The artist’s calling can be a helpful muse when she yells, but sometimes she whispers and it’s hard to hear her suggestions.
Seasonal shifts can bring creative chaos. In spring my own projects move from inside to outdoors. Painting by the fire is replaced by working in the garden. As weather changes more humidity makes for longer paint dry times. The light shifts. South windows are now too bright to work beside, but it also means that whatever needs to be done in the open air can now be achieved. Some seasons I feel ready for the change, but others panicked at what’s left unfinished.
Learning to settle one project in order to begin the next is an important piece of the creative process, and it isn’t always a smooth transition. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of a writing. It might feel incomplete, maybe good enough or just time to move on. Hard decisions to make, but just like seasons change, movement on your creative work is necessary.
I think most creative people have a sense that calls them into a project, and that sensibility can tell them their work is done, too. In spring summer birds know to return even though they may have to weather the final winter storms, because it is the right time. It may be difficult to listen for the shift, and then assess the finality of your project. You may feel sad to let go or happy at the coming change for new projects.
How do you know when to move on? Birds follow their seasonal instincts so they know which gear to shift into, and you can, too.
Feeling completion, failure, disappointment, satisfaction, emptiness, balance or lack of it can all be clues a creative project is ready to shift into its next season. Take the time to notice your inner callings. Where does your current work fit it? Using this information decide where you want to be with your creative projects now. Then gear up making the best seasonal shifts for your creativity.
Sandy Nelson is a contributing blogger for JenningsWire.
The online feature magazine, JenningsWire.com, is created by National PR Firm, Annie Jennings PR that specializes in providing book promotion services to self-published and traditionally published authors. Annie Jennings PR books authors, speakers and experts on major high impact radio talk interview shows, on local, regionally syndicated and national TV shows and on influential online media outlets and in prestigious print magazines and newspapers across the country.
