Writers clear space. It’s what we do.
Someone made a joke on Twitter about a cleaning service staffed entirely by writers on deadline.
I get the joke, I laughed, I’m just so bone-weary of the existence of this entire category of “haha procrastination, look we’re procrastinating again” humor which, instead of punching outward towards our distorted culture of guilt and self-recrimination, punches inward, reinforcing the internalized cultural shame around Not Doing and Not Done Yet.
Writers clear space. It’s what we do.
This is not procrastinating, it’s clearing the way to be able to write what is coming in-and-through, but not here yet. Clearing space is one way to welcome in what needs saying.
This is what we do.
Here’s what I want to know.
How are we still agreeing to make ourselves feel bad for Not Doing when we could be dismantling this bullshit nonsense culture that says only Doing has value and anything that doesn’t look like the right kind of doing is a reason to feel embarrassed and publicly apologize for being terrible humans, let’s decide we’ve had enough.
When are we going to change our culture and the air we breathe?
What will it take to stop berating ourselves for [things that look like not doing the thing], and begin to celebrate all the ways that [doing this other thing supports doing the thing] even if maybe it doesn’t look like it on the surface but that’s only because we aren’t used to looking with wise and loving eyes…
The cleaning is for the writing!
When are we going to acknowledge, collectively and individually, that choosing cleaning when we think we are supposed to be writing is not in fact cleaning instead of writing or cleaning to avoid writing. It’s for the writing!
What is cleaning anyway?
We can use our wise loving writer-hearts and thoughtful writer-minds to feel into this question, use it as a writing prompt, let it skip like a stone in the waters of consciousness. What is cleaning?
You are welcome to share what arises for you when you give Writer You (or Artist You or Dancer You or Wise Business Owner You) this question, with clarity and compassion.
I will tell you what I know about cleaning…
It is clearing space for what needs to come in. Clearing out to invite in.
Clearing. Space. For whatever needs to come in.
In a symbolic sense? Sure, but symbolic matters. We’re writers after all.
And we are humans. Making a shift in external space always influences our internal landscape, and the same is true the other way round. In fact, sometimes the best thing we can do for writing-mind is clean.
What is cleaning?
Cleaning is TABULA RASA.
Cleaning is NEW BEGINNINGS.
Cleaning is SORTING OUT AND THROUGH.
Cleaning is a physical way to soothe the mental/emotional/energy craving for that sensation of blank space and open horizon which help us access our most creative selves.
Cleaning is a way to access quiet mind, set a new internal rhythm, our breath changes while we wash dishes.
Guess what, based on EVERYTHING WE KNOW about the creative process, all of this is exactly what facilitates insights and idea-sparks aka getting to the point where we can write what is asking to be written.
So why is our process a forever-punchline?
Because of culture, of course.
And I think, often we mock ourselves preemptively to protect ourselves from pain, we make fun of the cleaning before someone else can, because that’s what people will do, because people are shitty, and people are shitty because culture is shitty, and we end up with an entire world of haha I’m on deadline so look doing X instead of Y.
Let’s change that. Let’s set it all on fire.
No, X is not avoiding Y. I’m doing X for Y, I’m doing X because X supports Y, I’m doing X because the experience of X will make Y more magical, and I trust in my creative process as a human being.
Let’s go beyond letting cleaning be an acceptable door into writing.
Let’s celebrate the cleaning, or whatever it is we are doing while Not-Writing.
Let’s celebrate ourselves for cleaning as part of how we approach our writing.
ANYTHING WE DO TO CLEAR SPACE, INTERNALLY OR EXTERNALLY, FACILITATES THE CREATIVE PROCESS, AND SHOULD BE CELEBRATED INSTEAD OF MOCKED, THE END.
Cleaning instead of writing doesn’t need to be mocked by us, and it definitely doesn’t get to be mocked by others.
Writers clear space. It’s what we do.
It’s how we get to clarity. Clarity is important. And it takes as long as it takes.
Everything we do to support clarity is healing. Giving ourselves spaciousness, permission and compassion is healing. Let’s glow these qualities instead of criticizing ourselves for being in process, when process is everything.
Let’s celebrate process, which is complex, alive and legitimately hard a lot of the time!
The process is vital to the writing.
And — this part is important! — whatever that process looks like, it is valuable because it is process.
The less time we spend making ourselves feel bad about being in process, the sooner we will get clear about either what we want to say, or why it is legitimately hard/scary to say it.
Let’s breathe compassion for process.
Let’s breathe compassion because writing is intimate, vulnerable, challenging, real.
Let’s breathe compassion, and practice the radical subversive act of Wild Self-Treasuring in the form of celebrating everything we do when we aren’t writing, including and especially cleaning!
Footnotes.
- Let pretty much anything stand in for writing. If writing is not your [thing you have a possibly-passionate, possibly-troubled relationship with], substitute painting, lindy hop, embroidery, clogging, whatever fits for you. Sometimes I pretend I’m not a writer too!
- Let pretty much anything stand in for cleaning. Anything we do that looks like not-doing can be in service of the doing, and anyway, not-doing is valuable in its own right.
- Yes, I know we usually talk about punching up vs down, but I think inward/outward makes more sense here.
- The cultural blame/shame around Not Doing is nonsense, let’s stop agreeing to it in all forms.
- We often appear to be avoiding what we feel most strongly about, this isn’t a bad thing, it just means we care, and caring is intense, give us time.
- Let’s end this story about who is a writer, we are writers and we clear space, and we can give ourselves endless cascading sparklepoints for each dish we clean or whatever it is we are doing to support the creative process in any given moment!
- I originally wrote gleaning instead of cleaning, also an excellent clue!
