)
I find that I’m now best at writing when it’s 11pm, the kids and my partner are in bed asleep and there’s no chance of anyone calling you. I’m surprised by how quickly I can write as the creative flow really flies at that time.
It was interesting to read that the looming book deadline is a problem that other people face and it’s not just me – it drags you down a bit doesn’t it??
Good luck with your new book – my publisher has just printed 40,000 copies of the second edition of my first book. That is going far better than I thought it would – it makes all the stress of writing worthwhile eh?! :0)
Look forward to reading your new book when it’s finished.
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February 14th, 2011 at 10:35 am
40,000 copies!?? That’s incredible! Bravo to you. I’ll be happy with a quarter of that!
Thanks for the support John.
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I thought meeting new people can assist with being creative, so I offered on Twitter to buy you a coffee/tea as a break in your drive North and to wish you well in your endeavors. Good luck all the same, hope you meet a trickle of new people to keep you fresh but not endanger your writing sabbatical.
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February 14th, 2011 at 10:36 am
I got the invite a little too late! Thank you!
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Yes! This is so wonderful Sarah, good for you. I can totally relate as I am just about to make a ‘sea change’ at 32 to have the time and space to ‘sharpen the sword’, discover my creative side and to tune into life, away from the mess and noise of city life.
Enjoy it – you have so much to share that is positive and wonderful. I look forward to reading your book!
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This is brilliant! So excited for you Sarah. Enjoy! Also, the ‘fringe’ thing makes perfect sense to me and explains how I accidentally get huge amounts of meaningful word done whenever I decide to ‘take a day off’.
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Hi Sarah, wishing you lots of effortless days writing without the limitations of the 9-5 work boundary, and I look forward to catching up with you for a coffee while you’re up here on the North Coast….. I can totally relate to getting more done on the eve of a deadline, adrenalin seems to focus me more than steadily pacing myself. I read a wondeful book “Adrenalin Junkies and Serotonin Seekers” by Matt Church an Australian physiotherapist which gave me lots of insights into why working towards deadlines nourishes me more than anything else, I’m definitely the “hare” and not the “turtle” in any time race, and there’s nothing wrong with that….. a great read for “adrenalin junkies” like you & I
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I completely understand. I’ve been “writing a book” for over a year now, and really, what have I written. An outline, ideas, fragments. I keep meaning to go to a coffee shop, have a writing day, but something always seems to come up. Good for you, go to the bush and get that book out!
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i COMPLETELY agree. so enlightening, so true. best of luck to you!
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Hi Sarah,
thanks for an inspiring post.
I’m stupidly busy with my first baby, who’s now not so much a baby but a very time-consuming toddler. But after reading to a recent post of yours, I’ve started using the pomodoro technique to write my novel and guess what? It’s working. I only write for 25 minutes a day when Alfie’s napping, but I’ve written 7000 words in a week, which is 7000 more than I did last week. So thank you.
Good luck with your writing, I wish you an endless pot of tea.
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[...] was about making pancakes for breakkie, taking a mid-morning stroll, picking up the papers (found Sarah Wilson’s column about her book especially fitting to my life right now) and some fresh bread, and making a delicious sandwich [...]
I love this article and what you’re planning, and I can share some thoughts…
Last year, I “locked myself away” for about 4 months… in Hawaii. All the reasons you wrote about were driving me to do it — need for isolation, pressing deadlines — but I couldn’t imagine strictly going bush (as in, locked away in a remote cabin or such) simply because whilst writing a book (or in my case an ongoing project) is a consistent effort that requires regular total mental focus, I need a balance between isolation and social stimulation in order for my brain to fire on all cylinders. From what I can tell from your blog (which I’ve only recently discovered), you’d be the same.
I found that being in a place like Hawaii (where I didn’t know a soul), the isolation was a fantastic boon to productivity, yet I was near enough to civilization that I could mingle and be social when I needed that jolt of “input” (and always with strangers and tourists who wouldn’t stick around to be an ongoing distraction). For me, strictly “going bush” would be a bit too isolated. I believe that ideas spark ideas, and we get inspiration even from distractions, which can inform our work. So I would argue that the balance is essential. In the end, my ongoing rolling deadline was pretty brutal anyway, so even the serene beauty of tropical Hawaii wasn’t enough to calm my frayed nerves (and the isolation was itself trying at times), but I can attest that the results were a whole lot better than if I hadn’t gone.
And for the record, it really doesn’t cost as much as you might think to do this kind of thing. Aside from airfare, I spent no more on my time in Hawaii than I would have in Sydney. The trick is being able to put local commitments on hold. In my case, my stuff is easily put in storage so rent is just substituted from here to there. It’s not right for everyone and may require some lifestyle preparation, but the clarity of mental focus does wonders for your output.
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February 14th, 2011 at 10:37 am
I agree…”putting local committments on hold”…part of why I’m here is so that I have a legit excuse for not returning emails and not attending functions!
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February 14th, 2011 at 10:41 am
Distance works wonders as an “excuse”… Do I really have to sell you on Hawaii?
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Sarah, amazing how you inspire through sharing your own trials! You are my Oprah! This is the perfect blog for me this morning as I flick up the macbook ready for hardcore thesis writing! All the best with a book. And if its any encouragement…Id read a book of yours any day twice over and am excited to hear of you writing! x
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February 14th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Good luck with your thesis!!! Boy, they’re tough-going!
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Well, I’ve recently and unexpectedly (of course) become ill, which has forced me to re-evaluate as I recover. I’ve done more drawing in the last month, in spite of the illness affecting my eyes, than I’ve done in ages! Also, at work our Internet access has recently been cut off completely due to security threats. So what is great about this is that (I do research), I’m forced to really read long research papers and to search at the library and request new materials with intention. I always knew how to do this, but the lure of new things to be found online was always present on my desktop. Really, these two “setbacks” have pushed me back to the intellectual potential of the early 1990s, when I was a happy university student still typing my history papers on a typewriter and writing statistical programs from scratch on a mainframe computer. Seriously, I think this is a good thing.
Good luck with your enforced solitude and your book!!
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Great article Sarah – good luck with the book ! look forward to reading it.
I myself, began to suffer from depression a couple of years ago. And some days were absolute hell.
But right in the middle of that feeling – something fantastic happened – I stumbled apon an advertisment for a Adult Education ‘ Creative Writing ‘ course – I pushed down the anxiety and signed up. I loved it. Truly and wholely, I looked forward to each class and even our ‘ homework ‘ – I think without doing that course, I would have possibly stayed in a Very dark place with no way out in sight for a lot longer.
Writing/ taking on Any kind of hobby and being unwell = (usually) an escape or something to make your life feel more purposeful.
Go for it everyone!
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[...] this a lot here – these days you can’t whinge about being interrupted or bombarded and not getting anything done. Because you will be constantly. This is life now. So it’s up to to put up your own [...]
I’m from up north, so after reading your blog for a while now it’s nice to know you’ll be up there enjoying the gorgeous north coast. For a refreshing walk, try Protesters Falls, or a picnic & swim at Rocky Creek Dam. My parents live up there still, involed with the board of the Byron Bay Writers Centre. Happy to put you in contact if you were wanting some contacts for writing/mentorship programs in the local area.
Have a delightful time!
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[...] MINX loves Sarah Wilson | Sunday Life | Getting creative work done is mostly about finding languid, uninterrupted [...]
[...] This is so my life: “frittered away by detail.” All the time I try to get on top of the task list so I will have time to expand the blog, write the book, etc. It never happens. Yikes. This is how Sarah Wilson is dealing with it: from “sunday life: in which i go bush to write my book!”. [...]