Regaining Momentum on a Creative Project

I'm getting quite close to the wire on a long-term creative project that has already had several delays, and for which I set a deadline of November for it to be completed in its entirety. Last month I was finally starting to make good progress, and the last few days of August my fingers were flying on the keyboard as I started to pile up the word counts.

And then I had a family emergency and had to travel to India. It was a stressful time, and there was a lot to be done, and work on my project halted completely. Understandably, many people would say. And yet it’s been more than 10 days since I have been back, and attempting to pick up the thread on my project. And my momentum has been shot to h*ll.

I can't for the life of me get back to the pace I was working at before I left, and I can't even summon up the same level of motivation I had on the project as before. I know intellectually that I still need to meet the deadline, and need to work even harder than before to make up the time shortfall. And yet, I'm dragging my feet as it were, and languidly typing a few sentences at a time.

Usually I read books on writing when this happens, but advice on starting a project and doing a little everyday isn’t helping, since I am doing a little everyday; it just happens to be not enough. Writing teacher Julia Cameron has said that “writing rights things”, and in this instance, not writing is making me grumpy, I'm finding faults with every aspect of my life. Or these faults were there, but when I was writing, they weren’t so visible to me. Hmm…so the solution is to write more, but that is also the problem.

I tried taking a break – I took a day off to read a book, and generally chill. The next day I got more done, but not nearly enough, and the day after that, the lack of energy is back. I don’t really have any other tricks up my sleeve – other than the old favourite – powering through. I will keep sitting down at my computer, until the pace picks up and I start to fall in love with the material again. I’ve read enough interviews of writers to know that this happens to many people, and they get through it, and I will too. Its just that now I know this intellectually, but in my heart I still have this gnawing feeling: “What if I can't finish this book on time? Should I just give up now? Maybe I don’t really need to write this book.” These feelings are scary – and my instinct is to tamp down on them and ignore them. But I know from experience, not acknowledging feelings just encourages them to grow, so here I am doing the opposite – and strangely I feel a bit better already. Its like when the sun comes up, the monsters that freaked you out the night before feel like silly shadows that disappear in the sun’s rays.

Lessons from 3 Idiots: Beyond the Obvious Takeaways

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot from non-Indian friends and acquaintances about the Bollywood movie 3 Idiots, which I absolutely love by the way. Mystically, it was playing on TV last night, and somehow I couldn’t resist watching it again. In light of conversations I had had about career success earlier that day, I pondered the message of the movie.

At first blush, the takeaway seems obvious – after all, the movie reiterates the line which purports to underscore its message several times – “Don’t run after success, run after excellence and success will run after you”. This pithy message is made even more poignant with the final image, of the ‘3 idiots’ (the protagonists) running, and so-called ‘success’ in the form of a character illustrating the corollary viewpoint running after them.

When I thought about it a bit deeper, what occurred to me were the following points:

1.       The central character, ‘Rancho’ illustrated not only the pursuit of excellence, but even more importantly, the kind of person one should presumably aspire to be – generous, kind, helpful, unswayed by excessive praise or criticism. This is illustrated over several anecdotes, but the feeling generated by him is generally that most people sooner or later love and admire him. Becoming this sort of person could then be seen as a goal in itself.

2.    Excellence stems from sustained hard work, and hard work, even if it doesn’t give you an immediate reward, can only be sustained over the long period required by loving what you do. This returns to the passion hypothesis, derisively disputed by Cal Newport, but includes his premise that only by being “so good they can't ignore you” can you succeed. The movie then is implicitly arguing that the hard work needed to acquire mastery can only happen when you start by choosing a path you love already, or are interested enough to pursue. If you secretly harbouring an infatuation with some other professional calling, then you won't be able to achieve excellence in the path that you’re following only out of a sense of duty – like the wildlife photographer trying to be an engineer in the movie. This point especially appeals to me – as I am afraid to fully commit to the marriage to writing, keeping a toe in other pursuits, in case I'm not good enough or lucky enough to succeed in this endeavour.

3.   The final point, and to me the most important one, centers on creating value. Simply focusing on excellence is a bit pointless if you are excellent at conning people out of their money. It may make you successful by a narrow definition of sheer net worth; however, if by success you mean feeling fulfilled and happy in a larger sense, creating value is the key to success. If you notice, all the inventions Rancho worked on found a problem or gap and filled it. Although the movie doesn’t explicitly mention this, I believe that creating the most value possible through one’s work is really the oft-neglected ingredient in the elusive formula for success; at least the 3 idiot-brand of success.

Multi-tasking: Trying to Read More

I read this suggestion on Jamie Rubin’s blog that he walks with audio books, so he gets reading done, especially classics that we wouldn’t otherwise get around to reading. And I thought that was a fab idea, and one I should try out. I tried it out, while listening to Anna Karenina, which I got on audiobook a while ago, and listened to a few chapters, but never got around to finishing – other stuff got in the way, and I changed my walk route, and started trying to walk more and faster and everything.

So today I tried this, allowing myself to walk slowly so I could get back into the rhythm of the book, especially because I'm not great with listening, I always prefer subtitles in movies for instance. I actually managed to walk my usual amount – about 40 minutes, without breaking a sweat, or getting exhausted, which I usually do. And I made great progress on my book! So I'm now resolved to try walking in the morning, first thing. I like to start my day by reading, but this way I could get my walk and reading done at the same time. Let’s see how the experiment goes…

This comes on the heels of a determination to read more classics, ones that everyone says they want to read, or have read, but haven’t gotten around to yet. The Bronte Sisters, Leo Tolstoy, Dickens, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, obscure Austen novels…the list for me is long. I have been wanting to read these for ages, especially because I believe as a would-be writer I should be well-versed in the greats. If I could combine my walking with reading, then I will be ecstatic.

I have also been trying lately to figure out how to put more into each day, get more done, but in a natural way, not by obsessively making lists, and rushing around like a headless chicken. I have always envied those who get huge amounts done, and also come across as super-relaxed, have great relationships, and generally are very balanced. You know the sort I mean – people you admire and envy in equal measure!