In which a bunch of authors & editors are invited to answer the question: How do you deal with creative exhaustion?
I just knew author Lee Battersby would provide exactly the kind of answer I’d relate to. Excelsior!
I’m constantly creatively exhausted, even though I may not look it at first glance. I have so many damn balls in the damn air all the damn time that I burn up massive amounts of energy just standing still. I have two very simple strategies: first, I jump from project to project across several different forms as the whim takes me– if I get bogged down or exhausted by one, I simply switch to a shinier, more enjoyable one, from short story to poem to novel to cartoon to craft project and back again, keeping my skill sets fresh and my approaches varied. Secondly, I keep my inner child within reach at all times– I play with Lego a lot, watch cartoons, play with my kids, do family art projects, occasionally tie-dye everything in the house, avoid responsibilities as much as possible… above all, I try to keep my sense of fun, and a childlike nature towards whatever I’m doing. If I’m not having fun, I stop.
-Lee Battersby is addicted to writing, Lego, Daleks, and dinosaurs. He blogs at the Battersblog.