When your creativity takes a beating

It's okay to pause and wait for the words to make sense.

Welcome. Nest is a home for writers and creatives. A place where we honour creativity and curiosity, and where creative souls find their voice. Our focus is on writing, but everyone’s welcome. Come join me as we learn how to navigate the world as writers and creatives in a way that reflects our values, goals, and lives.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote here. Actually, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written at all. I’ll be honest. I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment.

I wrote last year how it feels like we are on a precipice of change. A point in history that will be discussed, dissected and analysed in decades and centuries to come. Like we analyse the industrial revolution or the world wars. But today, we’re not removed from what’s happening by time, we’re in it. Right here. Right now.

I don’t think we’re tipping on the precipice anymore, but rather we’ve stumbled over the edge, and are hanging on for dear life.

Where do you even start to think about what is happening right now?

Do you think about things on a global scale like politics, wars, recessions and global turmoil? Or a more personal scale, such as cost of living, the fuel crisis, homelessness and job security?

Do you think about technology, social media, the tech-oligarchy, and AI in all its forms?

Do you think about the what the future is for our children, grandchildren and generations to come? Or pine for a past where the world seemed both small and big, talked to our neighbours and stayed out till the street lights came on without a care in the world?

It’s a lot.

And when things are a lot, it messes with our creativity.

Creativity is born of curiosity, exploration, and what ifs. It allows us to run free, helps us escape, and allows us to unpick things.

But when the world is a lot, when our heads are full of anxiety and concern it’s hard to think freely. It’s hard not to be consumed by it all. To have no words. Or to have too many words that are confused and jumbled and don’t form coherent sentences.

So if you’re finding it hard to write, you’re not alone. If you’re finding you have nothing to say, or too much to say but no words to say it, it’s okay.

Or maybe writing has been the only way you can express the thoughts in your head as you spew them onto the page to help you make sense of things that can’t be made sense of. That’s okay too.

Be patient with yourself. Be kind.

The words will come.