190: How to Avoid Creative Burnout

 

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How to Avoid Creative Burnout

Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Thank you for listening to the podcast or watching the YouTube video. Reminder, if you want to watch the video, you can do so on YouTube @KatieWolfWrites, I post shorts there, and then I also have the podcast, like the video of the episode, and then also, a couple of weeks ago, I posted my first writing blog. It was like a typical, realistic day and how I fit writing in. And it's I have another one that I have ready to edit, to post. Really, it's fun. It's fun to do longer YouTube videos, but it's also hard. Y'all, like, I see some writing, writing vlogs, or like, day in the life of a writer, where it's like 20 minutes the video is 20 minutes long. And I just, I didn't realize how much you actually have to record in order to get a 20 minute video. Like, I feel like that vlog that I posted, I feel like I recorded so much in my day. And was just like, oh my god, this is all so boring. How am I going to make this cohesive? And then I edited it, edited it down, and it was, like, six minutes long. It's not very long at all. And I'm like, Oh, wow, I need to record a lot more. Actually, it's such a transition.

 

But if it does happen, if you get burned out, it's okay. It happens to the best of us. So, but I have five tips for you, five things we're going to talk about in this episode, about how to hopefully avoid it so you don't have to to deal with this, um. I'll share this too before we get into the tips. Maybe two months ago. Now, I got a copy of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, which, if you're not familiar with it, it's a book that's like 30 years old, and it's about creative recovery. So there's a it's a week by week thing where there are journaling, prompts and assignments. You take yourself on something called an artist date. You do morning pages, which is where you just journal in the morning and do three pages of like brain dumping, essentially. So there's all these steps, but it's designed for creative recovery. So if you're feeling burned out, if you're feeling uninspired, if there's things, if there are things that you want to create but you're not, it's a program is just designed to help all of those things, right?

 

It's going from short form content, which is what I post on tick tock and Instagram to long form content. It's challenging, but fun. I'm having a lot of fun doing it, but I need to get password editing. Editing takes me a long time, but that's okay, so yeah, you can. You could follow @KatieWolfWrites on YouTube, if you would like,Um, okay, this week's episode is, I'm always thinking about burnout, because as someone who works full time, I'm self employed, work full time, and have to wear a lot of different hats in my business, and also someone who's a mom and a writer like I just feel like I'm juggling a lot of things, And I'm always very aware of this, and it's also something that my clients deal with a lot. This is just something that it's just one of those things that comes up. So I want to talk in this episode about how to prevent this, how to avoid burnout, because it's just it is something that we can avoid. It's not like a requirement.

 

So I was thinking, okay, great. I did morning pages a couple years ago, but I never took myself through the full Artist's Way. And I posted about it, and I was like, Oh, this is so exciting. Week one of the Artist's Way, and y'all, I stopped after a week and a half. I just it became too much. I think it was the timing, but also I think I was just too burned out to even do The Artist's Way like I just couldn't muster up the energy to devote to it. So I stopped. So if you happen to see a video or two of me talking about The Artist's Way and then nothing, it's because I stopped. I really would like to get back into it, because I do truly think that morning pages are an amazing tool for my own anxiety, and I want to get through the rest of it, but I just, I don't know I'm gonna say, I'm gonna stew a bit about that, when might be a good time to start it, and how to, like, get myself accountable, which posting is a way to get myself, to hold myself accountable. If I say I'm going to do something online, 99% of time I do it. But that's not always true, because I didn't follow through with The Artist's Way, even though I did share about it online.

 

Anyways, that's also a good book to read for creative recovery and burnout. It's written. It was written in the 90s, I believe. I'm not sure exactly what year. So there are certain little examples or parts that feel dated, but most of it doesn't like it. It I got through week two, I will say I didn't get all the way through reading, but I found all the information and the journaling, journaling prompts and things like helpful and applicable to writing and also to creating content honestly. Okay, let's get into the tips. Number one, set boundaries and clock in and out of your writing time. So we're talking about in some of the examples and tips. I want to talk about writing specifically, but it can also apply to anything creative that you're doing. I view creating content, like posting on social media as a creative exercise, a creative outlet, and so a lot of the things that I'm talking about can also apply to content, and it can apply to anything else creative that you're doing, not just writing a novel.

 

Just want to be clear about that, but for this first tip, I think it's helpful to almost approach writing as if it's your full time job. It is not my full time job. I'm assuming, if you're listening to this podcast, it's not your full time job either. Maybe you'd like it to be at some point. But if you were a full time author, full time writer, there would definitely be boundaries and limits on your work time. And I have heard a lot of full time authors talk about their process because I find it really interesting and also inspirational, like, Ooh, maybe one day that could be me. But they don't sit down and write from 9am to 5pm that's not their day. That's not their process. They have very clear limits around it. They might only write for an hour a day, and then the rest of their day is doing other stuff, emails, administrative work, brainstorming, editing, doing social media.

