Plans to Bring Some Creativity Back Into My Life
So I work in a creative field, which is great, but I also like to do a variety of creative stuff on the side, just for me. Stuff that's been HARD to do while going through IVF (read: for the past 18 months or so), because I find the extra time for all the appointments, my clinic being out of town, the dugs making me crazy, and just the general stress and anxiety associated with IVF...I just don't have anything left.
But I'm pregnant now (knock on wood). And granted, morning sickness and exhaustion may put a kink in these plans, but I really want to try to make an effort to do some creative things on a personal level again.
Writing
One of my New Year's Resolutions for this year was to finish a bunch of short pieces that I've written and send them out for publication. This hasn't gone so well. Partly because of the IVF distractions detailed above, but also because I don't like short pieces. I don't like reading them. I don't like writing them. I've been trying to work with short pieces because they're the logical thing to work on/try to get published to build my career as a writer, but it's not what I love. What I love is books. Big, long, sprawling projects, where I don't feel so hugely confined, like I do when I try to write something short. So I'm going to let the short pieces go.
Instead, I have a book in my head (actually, some of it's already down on paper). It's about San Francisco, where I lived for seven years, young and just out of school, during the first dot com boom/bust. A lot of interesting stuff happened there (I think that's really true of anyone who's lived in San Francisco.) What I want to write is kind of a love letter to the city, written in a very unusual style (eg, not straight narration). I don't know how to explain it, other than this book just needs to be written how it wants to be written. I've been thinking about this book for a couple years, and even if no one else ever wants to read it, it's the type of book I would love to read. If it comes out the way I hope that it does, it is going to be so cool.
I'm committing some time each day to work on it, Monday through Friday. I would LOVE to have this book all down on paper before the baby comes.
I'm also going to hook up with a group of local writers I've worked with in the past...we critique each other's work and there is nothing more motivating than a group of people expecting work from you.
Photography
I know what I'm doing when it comes to writing a book (the San Francisco book will be my fourth.) I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to photography. It's fun to be a beginner!
I'm taking an online workshop over the next 6 weeks, and I'm so excited about it! I have a fancy camera, but don't really know how to use it...am just using it as a point-and-shoot and would like to change that. I'm taking the course because I don't learn very well from manuals, and also, as above, I'm very motivated by people expecting things from me.
So I just wanted to put it out there that I'm trying to get back the creative side of my being. Again, fingers crossed that morning sickness/exhaustion doesn't thwart these plans...
Hope everyone has an amazing weekend!
XOXO
