#12 FRUSTRATION! Dealing with Constraints on Your time, Energy and Space to GET WRITING

As ever, Anna Tizard is your reliably zany inspiration mystic, here to talk about creative writing, brainstorming story ideas and how to take your imagination into new, unchartered territory – even when time, energy and space (or lack of it) seem to be set against us.
 
Today, the show looks at frustration with time constraints and low energy, when even 20 mins seems too much.

Plus: do we need a “sacred space” for our writing? If so, how can we create that space for ourselves?
 
Includes comments and tips from the lovely online author community. Plus another session of Exquisite Corpse game play, guaranteed to fill your imagination with unique new story ideas you’d never otherwise dream of!
 
Comment, send story ideas or new words for the Exquisite Corpse games at annatizard.com. Inspire your creative writing today!

SHOW TRANSCRIPTION (does not include Exquisite Corpse game play at the end):
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On a personal note – and this is where this episode is coming from – I’m still dealing with the dregs of long COVID. I attempted to work a normal week last week and realised I’m quite there yet. Almost – so close – but just not there. Over and over again, I catch myself feeling really annoyed and sort of trapped, and I have to remind myself - thank goodness I’ve made it this far! I’m almost normal. (Well, I’ve never “normal” in that way, you know what I mean…)

And of course this low energy state doesn’t just affect my day job, it affects my writing and my creativity as well. When I’m well, I usually manage to squeeze in up to an hour of writing time before I start work: when I’m going in to the office, that’s usually made up of maybe five or ten minutes while I have my cup of tea and breakfast, and then the rest of it is on the commute, scribbling into a pad and ignoring any strange looks. Potentially, hiding under a hood from any colleagues who may recognise me. This scribbled material will usually be consolidated at weekends. Days when I’m working from home, I get to use my computer before I start work, unless I’m at a very early stage of an idea when I might still reach for a notepad – there’s something about an actual blank page and a pen that gives me permission to write potential rubbish, which loosens me up in the brainstorming stage.

But at the moment, my time is restricted. I’m having to manage my lower energy levels, and the day job has to be the priority, otherwise I don’t get to eat! Then again, I often feel like whatever writing I manage to squeeze in in the morning helps to warm up my brain before I start work, so there’s a balancing act here. I do what energises me, and helps set me up for a productive day, where I’m not in a screamingly grumpy mood (which naturally happens if I don’t get to write).

But writing at this limited energy level, even in the timeslot I’ve allowed myself, my productivity has gone down. I spend less of that time actually putting down words, and more of it talking to myself or my bear conference (as some subscribers will remember!) – they’re very good at listening without critical comment. During this past week, most days, I managed only 350 words per morning. Now that might be absolutely fine for someone who likes to work at that rate or who’s writing something short. I mean, if you wrote that much for a picture book, my God, you’re potentially going at extreme speeds! But it’s a lot less than I’m accustomed to writing.

This 350 word limit I found myself working in was bothering me so much, I actually got out the calculator to work out what my own personal “worst case scenario” would be if I carried on at this rate for, say a year (which isn’t, of course, anything like a worst case scenario, but this is how it gets, doesn’t it, when you’re frustrated). Allowing for a couple of mornings off per week (one for recuperation, one for podcast prep – which is still creative but doesn’t count towards a book) and that’s 91,350 words.

Do you know what? That’s actually really good, really surprising. Bearing in mind I’ve been writing novellas or short novels around 40K words, just writing 350 words per day is enough for me to aim for a short novel a year, on average. And that’s not taking into account holidays or energy spurts.

Conclusion? If you’re feeling really frustrated with your energy or your current output, especially if that might be lower than it’s been before, for whatever reason, this “worst case scenario check” is a good exercise. We have to adapt to what we have and not bully ourselves into expecting too much. If anything, give yourself a target that you could potentially exceed – then when you go over, you’ll get an energy boost from seeing how much you’ve done.

Every small step is still a step in the right direction. And if we start to fret about how little it seems, just grab the calculator and see what it really looks like. By the way, I don’t believe in daily word counts myself, because you can’t count great story ideas in word numbers, and sometimes you are just creating or developing ideas; laying the foundations. I prefer to have an overall goal like a book, and to generally keep an eye on how much I’m producing, to assure myself that that’s enough to reach that goal within a reasonable period.

So that’s energy limits – and general output as a result. What about time limits?

Well, if you’ve listened to at least a few of my shows before, you’ll probably know about the 20 mins I advocate for brainstorming a new idea, and getting something out, on paper. But what if you don’t even have 20 mins in a day? What if your life is that busy?

On social media, I was yacking about time constraints and my 20 min magic and I bumped into (I e-bumped into) an author called Trenise Ferreira who claimed to write in regular 12 min slot. This really impressed me – and there’s something about that figure – 12 mins. 10 mins doesn’t seem like much; 2 mins seems like almost nothing at all, but put the two together… it’s a curious figure. I like that it feels a bit uneven.

So I asked her what inspired her to do this. Trenise said she first got the idea from a webinar she watched, though she can’t remember where it was from. The speaker advocated making a commitment that made writing daily manageable, and that’s what resonated with Trenise. As a New Year’s resolution in January 22, she committed to writing 12 minutes a day for 100 days. She also bought some typewriter stickers and printed a sheet of paper with 100 squares, giving herself a sticker each day.

She said, “I am a person who responds very well to rewards, and this simple act kept me motivated to write every day. It was also very satisfying to look at my rows of completed squares and think about all the progress I made in 10 days, 20 days, and 60 days!” She went on to say, “The thing about committing to 12 minutes a day is that it’s very doable. 15, even 30 minutes can feel daunting – how am I going to set aside a whole 30 minutes to write? But everyone, even the busiest amongst us, has 12 minutes.”

