Filling Your Creative Well by Steph Beth Nickel

Photo Credit: City Architecture Countryside - Free photo on Pixabay

The Most Important Well to Fill

As Christians, the most important well to fill is our spiritual well . . . through prayer, the Word, and fellowshipping with other believers (in addition to other spiritual disciplines).

And as stewards of our God-given creativity, it's important that we do our part to keep our creative well full.

Filling Our Creative Well

Below are five disciplines that contribute to the filling of our creative well:1

1. Observing and Developing Relationships with Others: While much of the creative process can be a solitary endeavour, observing others and developing our relationships with family, friends, and other creatives plays a vital role in filling the well. Inspiration is all around us. And when we spend time with other writers, we often come away energized and eager to get back to the page.

2. Interacting with Fellow Writers: Not only does time with our fellow writers energize us, we often gain insights from them, get ideas on how to push past a barrier to completing our WIP, learn about new markets for our work...and so much more. Personally, "talking shop" with even one other writer fills my creative well more than almost anything else.

3. Setting Goals: While some writers will insist that we must write every day, others find it better to set aside a block of time once or twice a week. There are countless factors that make each of our lives unique, and we must find the process that works best for us. When we set a writing goal, we must be willing to adjust it if, after giving it "a fair shake," we are not getting the desired results. Setting goals can be helpful, but beating ourselves up for not achieving those goals can do far more harm than good.

4. Scheduling: Are mornings your most productive time? You may want to get up half an hour earlier and devote that time to writing. Does it work better for you to write in the evening after the house is quiet? Instead of scrolling on your phone or watching one more TV show, you may want to reclaim that time and use it to get the words on paper (or the computer screen). And because life is often in a state of flux, our schedule may need adjusting...often. And that's okay.

5. Gathering Supplies: This may seem unimportant, but for some of us, our favourite pens (in a multitude of colours), a shiny new journal, our favourite scented candle, and instrumental music playing softly in the background can be just what we need. 

Below are three resources I find particularly helpful:

1. Podcasts: Listening to podcasts hosted by fellow writers reinforces and adds to our knowledge of the craft and the business side of writing. Three I listen to are Writing at the Red House hosted by Kathi Lipp, Helping Writers Become Authors hosted by K.M. Weiland, and The Modern Editor hosted by Tara Whitaker.

2. Craft Books: There are a plethora of books I would recommend, including these two that I am currently reading: The Intuitive Author by Tiffany Yates Martin, and Dear Writer, You Still Need to Quit by Becca Syme.

3. Novels: There are several reasons to read novels, among them inspiration, developing a sense of genre expectations, learning to recognize what draws us in and what tempts us to set a book aside. And even if we don't write fiction, a well-written book can motivate us to polish our own work. Plus, reading for pleasure is a great way to spend some of our downtime.

And of course . . .

The Key Component

We can read countless hours each day and add to our knowledge base. We can create an extensive list of goals and schedule multiple writing sessions each week. We can nurture our relationships and people watch for hours. We can gather all our favourite writing implements and set up our personalized creativity corner. We can even join writers' groups (such as the InScribe Christian Writers' Fellowship) and attend virtual and in person writers' conferences.

However . . .

If we don't actually spend time writing, our creative well will never be full. While the disciplines and resources are important, let's never forget to devote adequate time to putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

Note: Each writer must determine what "adequate time" means to them.

Steph Beth Nickel is the former Editor of FellowScript and the current InScribe Contest Coordinator. Steph is an editor and author and plans to relocate to Saskatchewan from Ontario to be close to family in this year or next. (Headshot Photo Credit: Jaime Mellor Photography)