How Do You Make Your Time Your Own?

Did you know you can pre-order a copy of my forthcoming novel at Books are Magic and I will personalize it for you?

And did you know there is a book version of #1000wordsofsummer that will make a great gift for anyone starting college this fall?

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Hi friends.

Hello from more time away from home. This week I’m on the Gulf Shores of Alabama with great writer and friend and all-around excellent person Kristen Arnett. We rented a little beach house where there are porches and it is dog-friendly so yes, I did bring little Leo along, don’t worry. We plan to read, write, drink, and eat fish. I also found a dog-friendly pontoon rental company which is obviously an incredible million-dollar idea for my entertainment but I am not so sure how my dog will feel about it, so we will see.

Mostly though, while I’m here, I am going to focus on getting the novel to a better place. This morning I took a walk and reminded myself that I fought for this time. Shut out the world for just a little bit longer, I said to myself. Every day I’m thinking about the book, daydreaming about it. Every week I just re-commit myself to getting to a new place. If this sounds repetitive to you it’s because it is. Do we all know by now that part of being creative is just doing the same shit over and over again until we reach the end? It’s about endurance, baby.

Since I’ve been here I’ve already spent time reading through a bunch of pages I had dog-eared in my morning pages from the past two months to see if there were any sentences I wanted to pluck out of it. I also brought a bunch of books with me that I had started and admired but not finished yet, so I have plenty of resources to stimulate my brain in case I get stuck. And finally I made a list of writing prompts about general topics my narrator might muse upon (Marriage! Shame!) to get my brain going each day.

So I can get into my narrator’s head. So I can learn her soul fully.

Another step I took to maintain a charged brain was to create some healthy boundaries around it. I signed out of several distracting websites on my laptop so I can’t access them unless I jump through some major hoops to get back on there. I also stopped reading the new popular book that just wasn’t doing it for me because it wasn’t inspiring me and frankly was working against me a little bit.

Don’t be an assassin of your own creativity, I wrote in my journal this morning.

And finally I figured out another thing that was distracting me: the press and reviews for my forthcoming novel. Listen I love it and I want you to love it and also I want people to know it exists. But knowing about what people are saying about it in book reviews or anywhere has kind of been messing with my creativity. I wish I could say after publishing ten books that I handle reviews perfectly, but my responses to each book are inconsistent. Novel versus memoir versus creativity book—each one has been a different ride. I am only human as it turns out.

So I told my wonderful publishing team that I didn’t want to see any reviews. I just didn’t want that noise in my head, whether it was good or bad. I can’t erase twenty years of practicing my craft but still, when I am writing a book, I need to operate from a place of starting all over again and creating something from scratch. To channel that particular feeling of newness, and fresh learning. I can’t forget about the past and I definitely should use my acquired wisdom. But also I just want to feel like: Oh, I’m starting something new. I know nothing, and we go from there.

Here are some questions you might want to think about today. What (or who) are you letting in when you work and what (or who) are you keeping out? How important is the silent space in your head for the hours you have claimed for yourself to create every day? Maybe it’s only an hour a few times a week, maybe it’s only once a week. But that’s your time. So how do you make it your own?

The world will still be there when you get back. For better or for worse, in these most flammable times, it will be there. So create the boundaries you need to make your art. Choose them and construct them. And then feed them till they feed you.

Good luck writing today,

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on twitter and instagram.