Life Getting in the Way of Creativity? My Mid-Year Check-In on Living a Creative Life

After all, what is the creative life but a series of resets, tinkering, adjusting, and the continual pursuit of curiosity?

“Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.” – Austin Kleon

We’re 211 days into 2025. That’s just about 58% of the way through the year.

Transparently, I’m not where I thought I would be– certainly not where I wanted to be– in my creative processes by this point in the year.

It’s been a year of stops and starts, drafting and redrafting, and then more stops and starts.

This is true across several of my creative pursuits. Getting my novel’s manuscript into a state I’m happy with, staying consistent with my podcasting and newsletter writing, and even reading on a consistent basis have all felt like uphill battles. These are things I love and enjoy, yet struggle to adhere to.

When I sat down to write this particular newsletter, I hesitated. There was this uncomfortable feeling in my gut that admitting that I have been struggling to perform creative acts would expose me as a fraud– as just another corporate tech bro who pretends to have a soul. But, as my therapist would say (hey, Necole!), that’s just the narrative that I’m telling myself in the moment, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true or complete.

In reality, the more time I spend among creatives, the more I realize that the struggles of living a creative life in the modern world are shared ones. Writers who have a flawless commitment to their craft, showing up in the same place at the same time every day to write, while admirable and aspirational, are the exception, not the rule. The rest of us are slogging through the muck and messiness of human life, struggling against the odds to cling to and celebrate art despite the pressures and fractured attention that precipitate from work and family obligations and having the audacity to try also squeeze in a gym routine and a social life.

Despite my efforts feeling constrained and fractured, I still find myself clinging to aspirations of a more creative life. I can envision what I wish to get out of my creativity and start to put form to it, even if those goals are still a good ways away across a field of hard work, concerted effort, and the continual pursuit of learning.

In the last issue of the newsletter, I spoke about evolving my book selling efforts to make things simpler and easier to manage, even if it’s less profitable. I’ve since done that and am feeling great about it. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Having a streamlined (uh oh, soulless corporate bro-speak alert!) bookselling process is only one piece of the puzzle. Here are some of the others:

I Want a Podcast Co-Host

Talking to myself on a microphone is exhausting, and in an upcoming episode of the podcast, I talk quite a bit about all the behind the scenes work that takes away from the fundamental part of discussing creativity and writing that I really enjoy.

The current model of scouting for podcast guests, writing outreach emails, planning the conversation and questions, interviewing and recording, and then finally coming up with the show notes and description details is more than I can realistically sustain at this time. Plus, it’s a model that I’m not fully in love with.

What I would love to do moving forward is have a podcast cohost who I can converse with about our individual creative processes, journeys, and questions. I envision a sort of creative co-coaching session that we record and share out so that other writers can learn from our progress, missteps, and the lessons we learn along the way.

(If you think you’d be a good cohost for a show like that, reach out!)

I Want to Start a Writing Support Group (and Maybe Book Club)

This is another one I’ve been noodling on for a while.

Earlier this year (or was it last year? Time is weird and confusing), I attempted to launch a writers’ book club. My goal was to do a new book every other month, and I started with Lisa Cron’s Story Genius.

I ran ads on Facebook and Instagram for about a month leading up to the bookshop, and spent a bit over $450 in the process. About 10 people signed up with a $35 registration fee, meaning I was in the negative money-wise, but I didn’t mind– it was a start and felt like something I could build momentum with.

Until the book club actually started. In the first session, two people out of the ten who registered showed up on Zoom. One left as soon as I asked folks to briefly introduce themselves so we could get to know each other. The other was a trooper. He stayed for the first two sessions when it was just him and I, but had something come up and couldn’t make it to the third session.

The first book club was a flop. But I still feel like there’s something there. Writers need support from other writers. Reading and responding to new ideas, and having our assumptions challenged and refined, is how we hone our craft and sense of taste.

In retrospect, perhaps I should have kept pushing on those 10 who originally signed up. More following up and diversifying my offerings and whatnot. Maybe then I could have grown that effort into a functioning writing support group, but at the time, I was exhausted and demoralized. Literary icon Lady Gaga once said something along the lines of how she plays every stadium show like it’s in a dive bar and every dive bar like it’s a stadium. The one-person book club was my dive bar moment, and I went into it like I was playing a stadium. I poured a lot of hard work into that effort, and it simply didn’t pay off.

I don’t regret it. Hard work for a good cause is seldom regretted. But I did come out on the other side of it thinking, “yeah… I’m ready to not do that again.”

So, then, if I’m not going to do that again, what will I do? I still want to bring writers together and to invest time and energy there, but what I do moving forward will have to take a different shape. It will have to be something that feels more sustainable and that has better buy-in. As much as I had hoped a $35 commitment would keep folks on the hook for their own involvement, that approach didn’t pan out. I’ll do what I always do– reflect, rally, and try something else.

The Obvious One: I Want to Write More

Amidst everything else going on this year, my own writing has fallen a bit by the wayside. When it comes to my writing, I go through these cycles where I’m extremely excited about a project, dive in, realize the story has some major flaws, and then lose all momentum.

The classic writing advice would be to create a routine– a ritual– and stick to it, even when I’m not “feeling it” about my writing. And I think there’s truth in that. I should show up and write even when I’m not in the mood, and that is something I’m working on.

But deeper than that, I think I need to get more comfortable with slowing down and doing pre-writing and planning for my manuscripts. If I spent more time understanding my characters, the story I’m telling, and how the plot puzzle pieces all fit together, I suspect that sense of not having a clear sense of where the narrative is going would start to unwind a bit.

I’ve got my spooky Appalachian-inspired fantasy manuscript that I’ve been wrestling with for the majority of the year more or less fully outlined at this point. That means I’ve abandoned the hundred or so pages I’ve already written of the previous draft, but having the outline and major story beats ready to run with does help me have a sense of direction. At times, it’s odd. I feel like past Blake has locked present Blake into decisions present and future Blake wouldn’t have necessarily made about the narrative, but rather than pantsing it and going with what I feel in the moment, I take a pause and consider how the changes I’m thinking through would have a domino effect on the other parts of the narrative.

That’s good. Probably.

Considering myself a fairly slow writer, I’m not going to set an ambitious goal for myself like “have a complete draft by the end of the year.” Hell, it’s already August, which means it’s practically September, which means it’s basically Q4, which means it’s essentially already 2026. But, I do want to push myself by having a draft done by my birthday next May.

Here’s to Renewed Creativity for the Rest of the Year

How are you feeling about your creative ambitions? Are you living in a way that your actions reflect your goals? Or, are there ways that you can realign and try again?

Remember, it’s not about how many times the horse bucks you off. It’s how many times you get back in the saddle.

If you’re like me and just hashtag not feeling it TM, it’s a good time to take a beat and consider what’s important to you and where you’re currently living in a way that’s not aligned with those values. Feel free to reach out if you want to vent or bounce ideas around about how to change things up and try something new.

Cheers.

-Blake