Wonderful writing Kate, I always enjoy your articles very much. This resonates with me deeply. Pushing for a planned result doesn't allow for the universe to offer a more wholesome or fortuitous outcome perhaps. I find myself doing this with some of my paintings and the only way to disengage from that action I know isn't going to give me my best work is to put it away. My brain has taken over and the outcome cannot exceed my own limitations. The connection to my intuition has dissolved.
I agree, Kate. Sometimes I sit down to write a post and it takes me FOREVER to get into it. Sometimes after 20 minutes I really settle in and start going to town. Sometimes 30 minutes passes and I still haven't written anything, and I understand I need to either do something else or switch the topic of whatever it is that I'm writing about. It's a really delicate situation because it's hard to tell whether you need to just try a bit harder or keep pushing through it. I like your style, I'm subscribing
Thank you! I know, it can be super hard to know where the line is between pushing harder and easing off. There must be some sort of intuitive way to tell...maybe there's another post in that 😂
Kate, I relate to the grind, since I have to produce a sermon ready for the congregation, weekly. Edison said genius is 1 % inspiration and 99% perspiration. For me, it feels more like 10 percent inspiration. But most of my best ideas come in the shower, driving to work, or taking a walk. The writing happens in the rest points.
Ooh yes, I can imagine that feels pretty relentless at times. I love that Edison quote! I'd forgotten about it but my dad used to quote it a lot 😊 I've been thinking something similar about novel writing and the ratio of skill to persistence required. Not sure of the proportions but I think persistence definitely counts for more!
Enjoy your fallow period. I just took a couple of weeks off and I’ve realised weekly posting is too frequent for me at the moment. So I’m holding it more loosely and allowing my natural rhythm to lead me. Maybe fortnightly posts will work better for me - we’ll see. Wishing you a restful couple of weeks.
Off the hook, Brook. (third to last paragraph). Of course you are! Breathe.
Nicely expressed post; the internal (self-imposed) pressure and people’s expectations OR how we perceive them get a bit blurred.
Liked your chewing, ‘meaty’ and hunger metaphors so perhaps they should extend to nutrition, which allows for/ asks about what you are getting out of it. The ambivalence of satisfaction and satiation offer a clue for me about ‘equilibrium’, a different metaphor unless extending yours to bodily well-being. Perhaps metaphorical and actual. I suppose that works with yogic calm and balance.
So, spotting your self-criticism on your PhD paper; this must be everyone’s experience after the hoops you must jump through to satisfy departmental and scholarship criteria. So may I trumpet the high quality of your analysis and summary of one of the most difficult writers in Proust and your comparisons with a pretty unwieldy bunch of contemporaries in Art.
Your ‘bashing stiffly’ away at the violin creates a certain musical sound in my imagination, (Perhaps with Björk on vocals) but one ‘hears’ the dedication and expectation. In the tradition of ‘nothing is wasted’ you must have bent the violin to your will a little bit. Or it bent you to its will. Ha-ha! Something came from the exchange, let's say.
Also, on the ‘nothing’s wasted’ idea, I recently worked on a song that sprung from a Eureka moment. I heard someone describing themselves as ‘damaged goods’. That fired up a stream of consciousness on imagining and extending the metaphor. Out came a song, seeming to write itself into existence, as is often described by others. Then came a lot of twisting and turning, incremental improvements, deletions and amendments, but, luckily, I was getting hit after hit of inspiration that felt like it was coming from all those fallow moments, as you describe.
Summary: nothing is wasted. Keep on keeping on, Kate.
Wonderful writing Kate, I always enjoy your articles very much. This resonates with me deeply. Pushing for a planned result doesn't allow for the universe to offer a more wholesome or fortuitous outcome perhaps. I find myself doing this with some of my paintings and the only way to disengage from that action I know isn't going to give me my best work is to put it away. My brain has taken over and the outcome cannot exceed my own limitations. The connection to my intuition has dissolved.
Enjoy your break Kate.
Yes that's a great way of putting it - you have to leave a bit of space for the universe to work some magic! 😂
I agree, Kate. Sometimes I sit down to write a post and it takes me FOREVER to get into it. Sometimes after 20 minutes I really settle in and start going to town. Sometimes 30 minutes passes and I still haven't written anything, and I understand I need to either do something else or switch the topic of whatever it is that I'm writing about. It's a really delicate situation because it's hard to tell whether you need to just try a bit harder or keep pushing through it. I like your style, I'm subscribing
Thank you! I know, it can be super hard to know where the line is between pushing harder and easing off. There must be some sort of intuitive way to tell...maybe there's another post in that 😂
Kate, I relate to the grind, since I have to produce a sermon ready for the congregation, weekly. Edison said genius is 1 % inspiration and 99% perspiration. For me, it feels more like 10 percent inspiration. But most of my best ideas come in the shower, driving to work, or taking a walk. The writing happens in the rest points.
Ooh yes, I can imagine that feels pretty relentless at times. I love that Edison quote! I'd forgotten about it but my dad used to quote it a lot 😊 I've been thinking something similar about novel writing and the ratio of skill to persistence required. Not sure of the proportions but I think persistence definitely counts for more!
I hope your down time is restorative.
Enjoy your fallow period. I just took a couple of weeks off and I’ve realised weekly posting is too frequent for me at the moment. So I’m holding it more loosely and allowing my natural rhythm to lead me. Maybe fortnightly posts will work better for me - we’ll see. Wishing you a restful couple of weeks.
Rest is the only way to keep going!
I hope you enjoy your break 🙏
Off the hook, Brook. (third to last paragraph). Of course you are! Breathe.
Nicely expressed post; the internal (self-imposed) pressure and people’s expectations OR how we perceive them get a bit blurred.
Liked your chewing, ‘meaty’ and hunger metaphors so perhaps they should extend to nutrition, which allows for/ asks about what you are getting out of it. The ambivalence of satisfaction and satiation offer a clue for me about ‘equilibrium’, a different metaphor unless extending yours to bodily well-being. Perhaps metaphorical and actual. I suppose that works with yogic calm and balance.
So, spotting your self-criticism on your PhD paper; this must be everyone’s experience after the hoops you must jump through to satisfy departmental and scholarship criteria. So may I trumpet the high quality of your analysis and summary of one of the most difficult writers in Proust and your comparisons with a pretty unwieldy bunch of contemporaries in Art.
Your ‘bashing stiffly’ away at the violin creates a certain musical sound in my imagination, (Perhaps with Björk on vocals) but one ‘hears’ the dedication and expectation. In the tradition of ‘nothing is wasted’ you must have bent the violin to your will a little bit. Or it bent you to its will. Ha-ha! Something came from the exchange, let's say.
Also, on the ‘nothing’s wasted’ idea, I recently worked on a song that sprung from a Eureka moment. I heard someone describing themselves as ‘damaged goods’. That fired up a stream of consciousness on imagining and extending the metaphor. Out came a song, seeming to write itself into existence, as is often described by others. Then came a lot of twisting and turning, incremental improvements, deletions and amendments, but, luckily, I was getting hit after hit of inspiration that felt like it was coming from all those fallow moments, as you describe.
Summary: nothing is wasted. Keep on keeping on, Kate.
xD