A Writer's Notebook, Day Three-Hundred-And-Fifty-Two

It is counter intuitive, but for some reason, it always seems that pushing myself to do more work shifts my thinking and reinvigorates the work.  I have, for some time now, been a bit off kilter, as I have expressed at various times, and being in that state, I often wondered about the question of burn-out, of whether I might want to take a break or some such.  However, I also was aware that I still was writing, and that much of the work I produced had power for those who read it.  Though I might feel as if I was not in the zone, it hadn't impacted the work in either output or impact, so it seemed silly to really consider stopping.  Besides, I have spent too much time not writing, now that I have developed a successful practice, I don't have a desire to give it up.

This week, however, I began writing an additional poem each day.  I had been writing four already, and adding a fifth seemed a small thing.  By the time I write it, I am already in my mental zone, and so it is not really that difficult for me to push myself to create something else.  What results may or may not be anything that I want to continue working on, if I am honest.  Writing so much, it is natural that some of the work is better, and some is worse, but the act of writing this added poem has done much for me already.

Since I added this into my routine, I have actually felt less stress about much of the writing work.  I've been able to feel much more at ease and playful sitting down to write.  It may be that this is because each poem has less pressure on it.  Now, of course, the actually pressure on the work is not all that lessened between four and five poems, but in my mind, it feels like I do not need to concern myself as deeply with the perfection seen in any individual poem, but can be more playful about it.  

As well, I think there is a part of me that responds to this kind of challenge.  It is a demand I am making of myself, of the muse as well, in a sense, and I think that by making the commitment to five poems, I ignited something.  It may be more that I am just shaking things up.  Writing four poems each day, I had grown a bit stagnant in some aspect of my process, and by adding more, I was forced to make some other shifts that changed things for me.

In the end, it does not matter why, really, only that it seems as if this has renewed my creative energy in some way.  I have said before that I believe creative work expands this way, that the more work you do, the more you will wind up doing, but it is also nice to see that the more work I set out to do, the more capable it seems I become capable of.