 

There are all kinds of other things, responsibilities that authors, who are full time authors, have to do outside of the actual writing part. But the point, but the point I want to make, why I'm bringing that up, is having boundaries around something, and having the ability to like, clock in and out, makes it a part of your day and a part of your life, but not something that takes over to the point where it's like all you do and all you think about for a lot of us, I find that it's not all we do, but it takes up a disproportionate amount of brain space. For us, writing does because when we're not writing, we're thinking about writing. We're feel feeling guilty about it. We're thinking about our story. We're procrastinating. We should be writing, but we're not like it just takes up so much brain space. And so if we can clock into our job as writers and then clock out of it, having those boundaries will help us have more balance, I think, when it comes to writing and everything else that we have going on in our life.

 

So even the last couple of weeks, I've been working on edits to my book, and I have viewed this as a component of my day where I did set aside. I had a day or two where I took the afternoon off, which I know is not always something that you can do if you work a nine to five. So I know it's not necessarily a relatable tip, but it didn't work out that well anyways, just be honest on those days. So what I've done like today, for example, it's 1135 right now. I did about an hour of client editing work this morning. I did some administrative stuff. I'm recording this podcast. But then before, I also took about 25 minutes to read through and make notes and make minor changes on edits that I've done, I'm done with my edits. Basically, I just have to read over everything and make sure everything is where I want it to be. So yeah, I did like 25 or 30 minutes of that this morning, and I just built it into my day. Now, if you have a nine to five, this might mean you do that before you start your nine to five, before you start your job. It can. You can do this anytime, but there are limits around it, so I'm not going to work on my book for the remainder of the day.

 

Other than this afternoon. I might draft an email to my agent, because when I send her the manuscript back, I want to include a couple of notes and one question for her about a change I'm thinking about making to a character. So I need to draft that email, so I might do that later, but otherwise, like, that's it. I'm not doing anything else related to my book or writing today, so just setting boundaries around it is healthy. Number two, this is related when you are not writing creating, fully unplug and do not feel guilty about taking rest or doing other things that are not your creative work. This, this is the part I truly think that leads to burnout, because most writers are not absolutely physically killing themselves to get their books out. There are some writers who will write for 10 hours a day, or like, stay up until two o'clock in the morning and doing like five hour writing sessions, because they're just so into the story and they can't tear themselves away.

 

They're people like that, but I'm not one of those people. For me, what this looks like is, again, what I mentioned in point one, all of this brain space about I'm not writing. I should be. How am I going to do this? What am I going to do this? Oh, what's wrong with me? Why can't I just get myself to sit down? It's not going to be that bad, like negotiating with myself, that mental chatter takes so much energy from me, so I am really trying to work on this, and honestly, it's gotten so much better. When I'm not writing, I'm not writing, I'm just not thinking about my book unless, of course, I get an idea for something, I will jot a note down on my phone or whatever. Of course, that happens, or if I want to carve out some time for brainstorming, sure, but otherwise I just separated. I'm like, Okay, I'm not feeling guilty. Yes, I have two hours free this evening, but I don't want to work on my book. I'm not going to work on my book, so therefore, I'm just not going to think about it. I'm not going to feel guilty. I'm just going to watch Netflix for two hours or scroll tick tock for two hours. Oh, I'm fully committing to whatever activity I'm doing instead of writing.

 

And just if I start to have those thoughts or feelings creep in about, like, Oh, you're procrastinating. You should be working on your book, or, like, what's wrong with you? Why don't you? You have this time, I just shut it down immediately. Like, as soon as I notice that thought, as soon as I notice those feelings start to creep in. I shut it down.Yeah, I think fully unplugging and allowing yourself rest and like creative rest and mental rest is huge. That is a huge part of healing from burnout, avoiding burnout. So as much as you can do that, recognize that, like, you need space to just rest, and to kind of like, I don't want to say numb out, because that's a negative way of viewing it, but it's more like, if you have a demanding job that you do for eight hours a day, or more than eight hours a day, and then, let's say you're also a parent, or you have other responsibilities, and then you're also trying to write in all of your free hours during the day. That's a lot. It requires a lot of mental exertion on your part, and there's nothing wrong with just giving yourself an hour of a break to watch something or scroll or to read. You know, we need that.

 

So then also, when you go back to your writing or creating content or whatever, like creative thing you are putting out into the world, you have more energy for it.Next tip is to switch up your strategy or your process. I have found this so helpful in the past, when I felt burned out with writing, specifically, I switch up something, I switch up where I'm writing, I switch up the time of day, I switch up standing versus saying dictating. Honestly, that's a big reason why I dictated this most recent book that I wrote. I dictated most of the book because it felt fun and exciting and fresh and new for me, and it allowed me to get a lot more like work, to get words out a lot quicker than if I were just sitting down on a computer. Of course, the disadvantage of it is that you have to go through and edit it more later. But that's okay.

