The Writer’s Life: Dare to Do Nothing

Photo by Jonas Leupe from Unsplash

As I’ve been seeking a simpler writer’s life, one of the things I keep hitting against like a brick wall is the pressure I put on myself to create a miles-long to-do list. There are so many things I want to write and edit and teach and create. As I look over those to-do lists, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of things I want to get done, so yesterday I shut down and did nothing.

Nothing. As in absolutely. Not one thing. I stayed in bed and caught up on two weeks worth of Coronation Street, an English soap opera for anyone who isn’t familiar with it. Normally, I’m not into soap operas (except Downton Abbey, which I’m pretty sure qualifies as a soap opera), but I like “Corrie” because it’s realistic (to the degree any soap opera can be), it has great characters, and it has a sense of humor. I’m always a sucker for a sense of humor. I made spaghetti and meatballs in my slow cooker, which is about as simple a meal as you can get, and I went to bed early.

I’ve had a lot on my plate lately, as so many of us have. My teaching job keeps me busy during the day. I’ve been running The Copperfield Review pretty much on my own for months now, and I’m currently getting the journal’s second anthology of historical fiction and poetry ready for its close-up next week. The Duchess of Idaho is also getting ready for its close up and I can finally say for certain that it will be released next month. I’ll give you an exact date in March.

DOI has been a challenge, let me tell you. There were a lot of new characters for me to get to know, and bringing the Oregon Trail to life provided its own challenges. I don’t think I realized how exhausting writing DOI was until now that I’m nearly done. I had written two complete drafts of DOI before I realized that the story is an embedded narrative, but that’s the way it goes for me. I’m a little slow sometimes. Once I figured it out then it was easier for me to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

I don’t know where the idea that writing is easy or glamorous came from. I think readers see authors when they win awards or when they’re nicely dressed on a talk show and think that writers have the life. Or they know about Hemingway and think we drink all day. They don’t see us when we’re still in our pajamas at 3 pm or when we’re shuffling along with a bent back like we’re 100 years old because we’ve been sitting for hours. Writing is exhausting, and frustrating, but I don’t hear writers talk about that aspect of our job very much. Writers love to talk about how wonderful writing is, and it is, but it’s also damn hard.

The mental exhaustion that comes with storytelling can put a dampener on your energy, let me tell you, and I think yesterday it finally hit me. I needed a break–physically, mentally, and emotionally. But of course, as a creative person with the aforementioned mile-long to-do list, my first instinct was to be angry with myself for being so lazy.

I’ve suffered, like many of you, from what they call the Do Something Syndrome at the Farnam Street blog. It’s hard not to feel like I have to constantly be working at something—whether it’s writing, editing, marketing, whatever—or else I’m wasting my time. A while ago I started reading about stillness and how doing nothing can help to fill your creative well.

Here’s a great post from one of my favorite websites, Zen Habits, called The Number 1 Habit of Highly Creative People where the artists talk about stillness and doing nothing as a way to stay creative. There are a number of other articles out there on the same topic.

Doing nothing? It’s a hard concept for those of us who feel like we have to go, go, go. But on days like yesterday, I’ve learned to give myself a break.

And it helps. It really does. Today, as I write this, I finished editing the next three chapters of DOI. I’ve put the anthology into its final form in Vellum. I’ve started putting together the new marketing campaign, first for Her Dear & Loving Husband since that’s the first book in the Loving Husband Series, and then for The Duchess of Idaho, which will be the fifth book in the series.

I’ve written before about “productivity” and my concerns about how we push ourselves so much sometimes that we lose touch with our creativity. Sometimes, a day to sit back and do nothing is essential. Sometimes, making yourself a simple homecooked meal and catching up on TV shows is the best thing you can do for yourself as a creative person. Allowing yourself time to breathe, to think, to simply exist, can be the best present you can give yourself.

Slow living, authentic living, is as important for writers as it is for anyone else. We need energy to attack all the things we want to accomplish as creative people. Daring to live more slowly, even daring to do nothing when the time is right, can help us find that energy.

By the way, if you’re looking for a delicious, simple meal for the slow cooker, here’s my spaghetti and meatballs recipe.

Ingredients:

Your favorite spaghetti

3 jars of your favorite pasta sauce

1 package of meatballs (vegetarian or meat)

Mozarella or another favorite kind of cheese

Empty one jar of spaghetti sauce into the slow cookerFill the jar with water and add that to the slow cookerAdd the spaghettiEmpty the second jar of spaghetti sauce into the slow cookerFill the second jar with water and add that to the slow cooker tooAdd the meatballsCook on high for 2-3 hoursCheck the spaghetti while it’s cooking and stir frequently. If the pasta is soaking up too much of the liquid and seems to be drying out, add the third jar of sauce and more water. The pasta needs a lot of liquid to cook. As soon as the pasta has softened to your taste (about 2-3 hours), add cheese and enjoy.

That’s it! It takes about five minutes of prep and cooks itself. What else could you ask for?