Comments on: The Unbearable Lightness of Creativity.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:31:53 +0000

Sometimes the audience is important to me, and sometimes it's not - I have several blogs, and they all go through rotation of high traffic time (i.e. me posting) and low traffic time. My blogging is also dependent on how much time I spend in front of a computer. At the moment, I am only online at work (where blogging is not in my job description!), so I'm accomplishing more at home in my free time, but it doesn't make it to the computer. I certainly fight with the dilemma of having many ideas and little time, many desires and fewer current outlets. But as time passes, I think that my focus will be more on the creative life and less on the life that exists only to make a dollar.

I really appreciated the poem you posted in Craftivism, linked in one of the comments here. It was very timely for my work situation, reassuring, and reminded me not only that focusing on my creative life is important, but so is living in whichever moment I am in, including that job that brings in the paycheck.

As for this blog, I am enjoying it as is, and I don't think blogging quotas should be placed on people unless they do it as a FT job. Each blog has a different personality, quality and frequency figuring in to that. I have noticed among some blogs that I follow a tendency to really want to churn out material. I don't need to see each centimeter of a sock as it progresses, or different angles, though I admit that sometimes I'm in an eye candy mood and other times I love to read what the blogger has to say about his/her creative life and process. But with technology like Twitter and Bloglines, I don't necessarily need the frequency to remind me to visit. I vote for quality.

By: johnathanelopez

johnathanelopez — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:13:28 +0000

That’s fascinating! I’ve never heard that before….thanks so much for passing this along. Keep posting.
CG tutorial

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:20:55 +0000

My creative life? I used to try to create as much as possible. There was knitting, blogging, and store stash to create. At some point it all became work, every bit as stressful as my corporate days. I let things fall and I felt guilty. These days, I have revamped my blog and store. I post on my blog what and when the I feel like it. I list items for sale as I finish them. I take no orders, nor am I doing any contract/sample knitting. Oddly, enough, I am getting so much more done now. I am even blogging more than I used to when I had myself on a schedule.
Give yourself a break. It you are like me, you will become more productive and relaxed when you stop trying so hard. (((hugs)))

By: craftivista

craftivista — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:27:03 +0000

Huzzah for embracing the “slowness” you need in order to do your best
work!

By: theredwitch

theredwitch — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:46:23 +0000

My Creative Life? Oh God. Where to begin...

My creative life is a mix of improving my jewelry art, secretly wishing I could sew, knit and crochet, admiring those who can,laying my hands on whatever tutorials I can find, drooling over cool leather work tools and vintage sewing machines...scavenging for cool bits and pieces and whatnots....having a myriad of ideas but all of them somehow too elusive to put on paper, sketch, or plan. Or having 1 or 2 crystal clear ideas that I immediately put into action.
The online/offline dilemma? There is no dilemma-you can't have a cool online life if your real life is crap. So yes, any excuse to shut that damn PC down and go for a stroll in the park is fine by me. And you will give that tired PC of yours a well deserved rest! :p
The urge to please your readers with regular blog posts? I don't have it. I do want a blog audience, sure, all of us here do, BUT! do we have to start writing 4-5 not-so-creative blog posts a day? Wouldn't that be too big a compromise? I personally feel that IF I have something to write about that is exciting to me-then I write. I don't write because I start feeling guilty that"Oh my, it's been 4-5 days, and I still haven't published anything!"
When you don't feel inspired to write a blog post, the next best thing is to devote some time to promoting your art, I think. This doesn't require that much imagination, and it's always helpful.
Like craftivista, I am also a bit slow in my work, and I've discovered it works best for me .

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:17:20 +0000

I try to blog post once a day and keep up with promoting for my etsy store and stuff pretty much daily, but I tend to take the weekends for myself and my creative or relationship life. Sometimes I post on Monday if I did something that might interest, but not always.

For example, yesterday I went to see the Jack o Lantern Spectacular in RI and i'll def be posting photos on Monday because it was creative and interesting and inspiring.

It's a nice mix of working during the week and having the weekends off, just like if it was a regular 9-5 job. I do think I should try to get my views up a little more on the weekends, but I don't plan on taking away from my life too much to do that. Maybe an hour or two on a Saturday morning or something...

By: craftivista

craftivista — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:40:47 +0000

Yeah, the whole timing thing is weird to me. Why should we apologize
for taking some time away offline? Long ago I realized that it doesn't
suit me to be overly prolific because when I am whatever I want to say
is diluted and not fully formed. That doesn't mean I discount or think
less of anyone who works in a different manner... we're just
differently wired. And I know that b/c I'm wired to be slower it does
bite me in the ass sometimes. But discovering how you work best is so
liberating...finding the balance as you say is hard... but I'm
inspired when others say that they're working towards having a more
balanced life, so thank you! :)

And moving to new places! What a lovely adventure!

By: Carol Browne

Carol Browne — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:56:29 +0000

This post made me think of this photo and poem – http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcarloni/623137253/ – “…be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others…” I'm really starting to enjoy my creative journey more and more. I don't feel nearly as nervous about it as I did before. Viva la creative life!

By: even

even — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:17:33 +0000

Oh, it's a fine balance isn't it? I especially notice my own differences in online presence and what I still call my 'real life.' In the past, when real life was really flying along, I would rarely stop to share it online. Then when I had time to share, it was hard to know where to start as there was so much to choose from and yet, it seems harder to talk about what is passed online. There is something of a guilty apology in every “Last summer, I…” or “I know I've been gone for a while, but…” type of post I read–it seems an unnecessary weight. (I now make an effort to avoid the phrasing both in my mind and online–no worries about timing!)
Now, I'm trying to balance it more, spending a few moments wisely online to share and catch up and then go back to creating. That seems to bring the 'real' into both.
I also notice that online community has almost exclusively pushed out my in-person crafting communities. It's also a result of moving to a new place! That is slowly changing as well and it is a conscious decision followed by effort.

Thanks for sharing your journey! It certainly resonates with me…