The In-Between Stages of Writing
By Natalia Sylvester | September 7, 2018 |
Photo by Nolan Issac on Unsplash
There are so many in-between phases in the writing life.
There’s the time before you begin writing a story, but have already felt the beginnings of a story simmering inside you.
The time between finishing a draft and revising it.
The time between finishing that draft and revising it yet again. (Repeat as necessary.)
The time between finishing a story and starting a new one.
What do you do with that in-between time? I’ve discovered this must be what non-writers call hobbies. Things that bring you joy, that you do purely for fun and pleasure. Which isn’t to say that writing is not something that brings me joy or that brings me pleasure…it’s just that I don’t quite see it as a hobby so much as a part of my life. Like breathing and reading.
I’m learning that the most nurturing hobbies for me are the ones that allow me to turn off my writer’s brain for a bit. Walking through my house the other day, I realized something.
I’ve become a writer who refurbishes her furniture during her in-between phases. A writer who turns her closet into a reading nook, or decides to repaint and redecorate the guest room. Maybe it’s because my sign is Cancer—we’re famous for tending to our homes and shelters. Or maybe it’s because so much of it is hands-on and repetitive; creative, but not high-pressure. No worrying about character development or a plot over here.
Currently, I’ve begun sanding the wooden TV unit in my living room, which was painted bright red and which I now want to paint (shudder) white. Which means, it’s a lot of work. Which means I thought it’d take me a weekend and here I am, going on the fourth week. Which means, every day or so I sand down one small part: one drawer, one corner.
It’s a much bigger project than I ever anticipated. The only way I’m going to finish it is if I break it down into small sections rather than expecting to do it all in one go.
Just the other day, I asked my husband if he thought it’d matter if I took a couple of shortcuts.
It might end up being more work in the long run, he said, if you’re hoping to get it right.
So yeah… during my in-between phases of writing, I don’t write. Unsuspecting to me, I’m still practicing the discipline it takes, in one form or another. I’m still deriving the most joy from the process: the hard, necessary work, the hard lessons learned when I try to do things the easy way. Most rewarding of all, there’s a finished product that in the (very, very) end, I can look at and say, “I did that.”
What are you non-writing related hobbies? How do you they inform your writing process, if at all?
Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia Sylvester came to the U.S. at age four. A former magazine editor, Natalia now works as a freelance writer in Austin, Texas and is a faculty member of the low-res MFA program at Regis University. Her articles have appeared in Latina Magazine, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, and NBCLatino.com. She is the author of Chasing the Sun, named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad and chosen as a Book of the Month by the National Latino Book Club. Her second novel, Everyone Knows You Go Home, is forthcoming from Little A in 2018.
Wonderful and timely blog for me. I took a sabbatical from writing in August and reconnected with my hobbies before going into deep edits of my manuscript. I did some gardening and moved furniture around–I’m driving my husband crazy shifting the house. I picked up my camera and took pictures to create my vision board for my series. To prepare for getting back to work I picked up tow of Donald Maass’s books and studied them. Now I’m back to writing doing some of the exercises in The Emotional Craft of Fiction. I feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle the hard part of my writing. Taking self time is so important to being a better writer.
I too, must create when not writing, and I find that sewing contributes to letting my mind wander down paths I’d not foreseen. Curtains, drapes, pillows, tablecloths and matching napkins, clothing, clothing, clothing… It seems like using my hands in a different way from typing opens my mind to possibilities.
Natalia, making your home more cozy sounds lovely as an in-between creative activity. I’ve never really been in-between books because I’m always juggling multiple projects so I rely more or less upon the regular cooking, cleaning, gardening, playing piano, playing on the beach, the pets, to give me a good balance.
Thank you for writing this. I am finally taking an overdue in-between time and having some redecorating work done to my house. I really need some time off from writing to recharge and to allow a new novel to germinate.
Loved this. We could share many painting and refinishing stories. I look around and find so much that I have CHANGED from wood to paint or a different finish–so many hours of of sanding and lots of rewards. It’s the same with writing, making those changes in the text that are so necessary and sometimes require hours and hours.
In the end, it satisfies that creative urge and there is nothing better.
I knit, I sew, I embroider, I rearrange the furniture…
I don’t have a lot of time in between writing projects, mostly because I finish things largely in order to start guilt-free on the next shiny new idea, but I do handwork in between writing sessions.
As Dorothy Day said, “Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again.”
I catch up on things I’ve let slide – laundry and self-care – and make real meals for a while. I finally weed the gardens. I paint. I sew. I take walks with my camera. I listen to more music, watch more movies. I write other things. Non-book things – blog posts and poetry and podcast scripts. I light candles, take baths, drink wine, read books. I putz around. Very rarely, I renovate the kitchen, move my bedroom to the main floor and my office upstairs and my son’s room to my old room.
I’ve been doing this sort of thing for over a year, all the while thinking “Argh! I’ve got to start the next book!” but not being able to because the next book just wasn’t ready to be started. Now, with the weather finally breaking and everything getting back to routine and deciding to stop pressuring myself about it, the next book is being far less coy with me. I think we’ll start a serious relationship this fall.
My non-writing activities are coloring, acting, directing, knitting and puzzles of all kinds. The art-related activities are the ones that nurture the creative process that helps me when I am back at work.
Reading your post and getting to the point where you asked your husband if you could take a shortcut or two made me chuckle. I once asked my father the same question when I had been given the arduous task of sanding a bike frame. The task was huge for an 11-year-old, and I very soon tired of the finger-scraping, muscle aching job. I asked my father if we could just paint over the bits of rust that still remained. His response was something like, “We could. And if you are satisfied with the job you did, we can paint the frame and see what happens. But any job worth doing is worth doing right.”
The lesson I learned that day from my father has stayed with me for many years. I’m betting the lesson of the red paint on the tv console will stay with you, too. :-)
Knitting is a wonderful non-writing hobby as it allows my mind to wander and gets me into a kind of trance-like state.
Some of the things I have learned from knitting that apply to writing:
Things will never get finished if you don’t, ah, actually work on them.
Doing a little work, often, will keep your project moving forward at a surprising clip. (Even if you only knit a row a day or write a scene a week, you will eventually finish that blanket or sock or novel)
It’s fine to use somebody else’s pattern. Your choice of yarn (words), tension, color etc, will make the project uniquely yours.
It’s fun to break the rules and try new things. You can always rip out/erase mistakes. Nobody dies and you probably learned something valuable along the way. You might even have invented a new way to add texture to your piece.
If you suspect something is wrong with your project but are too lazy to fix it because you think no one will notice, you will regret it. You will notice. It will niggle at you until you hate the project and abandon it. Do the work and fix it. If you don’t know how, ask someone.
The only punishment for making mistakes is that you get to do it over again. More knitting/writing? Doesn’t sound like much of a punishment after all!
Haha, I’m not a Cancer, but I spend a lot of time tending to my home as well! I think you’re spot-on about it being hands-on and creative, but without the pressure of our writing.
And yessssssss to this, omg:
“Unsuspecting to me, I’m still practicing the discipline it takes, in one form or another. I’m still deriving the most joy from the process: the hard, necessary work, the hard lessons learned when I try to do things the easy way. Most rewarding of all, there’s a finished product that in the (very, very) end, I can look at and say, “I did that.””
Hope to see before and after pics of your refurbished furniture!