{tl:dr}
Cleaning is a writing strategy and should be celebrated as such.
We are choosing towards our projects, wishes and goals through working on them in this secret, awesome, indirect way, which is a brilliant strategy.
We are choosing towards good things through this ongoing practice of the qualities of curiosity, patience, permission, and internally-directed compassion as we learn to trust our own process.
And everyone else in our lives can support this or be quiet about it, the end.
Share this!
Please share with anyone who needs this reminder or pass this on the next time someone tries to make you feel bad for choosing [cleaning] or anything else instead of [writing] or anything else.
Commenting!
I treasure this incredibly rare thing that we have here in the form of safe online space to play and explore.
We remember that people vary. We meet ourselves and each other with compassion. We are on permanent vacation from advice-giving and care-taking. In other words, this is not like the rest of the internet.
You are welcome/invited to share hearts, sparks sparked for you, anything you want to share on the topic of compassion for our not-writing selves in our periods of not-writing, or about claiming the writer identity with love.
Love, as always, everyone who reads and comments as well as all the Beloved Lurkers and fellow quiet friends, you are all appreciated.
RIGHT like I cannot do the Things when there is Stuff all over my Place so I need to Clean the Things!
(With a hefty side-dish of This Is What Works For Me & if having your Stuff all over your Place is What Works for You then: go on with your bad self!)
I always always always clean before I write. It’s part of the ritual now, not a distraction from, or procrastination or a problem to be solved or overcome. Whew… glad to clear that up. Thanks for your thoughts!
You know what’s wonderful? The fact that I was clearing my email inbox before settling down to a creative project (yes, with a deadline, and guess what, it’s *songwriting*, an especially intense and tender aspect of my creative work in this world) and I found this post waiting for me there. That is wonderful.
Also, * <3 *
Also, co-signed to infinity and beyond. I am 1000% with you in this, and I thank you for the reminder.
Yes, exactly! ? I love this — thank you!!
That would be “exactly!!” …. autocorrect has a mind of its own sometimes… ??
Sadly, these days I’ve often told myself that I don’t have TIME to read these wonderful pieces from Fluent Self. I’ve deleted treasure after treasure of what was (is) undoubtedly extremely thoughtful and nourishing writing. Like being a waiter at some very high-end restaurant and scraping an exquisitely prepared meal that has barely been touched off the plate and into the trash. And every word is FREE! I feel ashamed. This morning I finally “allowed” myself the time to read this (must’ve been given a silent permission slip from the beneficent Great Goddess of Desperately Needed Synchronicity) and tears welled up and started flowing down my cheeks. Such intensely sparkling wisdom here, every word. Just thank you, Havi.
Yes, Yes, YES!! I have been coming to this conclusion myself recently: SO good to hear others say it too! xx
“The cultural blame/shame around Not Doing is nonsense, let’s stop agreeing to it in all forms.”
YES!!
Even teenagers get into a cleaning frenzy when they’re supposed to write a paper or study for an exam, it’s a completely natural part of the Projectizing process, and somehow the dominant culture still doesn’t understand why this “phenomenon” is valuable and needed?
Oh my god I needed exactly this today. I’m on week 3 of Very Big Trip and finally have some space to think and breathe, and my writer brain is pushing me every day to Write More and Be Productive. Meanwhile I am also trying my darnedest to let go of the voice that says that Doing is the only valid way of existing, which is a voice I have obeyed my entire life and that leaves me almost incapable of relaxing. Sharing with everyone in the world, and then, guess what? Going to listen to some music and relax and see if any writing gets sparked!
ANYTHING WE DO TO CLEAR SPACE, INTERNALLY OR EXTERNALLY, FACILITATES THE CREATIVE PROCESS, AND SHOULD BE CELEBRATED INSTEAD OF MOCKED, THE END. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! *******
Sparklefirerocketing in my mind this quote, from this writer’s post. I have chronic fatigue sydrome and basically it involves waiting and pacing myself 90 percent of the time for every energy eating activity I have to do. This year I waited and tilled the soil of inactivity for two month, January and February, in preperation for BIG STUFF in March. Well, this week my BIG STUFF came down to the wire and I had had three days in a row of appointments. This being the third day, the fatigue and exhaustion and sickness and insomnia has overcome me in reaction to expending energy saved up from January and February, and expelled like steam on Monday and Tuesday. I have one more appointment today and thank you for this reminder that I can RESCHEDULE this appointment, WST and sleep the rest of the day, nap , relax, pat myself on the back that I got two or three difficult things done the first two days, and met my basic goals. This third appointment is another long exhausting one and I’ve been up all night from not having any WST space this week so far to myself or any rest. I’ve superstressed and not relaxed, and wired and tired, and need to sleep. So YAY for the SuperPowers of RESCHEDULING and INACTIVITY. Once I reschedule, I will be inactive for the rest of the week, no video game, no cleaning, no chores, no appointments, nothing but naps, grooming, sponge baths, and relaxing God willing. WST all week long from here on out. This will help me recover and get well and then be able to do a good job on the third appointment two weeks from now.
“It’s how we get to clarity. Clarity is important. And it takes as long as it takes.”
Sparklefirerockets all around for this quote and post, Stella Triumphant! And Happy Birthday again <3
4/1/18 – No Fooling!
Clearing. What do I know/feel about clearings?
A clearing in a forest is where deer graze because they can see anything sneaking up on them. There are meadows in clearings.
You fight through the undergrowth and the trees and the dark and damp to the clearing where the sun shines down. You can see the sky and clouds or the stars at night.
The All Is Well (I just now named it.) on my map of imaginary spiritual places is in a clearing.
Because you can see above and around you better in a clearing, you can relax, rest, sit, and smell the meadow flowers.