My last post was largely about the struggle to write concisely, specifically in blogging. As I wrote that, I was examining my motivation and realized that while the skill of brevity and the end goal of “being useful” to a reader is important, what I was really interested in was spending less time writing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love writing!
But I also love doing a lot of other things. To me, an important part of “balancing the books and the creative life” is having the time, space, and willingness to follow my curiosities, to try new things, to return to old things, and to continue learning.
So if time is limited and you want to work on other passion projects, why not put a pause on writing, just like any other hobby, and come back to it later?
Well, writing is a bit different in that it can be project-based, but it’s also a very fundamental skill. Here are a few reasons it’s worthwhile to keep going:
- Writing is fundamental to everything we do. It’s a vital form of communication. If it’s not the writing itself that is the end-goal, then writing is in the background – the scripts, the speech outlines, the storyboards, the proposals, the business plans, the visions for the future. I don’t think you can go wrong by actively, thoughtfully engaging in writing weekly because the skill is massively transferrable.
- Writing is a tool for reflection. I’m not sure if it’s true for everyone, but for me, the act of writing gives both strength and structure to my thoughts and values. It provokes self-examination (doubly so if you’re about to put it out there on the internet), and then allows for the authentic expression of your findings. In this respect, it’s also quite grounding.
- Writing is a means of documentation. Whatever I’m doing, I have the option to write about it (or about the insights that come from it). It’s an opportunity to reflect on the project, with helps me to really experience it fully and in a way that sticks. Between passion projects, writing is a nice transition as I close one creative chapter and open the next. The writing becomes a reflection of my interests (or my life, or myself) at a point in time, and therefore documents progress. I love this idea. It’s hard to feel like you’re progressing when you’re jumping from one project to the next all the time, but this type of documentation lets you observe your overall progress from a high-level perspective.
I’ve found starting a blog much more motivating than say, keeping a journal, in part because it’s like having a built-in accountability buddy, and in part because it nudges you to try to improve up on that skill (being out in public and all).
I realized that I view my writing hobby much like I view running! Writing is a healthy habit to maintain – it supports your mental health and clarity, much like running supports your physical health and vitality. It requires a certain build-up of skill to feel more “fun”, but much like in running, it’s probably worth pushing through the initial slog of trying to achieve that baseline skill.
Although it feels like I’m in the “slog” of developing things like frameworks and brevity and style (and frequently, a “point”), I’m not willing to give it up. I want to see what happens if I’m persistent enough to break through to the “next level” of skill-development, whatever that looks like.
Now that I’ve been at it for a year, amidst my other various projects writing the blog has become like a little place to come home to after some creative adventure!
If you are a serial hobbyist looking to “go steady” with a project, I highly recommend giving writing a try. See where it takes you!