 

It can feel okay. Some writers are creatures of habit, where the best thing you can do is have a very structured routine that is the exact same every time you sit down to write, to clue your brain in about what's going on. You know, it's time to write. It's part of the ritual. But for some of us, having it new and novel and exciting is can help now with the new and novel exciting. It doesn't mean like, I think sometimes we can get into this line of. Thinking of, like, oh, well, I need to get this thing first, or I need to switch this thing first before I can write. Like, for me, I've had the thought, I need to get a new computer. And then once I get a new laptop, like, then I will be able to write a lot more. I'll be more motivated. It's just a trap. My laptop is fine. Yes, it's old, but it is fine. It works fine. So I don't need to, like, switch things up in that respect, just because, but, yeah, see if there's a different writing program that you can write in, if you can switch the view on your computer. I have a client recently who wrote their manuscript in Word, but it was like in the book format, in the pages format. So it looked the pages looked like the pages of a book, which was kind of cool for them to experience that as they were writing, to think about the finished version, like the final version of it in book form. But yeah, just anything to mix it up. A different playlist, writing in a coffee shop versus your home, just Yeah.

 

And then the last tip that I have, oh, let me go back and give one more example actually about this with switching up your strategy or your process for content creation, because this is something I've been experimenting with. I have started recording some of my videos for @theKatieWolf my personal slash author account in a different location that I was filming in before in my house, I've also been using my back camera, which is a small shift and honestly kind of awkward sometimes, because you can't see yourself and like you have to make sure, you have to do like a trial clip to make sure that you're in frame first. But just switching up those little things of how I'm recording tiktoks and Instagrams, like Instagram reels, makes it feel fresh. It makes it feel fun. So you could try something similar with content creation too. If that's something you feel burned out around, trying a new platform, a different kind of content than you normally post, anything like that.

 

Finally, my last tip is to remember your why, like come back to your purpose and the reason why you were doing all of this in the first place. I will share that for me,because it has been a struggle for me to get published. I can often feel a bit directionless and purpose less, not often. I shouldn't say that occasionally I feel that way, because my experience so far has been I've written three books, and I'm working. Will be working. My third book will be out on submission very, very soon, so I'm trying to get that one published. But it does get discouraging writing books that just don't sell or don't get published. So for me, what I have to do in those moments when I am feeling discouraged and feel that way, as you remember, to find enjoyment and fulfillment in the process of creating, like the process of writing itself. But then also remember why I'm doing this. I'm doing this because I want to be a published author. I want to have a long career as an author.

 

I want to be a successful author,and in order to do that, I've got to write so and it helps too, to imagine a future for myself where I am a successful author, and to imagine what that looks like, to get into specifics, to imagine holding a copy of my book in my Hands, going on a book tour, promoting my book on social media, seeing reviews come in good and bad, all of those things help it feel more real, and I remember why I'm doing all of this in the first place. So keep that as a reminder, too, something to pull out if you feel discouraged, if it feels like a slog and you're just burned out. Well, remember, come back to come back to your why. Whatever that is for you, maybe it's not, it's probably not going to be the same as my why.But there's a reason that you're doing this. There's a reason that you're writing a book. And I think just coming back to that purpose can help in those moments where you do feel burned out and it feels hard and you're kind of like questioning things, yeah. So those are my tips for avoiding creative burnout.

 

This is again, something that, like, I don't know, I've just gone through different periods of this in my life, burnout related to work stuff, or burnout related to writing, and it's just something, oh, oh. One other thing I want to add to I didn't mention on this, on one of my earlier tips, is, like, it's just something you have to have radical self compassion. Yeah. Like the writing process is really hard. The creative process, no matter what you're creating, is very hard. So that more that you can give yourself compassion and be easy on yourself in the process, the better it's going to feel, and then you're going to be less likely to experience something like burnout, or at least, it's just going to be more not as hard and more enjoyable if you're kind to yourself along the way. So I think that's an important piece of it, too. All right, take care of yourself. Protect your health, which, again, I guess I have another tip to focusing on health, like taking care of yourself, right? Taking care of your yourself in other aspects, outside of just your writing, because if you are sleeping four hours a night and you're, I don't know, drinking six energy drinks a day and like running on empty, then of course, you're going to be more likely to experience burnout related to your creativity or your writing because you're not taking care of yourself. So just keep that in mind too. All right. Thank you for listening. I hope this was helpful with some some things to watch out for. I'll see you next week.

 

Katie Wolf