The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions.
Wow, do I feel like a slacker here!
When I started this site and blog it was with the intention of building a year’s worth of content in secret then bursting onto the scene with much fanfare. Kind of missed that mark, haven’t I? Well, there are reasons for that. None of them matter, of course, since this site is so slim and hidden that it has no audience yet to connect to enough to care about my reasons for anything, much less my excuses. The few of you who maybe reading this entry as it’s posted are new arrivals from a comment on another blog or faithful readers from my other, older, blog, Diary of a Network Geek, who have somehow found your way here. For those of you reading this far after the fact in an archive, well, there’s no telling what you think of all this.
I’d intended to write up at least fifty-two posts, longer and deeper posts than usual, on the nature of creativity and my process in particular, before going live. And, I’d intended to code my own, custom theme, too. But, time has a funny way of slipping past us faster and faster as we get older and the year preceeding this one and this current year, too, just seemed to pick up speed the further along it got.
So, eventually, I decided that a bad start was better than no start at all. As I’ve been preaching to all my many, many creative friends the past year, I finally thought it was better to start something, even poorly, than to sit and wallow in the mire my inner critic creates for me and create nothing at all. It goes counter to much of how I have thought about my own creativity and work, but, frankly, that seems like a good thing. I mean, my way hasn’t been producing much this past year or two, at least, so maybe it’s not such a good way after all, eh? Maybe that means I need to get out of my sad, little creative “comfort zone” where, you know, creativity doesn’t seem to be actually happening, and move somewhere more risky where I actually produce something, anything.
But, the thing is, creativity isn’t some miracle.
It’s not some magic spell, or a gift from the gods, or even a pact with Satan. It’s a habit. Like anything else positive and productive in life, creativity and creation is just a habit. A good habit that needs to be tended and nourished and encouraged. This past year, I’ve spent a considerable effort in eating better and exercising because I want to look and feel better and be, well, just generally healthier. Some months have been better than others, but, over all, the results have paid off and show. I’ve dropped at least fifteen pounds and about two inches from my waist-line. I feel better, healthier and it shows in every aspect of my life.
That change happened because I made a habit of it. I made a habit of working out in the morning. I made a habit of eating better. I made a habit of watching my calories and staying more active and getting more sleep. It hasn’t been perfect, but it has been a conscious effort to establish and maintain better habits.
So, on this cold, clear, snow-less Christmas morning, that’s the gift I intend to give myself; a year of creation.
I mean to make a habit of working on creative projects that aren’t work related. Creation is not my day job. I have a good job that pays the bills and lets me have the spare time to work on the projects that make my soul come alive with light and joy. But, this year, I intend to make a habit of using that spare time to actually, you know, work on those projects. To consciously pursue creative habits that make the day job worth doing, that make my life worth living.
Part of that, of course, will involve this site and blog. Part of that will include photography, which I’ve discovered I love relatively recently. Part of that will include working at writing fiction again, both here and elsewhere. I expect to fail often, but that’s okay, because each failure is a lesson in disguise. Besides, failure is proof that progress is being made.
I make few promises, but I promise that I’ll keep after it; the writing, the photography, the creation.
I hope the few of you reading this within its “freshness date” will have patience and stay with me as I work through this process of discovery. And, frankly, I hope those of you who find this after it’s drifted off into archive status will do the same.
I suspect the journey will be the better part of the process.