She went on to tell me that when she started, she had just begun a new corporate job, while also working part-time as a publicist with a professional sports team in LA, and was finishing up a writing course. On top of that, she goes to the gym 3-4 times a week, and cooks 4 nights a week. And she still finds 12 minutes a day. Pretty amazing! She also said that when struggling to write in those 12 minutes, she brainstorms ideas on character names, book titles, “What Would Happen If” scenarios, and revises and edits as well.

I love that she says, “Writing is like any muscle, and the more you commit to exercising it daily, the easier it becomes to “lift” heavier and to keep going for longer stretches of time.”

So true. Thank you, Trenise, for sharing your inspiring and busy journey and it just proves how as creative people we can do a lot with a little.

Now, this is all incredibly sensible. We will be shortly moving towards the sillier part of the podcast where I place Exquisite Corpse and brainstorm some new story ideas, but there is one last aspect of frustration that I want to discuss, and that’s about finding the space to write; whether we need a sacred space. But to lead into this, I want to tell you about a funny dream I had. I promise you, this has relevance to the topic! But, it is weird – perhaps deeply weird – I had this dream very recently during the week, as if my unconscious mind had a few things to add to the show. Why not?

The dream was so funny to me, I actually woke up laughing. But it’s not just about me – I think if we can do a quick dream analysis, you might agree it explores a few possible issues about me as a writer that may be universal to creators of all kinds. Maybe even you. See what you think. I must apologise in advance to Frasier Armitage, the author whose story I read out in episode 10. We’ve never met in person but chat on social media from time to time. Anyway: I dreamt that Frasier announced on Twitter that he was going to Australia to interview nuns for a writing project. He very kindly offered to send me some genuine Australian nuns’ socks, because this would aid my disguise as I tried to get into a UK nunnery, also for a writing project, though in a more sneaky, secretive manner. (Because that’s where fantasy novels are inspired, aren’t they?) I was grateful for the offer, but I had a niggling concern in the back of my mind that, should anyone perform forensic testing on my socks, they’d find evidence that they belonged to Australian nuns and my cover would be blown!

If you look at it, sensibly – if that’s possible – you could interpret my dream as saying one or more of three things about me as an author.

You could say that this is a sign of imposter syndrome (which is very common, I think we all feel it from time to time): I’m having to disguise myself, wearing something another author has given me, in order to pretend to be something I’m not.

You could say, I’ve come to believe that stories come from socks! (Which of course, they do, on Brainstoryum.)
You could also see how I’ve associated writing and inspiration with the need to retreat, withdraw to a sacred space.

This kind of ties in with what’s been on my mind about frustration. Not only do we have time limits and energy limits to contend with, but there may be a space issue as well. Perhaps for my part, working from home constantly in the day job means the space I normally reserve for writing has started to blur into, cross the boundaries into, my personal space, just a little too much. And this is also about how difficult it might be sometimes, to switch off from normal life and from stress. This inspired me to put the question to the online author community.

I asked authors: “Do you feel you need to create a "sacred space" for your writing? If so, how do you keep normal life/ daily stresses outside of that sacred space? Is it easy to switch off from all that?”

Rudy Alleyne said: “I mostly surround myself with my favorite books and art to create a space that promotes creativity.”

Mariah (ML White) said: “I'd love to have a "sacred space" for my writing. Usually I write at my desk and my favorite music and films help me switch on my writing mood. Sometimes they aren't enough, unfortunately.”

Darran Summerfield said: “No, I don't, I went the opposite way. I trained myself to write anywhere in any circumstances so I can take advantage of any writing opportunities.”

Very wise, if you can manage to do this. The adaptable creative!

Virginia Vincent said: “Give me a pair of headphones and Tchaikovsky, and anywhere is a good place to write.”
That’s an excellent idea, using music, which you can take with you anywhere to help “neutralise” or “sanctify” a space, so it doesn’t matter where you are! I wish I could write to music. Sadly, it just distracts me.

Frasier Armitage said: “I feel that my “sacred space” isn’t a physical place. It’s somewhere in my imagination that’s reserved for the story I’m working on. As for the environment in which I write, it doesn’t make a difference once I’m in the zone. And that zone — that’s my sacred space."

Brilliant - this definitely rings true for me. I think it’s all about the habits you set up. Whether it’s 12 mins or some other time slot we’ve reserved for ourselves, we need to be adaptable about where that slot might happen – but doing it regularly means it will become like a mind-space, and that’s something you can potentially take with you anywhere.

This is a topic I will return to, definitely. It’s so relevant to inspiration and how to “get into the zone” of creating and being imaginative.

Speaking of which… Ah, but before we begin the brainstorming section of the show, I must share with you a poem about Exquisite Corpse. I came across a goblin on Twitter – the Poet Goblin, who offers writes poems for… pretty much anyone. So I asked the goblin, please could you write a poem about Exquisite Corpse. And this is what they wrote:

Open thy mind and enter thy soul
So many fables already told.
Without your shackles free association
Lets make us a darker interpretation.
For writers, game masters, and us poets too
This little word game is one for you.

Incredible! Thanks so much, Poet Goblin (@ThePoetGoblin)! That’s set the tone perfectly. And now it really is time to bring out the socks of destiny…

Exquisite Corpse game play is not transposable... Please listen the last section of the show to enter a realm of deep silliness and inspiration!