Sitting still

We’d forgotten what it felt like, if we ever knew at all. We’d forgotten why we do it, and why we should. We’d forgotten that it made us hurt. We’d forgotten that it made us feel. And we’d forgotten that it made us think, and we’d forgotten that it made us creative, we’d forgotten that it drove us apart, but that it also brought us together. We’d forgotten the humilty of slowing down. We’re forced to remember that the most powerful things we can do for our creativity is just. fucking. sit with it. Sit still. Trust our gut, that it’ll come. Because sitting still is part of the process, and the process is the hardest part. It’s painful, it’s brutal, and we never know when it’s going to end, if it ever ends at all.”

Jem Higgins: Sit Fucking Still

Feel each decision that you make

Look, nothing you can buy will ever make you more whole
This whole fucking thing thrives on you feeling incomplete
It is why you will search for happiness in whatever stupid thing you crave in a moment 
And it is why you will never find it there
It is why you will sit there with the lover that you fought for
In the car you sweated years to buy
Wearing the ring you dreamed of all your life
And some part of you will still be unsure that this is what you really want

Hold Your Own – Kate Tempest

Turn everything off

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.

How Disconnection Boosts Your Creativity – Austin Kleon

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

What three words describe your writing process?

Er… panic, panic, hope.

And what is a crucial aspect of your creative process?

Mmm… panic. And hope.

And what would you say to anyone in a creative rut?

Um, read. And walk around. And call someone that you can complain about your rut to.