For many of us, quarantine has become a part of our daily lives. We spend hours upon hours in our homes and many people I know have taken this opportunity to have more "creative me time." But why are so many people motivated to be creative while others feel this part of themselves lacking?
As a creative writer, many people would expect me to be producing work at an astonishing rate due to quarantine. I've been told this more times than I can count now. I mean, come on, I've got all the time in the world right now. This is precious time I always wished I had, so I should be ecstatic, shouldn't I? It shouldn't be too hard to sit down and write, should it? Well, in fact, it has been. It's been extremely difficult to get the creative juices flowing again. For a while, I wondered why that is, especially since I am always usually willing to write something. And it's not just this aspect of my life either; all of my creative endeavors seem to have been put on hold. So, what's the deal?
One word: motivation (or, I should say, a lack thereof). With all of this free time on my hands, I've fallen out of the schedule I had while at school. With classes all moved online, I haven't had any strict due dates anymore. I used these due dates as motivation to write and push myself to do my best, since I'm one to work well under pressure. Without this schedule, I'm not pressured to work as diligently for long periods of time like I once did. All of this free time is actually making it harder for me to work effectively. I have too much time to keep adding onto ideas rather than settling on one. Details keep adding on until it's too overwhelming and I drop the project altogether.
And to make matters worse, I've lost that motivation to start or finish projects of any creative capacity because once they are done, I can't really do anything with them. With writing, I can't share my works in workshops and get that face-to-face feedback. With sewing, I can't wear any of my creations out at school or hanging out with my friends. It's really just put a damper on that creative flow.
That's when I decided to try and see things from a different perspective. I tried pushing myself a bit more to THINK about what I could do; not to actually do it yet; just think about it. Baby steps, ya know? I wanted to focus on the ideas that I stored away, then wanted to try bringing them to light. And you know what? It worked. Of course, just writing down or thinking about projects is very different from actually starting them, but a baby step forward is better than no steps forward. I hope to continue working on this mindset into the future and hopefully, one day, feel this burden of the "creativity" or "writer's block" be lifted off my shoulders.
If any of you are also struggling with this, just know you aren't alone. At first, it can be frustrating to not have any creative motivation when there are so many things to do, but making small goals and taking small steps towards these goals may be a way to help. I wish all of you the best of luck out there during these hard times and remember: Mindset changes everything.
