Stewing in Your Own Juice

The silly way my life works, and I suspect it's the way others' work as well, is that the busier I am, the more productive I am. If I have a million things to do and assignments to write, that's the time when I manage to get some pages of creative writing done in record time. If, on the other hand, vast swaths of free time stretch out before me, I inevitably waste it.

That's almost what happened to me this past weekend and week. With not too much homework and friends busy working on projects that I didn't have, I found myself sitting around my room for hours at a time, goofing off on the internet, watching tv, and being a general vegetable. A couple of entire afternoons drifted by with hardly any work done at all -- and though the first day was fun, by the second day I was hating it. I'm always happiest when I'm busy and productive, with a project to tackle and a story on my mind. With no pressure, I get no results.

If this happens to you, you've simply got to do what I did and set goals for yourself, make projects that can be completed. I vowed to write a certain number of blog posts and to write a certain number of pages of a new story, and to read a certain number of pages of a new book. I sat down and with no distractions, I managed to whip off five handwritten pages of a new story, and to finish reading the lovely Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake in a day. (It was a beautiful novel, by the way). Finally, I felt good again! There's nothing like a wasted day to ruin your mood, I've found, and nothing like good honest creative work to get you cheerful and active again. After that success, I was much more active the next day and walked around campus, visited my hard-at-work friends, and got some errands done. Vegetable no more!

It has been a stressful week, though, and I'm hoping Thanksgiving weekend will be relaxing. There's nothing wrong with a little de-compressing, as long as you can envision your next project on the horizon.