I’ve been hiding something from you. And I admit, I’ve been a bit ashamed, not sure how my audience would receive it, and yet what I’ve been hiding has been screaming inside me to be let out, that I’ve seen all sides of the publishing industry and it’s simply something we’re not talking about.
Energy.
On some level this is about balancing writing and everything else that goes with being an author, personal energy management, and our own personal mental and physical energy. And yet, it’s something more.
Creativity has its own energy. There’s a vibe, and while a lot of business and productivity people call it the “zone of genius” or “flow state”, it’s more than that. It’s a vibration, a way of being that comes from deep inside where the words flow and we’re typing or dictating or writing by hand almost as fast as we can because the words are pouring to get out. For me, as a Reiki master, it reminds me a lot of how I feel when I’m giving a reiki treatment to myself or to someone else when the energy pours through me from the universe and goes where it’s needed.
Creativity is like that. Except in this case the energy drives the words and the words go where they’re needed. They flow how they need to flow. And the story, or the blog post, or the newsletter gets written.
I was originally going to title this blog about refusing to be shallow anymore, but I realized that probably wasn’t the right framing. And while I could, and will, talk about how this energy ties into our creative nervous systems, the truth is that would be getting too technical too quickly.
I can’t hide the energy anymore. I can’t hide the deeply truly rich spiritual nature of what being a storyteller means. Of writing stories because you have to, because the worlds and the characters and the plot comes from some place within and yet beyond you, and demands to be told.
Do you feel that too?
For me it was like a switch that got flipped. When I stopped thinking about writing as something I HAD to do and my daily word count as something I MUST do for a business sense because all the gurus talked about rapid release and how many books. When I actually quit worrying about what happened if I got stuck writing a single genre for the rest of my writing life (For me that would be a nightmare. My brain doesn’t work that way.) and instead wrote what moved me, what fed my soul, I realized that my writing is much more than a form of care and a bulwark against the too dark and too rough edges of this world right now.
It was a calling, and helping authors like me, who yes, want to make money with their writing, but do it in a way that doesn’t compromise their values or their beliefs, or in a way that feels icky, but in a way that feeds their soul … that’s the kind of energy I’m talking about. Because let’s be honest, if someone is talking to you about career balance or writing to prevent burnout, but they’re using the same old capitalist scarcity over production ways of doing it, then they’re selling you the same old thing, and you deserve better. That’s what honoring the energy is about. That’s what leaning into your own energy is all about.
I’m done writing shallow, of treating my writing like a capitalist business that has no soul and no heart and certainly no empathy. I’m done ignoring the energy, my own, which for me includes the energy work I do, and yeah I won’t lie, I send reiki to my writing projects because that’s part of who I am, Instead, I’m leaning into the energy of my creativity. And I’m learning to go with the flow.
Curious about what your creative nervous system type is? Take our free quiz. Learning what your creative nervous system type is will help you determine the best way to find balance and stay inspired.