I haven’t picked up a paintbrush in a while.

I’m starting to realize (or at least accept) that my creativity goes through phases: writing, painting, building weird websites, homebrewing RPG campaigns…

Sometimes–and this is kind of distressing when it happens–the phases don’t include much creativity at all. I get stuck organizing my digital folders and files for hours. Days, even. I craft the most beautiful schedules and excel sheets you’ve ever seen (not that I follow any of them for long, but damn, doing it makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something). On those days, I worry that my creative side has simply dissipated into nothingness.

However, one of the very best ways to prompt myself to get back into one project is to be almost finished with another one.

My first full-length novel is in the FINAL DRAFT stage and I’ve promised myself that I’ll have it DONE by the end of this year! Yes! A lifetime milestone for me…I’ll be able to say that I’ve actually finished a huge literary project!

But wait…what’s all that stuff over there?

Why, it’s my stack of stalled works-in-progress in the corner of the art studio! I’ve been ignoring them for far too long. Oh, I suddenly know what that one needs. And this one would look great if I stuck this dead bug to it.

I should pull them all out RIGHT NOW and get back into hands-on-mess-making! Colors! Shapes! Textures! Dead bugs! I AM AN ARTIST AGAIN!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the novel. I’ll get to it. I just have to figure out how to smooth out that one clunky plot point and I don’t feel like thinking about it right now.

The important thing in all this is that I’m learning that this is just how I work, and I’m learning to work with the way I work instead of berating myself for not working the “right” way. Just because I’ve been writing for months on end doesn’t mean that I’m not still an artist, and sometimes those damn file folders NEED to be organized better.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to over the past few days. My art is always a collaboration between me and the work itself, and I’m excited to find out where these want to go.