Being Creative for a Living
I can work a normal work week as long as it’s on the computer. These jobs are difficult to come by because everyone wants to work from home in their pajamas. So I blog and freelance as a writer. Lately, I’ve been pushing myself to write a lot more to meet my financial goals. I am finding it to be very draining, even psychically. I’m wondering how many hours a day other people write.
After I finish a few hours I’m just totally spent and can’t even form a sentence. In a way I feel like it’s killing my personality. Now I understand why all of the great writers complain. I always thought they were just unmotivated or didn’t know what a minumum wage job was like. There’s just no way to do it from 9 to 5. Ideas might hit you in the middle of the night, or your brain may turn to mush after just an hour. I guess that’s why it’s good that my income is diverisified, I can work on the blogs when I start to hate writing.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I write a lot. Mainly through blogging, but I produce a lot of boring promotional material for companies. I often write for anything up to 8 hours a day depending on my schedule, but I try to punctuate this with some more fun work, like blogging.
I think my writing turns to crap after about 4 hours though, after that, it’s just nonsense. But then I think a lot of the writing I do is nonsense anyway, meaningless marketing speak for the most part. Hardly creative. I end up just slinging around cliché after cliché…
Personally I prefer to get my writing done in the morning, and spend the afternoon doing the jobs I enjoy more
May 5th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Keep drudging forward as we need people like you that freelance and help contribute articles to our projects. Don’t think that you are not appreciated as I will tell you right now that freelancers such as yourself are the blood of our business and we truly do appreciate your craft! A possible suggestion, have a small hand held recorder with you for when you find the creative juices flowing but don’t have a computer handy then your ideas will have dictation so your thoughts wont get forgotten- =)
May 5th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Sister, I hear you. I go through these little phases where for a few days I’m on, going sixty mph, morning til night. Then on day four or five, I just … quit. It feels like a chore. I don’t want to look at a blog, write an article, or look for a freelance gig.
I make myself, of course, because — well, I have to. It’s my sole source of income these days. But should any little impediment to this daily schedule arise — say, for instance, spotty internet access or a cold or the dog barfs on the carpet, whatever — I seize on it like said dog with bone (post-barf, natch).
We have to take breaks. We have to force ourselves out of our chairs. Do some light stretching. Eat something small and earthy like a plum. Sing out loud. Whatever. And once a day, take thirty minutes at least to meditate. If you don’t take time for yourself both in one large time-bite and throughout the day, you’ll find yourself as I do often — sitting on my rear, staring at the latest episode of “The New Detectives.”