The Creative’s Rest
This year has been full of activity. In the spring, I began the process of rebranding my author platform and worked through a deep dive of who I’ve been, who I want to be, and how I plan to get there.
It was months of work books, mood boards, and lots of zoom calls and emails with my coach. All of that ended last month when the brand assets, collateral, and guidelines were handed over to me.
It’s all beautiful, organized, and truly ME.
Never miss an update or blog post. Subscribe today!I’ve taken all that and built my website, a few ads, and ordered all the big pieces of hard advertising, like my table banner, business cards, and note cards.
In the middle of that, we also tackled rebranding my debut series with new titles, covers, interior files, and some fun details that I REALLY hope turn out the way we are hoping they will. The files are all up loaded and ready for preorders (paperbacks and ebooks are available on Amazon), the hardcover editions are available on my website (preorders are open now - shipping sometime around or shortly after November 11, depending on how quickly the books get to me in the midst of all the other holiday orders).
I’ve lived in Canva and SquareSpace getting all the graphics, logos, wording, and images in place. I’m learning to create ads and my days have been filled with figuring out image ratios, color schemes, finding back ground graphics, and even spending time searching for an illustrator for upcoming projects.
The new contemporary novel I’ve been working on for YEARS is ready to go to an editor in the next month or so. I’ve spent hours each day working through critique comments, making adjustments, and doing deep edits. But it’s time to be hands off until the editor gets it.
I have three new projects in various stages of drafting, and while I’ve been able to add a few hundred words to each, the inspiration and desire to work on them just isn’t there.
Add to all that the fact that I am still hobbled by a non-weight bearing broken ankle for three more weeks, and it is forcing me to figure out creative ways to accomplish everyday tasks like laundry, cooking, cleaning, showering, and even working in the office.
My creative brain is tapped out. I’ve accomplished a lot this year, and it feels like I’ve hit a creative wall.
The last few days have been spent sleeping, doom scrolling, and coloring. (I would rather be painting but my art studio is upstairs and currently inaccessible.) Oh, and watching endless re-runs of Star Trek Voyager (#teamJaneway). I feel completely unproductive.
Almost daily, my amazing husband encourages me to remember all the things I have done. Maybe not for my business, but each day I’ve done more than I give myself credit for. Everyday things like cleaning the kitchen, making dinner, folding laundry, studying the Bible, and taking care of myself. Most are things that when my ankle ISN’T broken, I take for granted. Right now all these things take maximum effort, and if they are all I manage to accomplish in a day, I can still call the day a success.
But it feels like I’ve lost momentum for my business. What hit me this morning as I was praying and asking God to refill my creativity is this:
There is a very real sort of void in my heart after a major project is complete, almost like a hangover. And as I’ve mentioned above, I’ve completed at LEAST four big milestones this year. Moving on to the next project feels impossible. I am drained and my brain is still thinking about all it took to complete the rebranding of myself and my books, learning how to design and put together a website with an online store from scratch, and all getting a full length manuscript ready for editing.
It’s a LOT in about 9 months.
What I promised myself and my husband is that I will keep opening the manuscripts, I will continue to look for new things to learn about crafting great stories, and I will work hard to provide good feedback to those in my online critique group.
The words and the ideas for my own stories may seem to have stalled out, but I know that if I keep showing up, keep opening the documents, keep brainstorming, and keep reminding myself that this is just a lull in the action not the end of the journey, I will get back in the groove again.
Even God rested once His creation project was complete. Who am I to think I don’t need to do the same?
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