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The Seasons of our Creativity

Does the change of season affect your creativity?  

A friend of mine recently lamented about her creative slump. “All summer I was headstrong into my novel first thing in the morning. But come September, my energy tanked.”

There are studies to support that seasonal changes influence our creative minds and hearts. One suggests that the warmth of summer may make people more relationally creative and experimental.

The winter, on the other hand, may inspire more introspection and abstract thinking. 

Artists are sensitive to the rhythms and cycles of nature. We pick up on sensory cues of the season—sounds, textures, smells, light. Notice how much of seasonal change involves light—its intensity, color, slant, and warmth?

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.  ~Jim Bishop

It is not only the change in light and weather that impacts us, but the associations we carry with each season. Maybe you feel blue during the December holidays, while others are nostalgic or joyful.

Certain months of the year can stir bad memories or sadness around a particular loss. That’s November for me.

As a writer, I find I’m most creative in the summer time when I’m more relaxed. But because I want to be out doing summer-like things, I’m less productive.

In winter, I’m a hibernator, so this leads to more productivity as I spend more time inside at my desk.

Fall invites reflection and new beginnings with the start of school and the Jewish New Year.  

Like the seasons, our creativity ebbs and flows.

The ways in which this change impacts your mind, body, and heart will be unique to you.

As someone who is very sensitive to the seasonal changes, I have developed strategies to align my creative work with these fluctuations.  For example, since I suffer from *Seasonal Affective Disorder, Winter is the time I seek opportunities to commune with other creatives in a warmer climate.  I’ve been fortunate to attend writing workshops in Key West and St. Petersburg, Florida. 

We all have seasons in our life: new jobs, becoming parents, empty-nesting. Seasons of sickness. Seasons of relentless caregiving. Losing a parent. These times affect our productivity and our motivation.

Sometimes we have to surrender to the season and lower the bar for ourselves.

Consider the writer/editor Kendra Levin‘s sage advice:

In the life of any given writing project, we will go through seasons: Periods of germination, creativity, reaping…and lying fallow. We cycle through these phases of letting an idea bubble beneath the surface, drafting it onto the page, molding that first effort….and taking a break from it, to get the clarity and perspective that sometimes only distance can provide.  ~The Hero Is You

Our creative output does not take a linear path. And that’s okay.

Recognizing your own response to seasonal changes, can help you work more efficiently in any of your pursuits. Planning around your ebbs and flows can help build creative resilience.

The Spanish-American philosopher and poet George Santayana (1863-1952) wrote:


“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”

Santayana invites us to view change with curiosity. To let go of our infatuations.

Buddhism echoes this through the concept of impermanence. We cling to the past, to youth, to a lost lover, to a happier time. Such attachments lead to suffering. By releasing our hold on transient times, and accepting inevitable change, we become more appreciative of the present.

We can then embrace the beauty, gifts, and lessons of each season.

Is there a time of year when you feel more driven to embark on creative projects?

*Check out my tips for Beating Winter Blues

Don’t Give Up On Our Country!

The masks are off. Trump, MAGA Republicans, and their billionaire donors have given up on even pretending to govern for the people and are solely looking to line their own pockets and consolidate power.

We’re in a period of what the experts call “authoritarian breakthrough” –– a short period where a would-be authoritarian sprints to rapidly concentrate and consolidate their power while eroding the norms and institutions that could serve as checks on that power.

We’re witnessing this in real time through lawless executive orders, willful disregard for the courts, and vicious attacks on higher education, media, and state governments — and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

They are working to consolidate their power and bully everyone else — businesses, media institutions, universities, law firms, and civil society — into submission. 

How do we fight back?

They want us to believe that power in America comes from the top down. That Trump can simply declare himself a dictator, and everyone has to fall in line. That he’ll inevitably win.

But that’s a lie. Power isn’t top-down — it’s bottom-up. Power flows up from the people; through the organizations, institutions, and communities that support the regime; and then to the regime itself. Think of it like a house — the roof is the regime, the pillars holding up that roof are the organizations, and the foundation is the people.  

To prevent a slide into authoritarianism, we have to take on the pillars that hold up the roof.

Let’s build a force bigger than fear and louder than hate. Let’s get ready. Let’s get organized. 

JOIN ONE MILLION RISING

How to Resist the Ugliness Surrounding Us

In the midst of the dark days of our dying democracy, I continue my morning practice of beginning the day in beauty.

I read a poem. View a lovely painting. Listen to uplifting music. Delight in photos of my innocent grandchildren. 

This provides a buffer before the morning headlines, before the latest chaos report from D.C. 

When the Roman stoic, Marcus Aurelius, wrote in his Meditations:  “Dwell on Beauty,” I think he meant more than just notice beauty around us.  Rather, he was urging us to surround ourselves with beauty, to pay attention, to live in it.

Beauty transcends.

“Transcendent Moments” by Marquin Cambell

This ancient advice never grows old.  The practice of dwelling on beauty can serve as an antidote to the ugliness of our time. 

Bullying. Denigration. Cruelty. Autocracy. Selfishness. Betrayal. Xenophobia. Racism. Hatred. Chaos. Violence. Unlawfulness. Lies. Polarization. Discrimination. Tyranny. Biogtry. Intimidation. Fascism. 

I admit this is not an easy practice.

It’s easier to fall into despair. 

Easy to get sucked into the vortex of vitriol.  

Yet, we cannot afford to crawl into our protective holes.

Now, more than ever—more than 2016—we cannot resign ourselves to defeat.

I invite you to join me and millions others in the Opposition. 

“Local groups build and wield power in ways that individuals can’t. To create change, you need the power that comes with working together.” INDIVISIBLE.ORG

“The Washington Democratic Party continues to fail to grasp that the raw material of a powerful Opposition has already emerged, and that it is waiting to built into something new and powerful.” ~ Simon Rosenberg THE HOPIUM CHRONICLES

We need to guard our hearts so we do not become hardened like the self-appointed mad king and his co-conspirators.

 In November 6,  I wrote about the power of words and art to uplift.  Pledge to begin your day in beauty. Share your delights with others.

Then rise up with courage and commitment for change. 

The road is long. Let’s travel together.


Turning to Poetry in Troubled Times

Whatever you are thinking, feeling this November 6th morning, I wish you both solace and hope today as we march forward into the unknown. Let’s do it together, with the power of words and art to uplift.

 “The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry (1968)

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

From The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Counterpoint, 1999)

Join my Sept. Virtual Writing Workshop!

Calling creative writers of fiction, memoir, and essays. I’m teaching a 4 week, virtual workshop beginning Tues. Sept. 10, 7-8pm EST.

Each week, we’ll dive into the essential elements of great storytelling and explore ways to increase narrative power through a particular aspect of craft such as: sensory description, attention to detail, point-of-view, and economy of language.

Workshops are interactive and led through a guided slide presentation. Participants will have the chance to ask questions and share prompt responses throughout the hour. Each class will end with a weekly writing challenge.

Resources and additional readings related to the workshop theme will be offered.

After attending all 4 weeks, you may submit up to 2 pages of prose afterwards to receive an individual written critique.

All levels of writers are welcome. 

Details and registration through this Community Education site.

Hope to see you there!

Evelyn