As I write this, I feel absolutely horrible. I have what might just be a bad cold, but the symptoms match those reported of a new strain of Covid, so we have to get tests later to check for that - what fun! All I know is that I just want to curl up and go to sleep, but my two- and five-year-olds have other ideas.
However, it is a rather fitting way to write this post, as I’m talking about building a regular creative commitment, which means showing up to the page regularly, even when you don’t initially feel like it.
Sustainable creative goals
I’m not an advocate for forcing arbitrary goals - there are a lot of commentators out there who insist that you have to write 1,000 words each day or paint one picture every day in order to make progress, and this just isn’t compatible with an actual real life. When you’re dealing with the demands of work, children, wider family, and naturally fluctuating energy levels, this idea of what “consistency” should like like isn’t practical (and that’s before you throw in any additional factors, like neurodivergence and chronic illness). To create in a way that is sustainable, joyful and a positive contribution to your wellbeing, you need to honour your personal mood, energy and wellbeing shifts, working with what you feel comfortable with. But. There is value in showing up regularly. There is value in making a commitment to your creative practice that ensures you nurture and cultivate it. Otherwise, it’s so easy for weeks, then months to disappear without creative action, and that’s when a sense of self-doubt and inertia starts to creep in, holding you back from getting what you wanted out of your practice in the first place. Plus, sometimes the days you don’t initially feel like creating are the days when creative activity would do you the most good. When I am struggling with a bout of depression, the last thing I want to do is leave the house, yet I know that getting out and moving my body in the fresh air is the best thing I can do for my mind. It used to be hard to push myself out, but going out for walks in nature is such an ingrained habit for me now that this act of self-care is practically automatic.
Showing up daily for your creative practice, then - a practice that nurtures your soul, supports your emotional wellbeing and furthers any creative goals you might have - can be the best thing you can do for your wellbeing. The key is to not have unrealistic expectations of what “showing up” should look like. Creativity takes a range of different forms - sometimes it is sitting down to write/draw/paint/photograph/etc., sometimes it is more mundane work like editing, filing, collating or other admin tasks, sometimes it is collaborating or discussing, and sometimes it is daydreaming or opening yourself to inspiration. So your commitment can be as simple as “dedicate some time (even just 15 minutes) to creativity every day”.
Halfway through last year, I read, in a couple of different places, in one of those weird moments of synchronicity, words to the effect of “if you want to write a book, just write one page every day”. And something clicked in my mind. The task of writing a book feels so overwhelming and it’s easy to get lost and discouraged halfway through. But if I’m only asking myself to produce one page each day… well, that doesn’t sound so bad. So I challenged myself to write one page each day in 2023. And now I’d like to invite you to join me in creating one page each day throughout 2024.
One Page a Day
There are no rules on what size your page has to be, or what you have to do on it. Write a page in an A5 notebook, draw sketches on a page of A4, paint on an A2 canvas… or do a different activity on a different size page every day. The choice is completely yours. You don’t have to always work on the same project, although you can if you like. If you’re writing a novel and you want to write the next installment every time you sit down to the page, go for it. If some days you want to write a bit of your novel, but other days you want to use your page to scribble down new ideas, or write a poem, or sketch or doodle, you do you. You also don’t have to beat yourself up if you miss a day - I didn’t produce a page every day in 2023, and I don’t expect to produce one every single day in 2024. The point is more to have an achievable goal to bring you, gently, back to your practice as often as possible.
Often, that one page will lead you to produce several more. Once I started writing my one page, I would frequently get into a flow and end up writing five or six pages. Which means that I probably made up for the days I missed. It also felt much easier to bring myself back to the page after a missed day (or several), because the pressure was low - I just had to fill one page. So, even if I don’t manage to sit down and fill that one page every single day during 2024, the odds are I’ll produce far more than 366 pages (this being a leap year) across the year. And you will too.
So who’s with me? Who else would like to make a commitment to showing up for one page a day in 2024? We can build a little support group to motivate each other and hold each other accountable. I’ll also share prompts to help us all keep going, and set up some check-in threads to help us all look at and maintain our progress.
Also, it would be great to see the outputs of some of your pages - perhaps you could make a commitment to sharing one a week on Notes, or another platform. Getting used to sharing our work, to put ourselves out there and receive feedback, can be a powerful way to move our practice forward. It also allows us to support and cheerlead one another. It’s completely optional though - you can keep your pages to yourself if you want to. This is all about finding a practice that works for you.
Love what you said about creative practice not just being writing or painting but also editing, dreaming etc.
Sounds a great idea Allegra. Towards the end of last year and the beginning of this life events have meant I’ve lost motivation and concentration. I have a few ideas, and, hopefully, committing to a page a day will help kick start them. Thanks xx