A Creative Life to Support a Literary One

My new creative vision, how I uncovered it, and where it's taking me next

Once upon a time, a young woman was a year of out of the university bubble, and she was trying to get used to her new office 9-5 existence.

It was uncomfortable, and she kept feeling like something was missing.

Finally, she realised what it was. It was creativity.

She, the bookworm who had written novel drafts as a student, she could see how time would slip by in busy weeks of commutes and work and making dinner and Netflix and bed and more commutes. Yes, she did read. Yes, she wrote a little. But not like she wanted to.

It was so easy for all of the things she valued to not get prioritised.

The young woman decided to do something about it. She started a blog, she set up reading goals, she made time for writing fiction. She created a support system for her most valued hobbies to not slip through the cracks again.

Now, 8 years on, a business and a career change later, things are different. But I’ve come to realise that this, actually, is the creative life I want to get back to.

A return to how things used to feel

In my post last week, I wrote about my longing for a new creative vision. I’ve been itching for a little bit more structure, an idea about what I want to my creative life to be, and surrounding it with cosy habits to support that idea.

I spent the last days of my summer vacation with my creativity, slowly starting to untangle what a new vision might look like.

It was tricky at first. But as the days went on, I was simply having a marvellous time. I was reading a lot. I pondered why I want to write fiction. I put up new shelves to create a reading nook and made an Instagram reel of the process.

elin.loow

A post shared by @elin.loow

And I noticed something.

Things felt like they used to in my creativity.

I felt like I was back in 2018-2019, before I started coaching, before the Youtube era, before I introduced a business to my creative life, before I completed my (unpublished) novel.

From my Instagram in 2018

This was a time of blogging about creativity, working on my fiction project, reading and taking photos of books and sharing them on Instagram. Much of my creative life revolved around books.

From my Instagram in 2019

Since pivoting away from running a business, there are two things I’ve tried to do in my creative life:

1. Break out of my reading slump.

2. Get started with a new novel project.

Both my reading and fiction writing suffered when my creative life became focused on running a business. The creative support system I had put in place shifted to other endeavours.

With writing fiction, I knew it would get put on the backburner for a while. But I didn’t realise the same would happen with my reading. If anything, I thought I would read more. I had forgotten how much my creative life had actually focused on my reading as well, how tied it had been to books.

Now, I’ve come some way in bringing reading and writing fiction back into focus this year, but not quite with the intensity and passion I long for.

Thinking back to how I used to do things around 2018/2019, I understand how much my creative life had been designed for just that - for nurturing, supporting and inspiring both my reading and fiction writing. And in the last days of my summer vacation, I knew that yes, there it is. That’s my vision.

Revisiting my why

Realising how my vision was changing, I decided to revisit my why. I’ve regularly defined my shifting and evolving creative purpose for a couple of years now, and I last explored it two years ago. Back then, I was just about to start a 20 hour position as a content writer, and I was running my creative coaching business the other half of the week.

The why I identified then was to build creative lives that are good on the inside. It tied together my fascination with the creative process, the behind the scenes messy middle perspective I’ve always had on creativity, and how I supported creatives.

It gave name to this Substack - The Good Creative Life. And it’s largely the theme I’ve written about, an ever evolving quest to live and build a creative life that feels good on the inside.

When I decided to put my writing first and leave my creative coaching self behind, I rebranded myself to being a writer endlessly fascinated by the creative process. And I am a writer endlessly fascinated by the creative process. But sitting with my new vision, it’s clear that I’m not just that. I’m not just a writer who writes about creativity. I’m not just my former focus, with the coaching extracted and the writing added in its stead.

This reflecting, introspecting and writing about creativity has become an integral part of my creative process. And that’s what it is - it’s my process. No longer my why.

So, what is my why now? Why do I want a creative life filled with reading and writing fiction?

A literary creative life

I’ve thought a lot about why books are so important to me. Why I care about how much I read and which books I read. Why I actually want to write fiction, even if I spend much of my work week writing. And it’s (ironically) difficult to put into words.

It’s not just that I enjoy it, although I do.
It’s not just about understanding the art of fiction, although I’d like that too.
It’s not just that I want to read a lot and get published, although I do want that.

It’s also not that I simply “have to”, like some authors describe their urge to write. I’ve had periods of not writing any fiction and reading much less. I’ve survived them.

It’s more that life would be a little poorer without books. It’s like literature adds a layer to existence that I don’t want to be without.

And my reading and writing are so intertwined. One inspires and informs the other, in a lovely literary symbiosis.

So, what is my why now? Well, I think it’s this:

I want to live a life that is filled with literature. Because, well, that’s who am and that’s the life I want to live.

And it’s easy to NOT live a life like that. It’s so much easier to scroll than read a classic on my morning commute. So much easier to watch the latest Netflix show instead of working on a scene for a novel.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.

Some things you care about, you have to be very diligent about making sure remains a part of your life. That they become prioritised, even when prioritising them isn’t the easiest way of living. That’s what I learned back in 2015, and that’s what I’m learning again.

My new vision

So what does all of this mean, then? Well, it means that my vision is:

A creative life that nourishes, supports and inspires my love of literature.

My creative life will have three clear areas:

1. Working on fiction projects. Writing fiction, plotting and planning, developing writing habits and learning more about the craft of writing fiction.

2. Reading and bookish inspiration. Reading books, thinking about books, revelling in all the cosy reading habits and taking bookish photos for my Instagram.

3. A creative process of mindful reflections. This the role of writing my Substack, journaling, tarot, seasonal planning and delighting in putting stickers in my planner.

It feels like such a treat to bring back books and reading into my creative vision. Even more than before, it makes my creative life feel like my own cosy hobby.

To sit and read in my little reading nook will be part of my creative life. Even if I’ve had a long work week and am too tired for writing, I have an activity I feel is part of my creative life, yet is undemanding and cosy. I really like that.

A literary brand refresh

Always when my creative vision shifts, I get the strong urge for a little website refresh to reflect where I’m heading. It’s like getting a haircut or buying a new notebook.

So that’s what I did. I began by making an inspiration board on Pinterest, and besides books, journals and writing, what came up was a mindful, slightly more documentary style.

Screenshot of my Pinterest board

I identified three style keywords: Pensive, Literary and Documenting.

With these keywords and my new vision in mind, I started to redesign my homepage. I tweaked my photo editing a little and I decided to add a handwritten font, as I feel this adds to the association with writing.

You’re welcome to take a look at my freshly updated website, but here’s a little preview.

This work of redefining my creative vision and brand refresh has resulted in the pleasant side-effect of me being genuinely inspired to take photos and post on Instagram for the first time in very long.

Ever since I shifted my Instagram account more towards that of supporting a creative business, I’ve struggled with my motivation to post. Instagram became a tool, and not a particularly fun one.

The era when books and a slow, cosy lifestyle dominated my account was the time when I had the most fun on Instagram. It was so very unserious, yet delightful and inspiring. I’m looking forward to once again having fun with my photography and having a visual vision of what I want my account to look like. It feels like play.

So, what does this mean for my Substack?

Not a whole lot. I still intend to write about a good creative life. I’ll still reflect about the creative process here. I’ll write about the attempt to revitalise my fiction writing. Now and then, I’ll do a post about books I read and the thoughts they make me think.

Most of all, this new vision means I’m bringing back something I’ve always loved, that I’ve always wanted to exist in my creative life.

I’m coming home to where it all started: to literature. To books. To writing them.