Asynchronous Progress – The Climb 669

Tuesday 22^nd December 2020

I’ve been thinking a bit about creative work today following an interview I read with NK Jemisin.

There’s a really interesting quote that got me thinking.

“Having spent 20 years in the workplace, it’s difficult not to apply capitalist logic to everything, not to think about productivity in terms of the number of tasks you accomplish during the day. Creative work is not like that.”

I find with my own creative work that I go through phases. There are times when I’m super—productive and whizz through a rewrite in 4 weeks. And there are times, like with my latest novel, where progress is slow and I feel unproductive.

Yet, knowing a lot of writers and knowing how the stresses of a professional creative career can contribute to mental health issues, I’ve always been sure to carefully monitor my mental state.

It’s not that I have any specific mental health challenges. Like anyone, I can have bad days or periods where I’m a bit in a rut. But I find everything, from my progress for the day through to what I’ve written, can impact my mood. And so I constantly check-in with myself.

I’ll always step away or extend a personal deadline if I find things not feeling right. This is a gut instinct and one I’m never quite sure whether it’s a case of me wanting to procrastinate from the work or a sign I need to take a break.

As a result, my progress has become a little asynchronous – making progress in the long term by being sporadic in the short term.

It’s something that I’m trying to find a balance in. For example, Xmas is proving so busy that it is not rational for me to expect a lot of progress. And yet, this comes soon after the Warcraft break.

Just as an athlete listens to their body, I listen to my mind. Are these constant breaks a case of real life getting in the way, or is there something fundamentally wrong with what I’m working on and it’s my subconscious alerting me by slowing my progress down?

I’m not sure.

I know that I want to be more productive in the coming year. I know things will come along to throw me off-track. The question is, how to a plan for these, and how to stay on track in the long run.

However, seeing another writer talk about this non-linear progress on creative projects, has me wondering if I need to be more accepting of it. It’s a feature of creative work, not a bug. If so, how do I deal with it and where do I draw the line?

There’s a balance in there somewhere. I just don’t know where that point is.

It’s certainly something I’m going to consider as we go into 2021 and my huge writing plans.