Leveling Up

metteivieharrison:

If you feel frustrated with your writing or creative life, and find yourself saying things like “I’m ready to give up” or “I don’t want to do this anymore” or “I hate everything I write these days” or “I’ve said everything I have to say,” consider that instead of being finished, you are actually subconsciously doing some very important work in preparation for a grand “leveling up” in a creative way.

As creatives, we often hit plateaus and while some are perfectly happy doing the same thing, most of us aren’t. The same critical edge that enables you to get better and to learn from the mistakes of others, also makes you unhappy with what once satisfied you creatively. You may need to try a new genre, a new age group target, poetry, screenplay, knitting or sculpting. Doing something else isn’t necessarily the same as giving up. For many of us, it’s a new way to get at the creative impulse and express it in a different way.

So if you think you’re ready to give up, consider that you might actually be ready to level up. It might take a few months or a few years, but you may end up doing something completely different and amazing, something you never thought you could do before. And all that frustration is really just energy that your subconscious is waiting to put to use.

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