Summer Break for the Creative Brain

On keeping the embers burning, even when it's not time for a fire

I was talking to my friend Magda the other day about art. Neither of us is a visual artist in any sort of official capacity, but she does watercolor in her spare time and (as you all know) I love to needlepoint and embroider and just generally putter around with crafts and such.

Both Magda and I are busy types: always trying to juggle work and little kids, forever feeling like we don’t get enough time to ourselves and like we’re falling behind our own goals for our intellectual and creative pursuits. We talk¹ a lot about these struggles, and encourage each other to hold out hope that we’ll have more time and energy someday. And, we both realized recently, in the meantime: art.

The conclusion we came to was that visual art and crafts/projects are a way of keeping our creativity alive, without the pressure and urgency of working toward a “big goal” like writing a book.

This summer, I’ve started thinking of it as summer break for my creative mind, as if these other projects are the reading list I keep up with so my creativity doesn’t atrophy while I give it a break from the big stuff. Whether it’s needlepoint, sketching, pottery, or woodwork (see below for my latest project), these activities keep my writing mind on life support by maintaining the basic creativity that fuels it.

This banquette seating is nearly finished now – just one more coat of paint!

They also give me a breather from the hardest parts of the writing, which frees up some energy to periodically submit my latest book to another agent or publisher or work on revising my novel. The very fact that I don’t have to do those things, that they’re not the main driver of my creative life, is what enables me to muster that energy.

Turns out, Magda and I are far from the only people who dabble in low-pressure artistic pursuits. I talked to another mom on social media who told me she’d started taking cello lessons – she played in high school but never got very serious about it, and taking lessons now is a way for her to carve out time for herself, keep herself accountable, and connect with her creativity.

She also said (when I told her I write marketing content for a living) that she’d always wanted to write or do something creative for work, but she was afraid to burn out. I told her she was right to be worried – I couldn’t write a thing outside of my 9-5 when I wrote career documents for a stint five years ago. Everything I had went into the work, and it was as soul-sucking as it sounds.

That’s part of why I’m so protective of my work time now. I make sure not to overextend myself when it comes to drafting fresh content, filling my work hours with more editing and strategy than writing and being up-front with employers about my dedication to avoiding creative burnout. So far it seems to be going well.²

For me, the bottom line is: even though I thrive under a deadline, I also need time to be creative without pressure, for my mental health. Sometimes that means working on writing something new, something I have no actual plans for but feel an urge to explore; sometimes it means baking, or building, or crafting. As long as the creative fire never fully goes out, I know I’ll be okay.

How could I NOT want to write when my room has this perfect little desk?

Recent Writing

I actually am getting back to my writing, slowly but surely. I recently participated in 1000 words of summer by re-reading my novel-in-progress to get reacquainted with it, and last month I spent a weekend revising it and making a plan to revise further, and I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel now. It’s kind of terrifying to imagine people reading it, but it’s more exciting than it is scary, for the first time.

Recent Reading

As always, a big shout-out to audiobooks for keeping me reading even when I don’t have the ability to sit down and do one, focused thing. That said, I’ve recently had the pleasure of reading not one, but TWO physical books, both of which were written by people I love and are wonderful, fun, thoughtful novels. If you like a funny, sexy romcom I highly recommend (Not) Your Basic Love Story, by the amazing Lindsay Maple, and if you’re into a teen love triangle with a nostalgic 90s soundtrack and a funny, relatable (autistic, Palestinian-Canadian) protagonist you should definitely ready Something More, by the brilliant Jackie Khalilieh. I’m honestly so proud to know both of these talented writers and I can’t reccommend their work strongly enough.

A Random Joy

Speaking of writers I’m proud to know, last month I got to meet some of my online writing friends (including Lindsay!) in person! I drove up to Victoria, which, between the border crossing and the ferry, was a LONG trip, but it was so beyond worth it to get to hang with three of my favorite Canadians and talk about life and writing and reading and everything else. Plus, Victoria was cool as hell and I can’t wait to go back with my boys.

1. She lives in London, so we don’t often get to talk in realtime, but we send voice notes back and forth in Whatsapp all day every day and it’s almost a little bit like being together.

2. Knocking on wood as I write that.