Making Space for Creativity and Advocacy
When your brain, and the world, won't let you just create.
There is so much I want to write about. There are so many ideas fermenting in my brain, ready to be preserved by the written word. The problem is there are too many. I forget about them, get distracted and instead of adding the proper ingredients to begin the creative process, the ideas instead rot and decay.
The oblong of doom was not what I envisioned for the future.
I’m not alone in this. Many of us feel overwhelmed, burnt out, and honestly, just done with the state of well, everything. We were not meant for 24/7 news updates, for never ceasing group chats, to be available and reachable at all hours, to have the opinions, critiques, hate and bigotry of millions of people condensed inside a handheld computer which is always next to us, flashing and pinging constantly, demanding our attention. The oblong of doom was not what I envisioned for the future as a kid in the 90s.
My mind is often full of ideas jostling for my time and attention, neither of which I have in abundance. As a freelance writer, writing to pay the bills always takes precedence. So when I do finally have time to write creatively, all those ideas begin to tangle, wrestling for dominance, become twisted by my current mood and perceived lack of time and energy. I’m on a deadline. My deadline. Which, is stricter and far harsher than any editor has ever given me.
Then there’s the state of the world. I have so much I want to say and I feel I should use my voice and my privilege. But where to start? This has been easier to reconcile. My writing is mine, and focusing on a creative project in my own time that I’ve been ruminating on for years is okay. I’ve given myself permission to selfishly write without publishing updates, without penning newsletters or curating social media posts.
My advocacy has been grounded in real life actions and mostly on a local level. I donate to worthwhile causes, such as The Good Law Project, I write to my MP and have a meeting set up to speak with them about cuts to disability payments and the erosion of trans rights. I make a difference in my community each week, through my work at a community café. Quiet advocacy, as I like to call it, rests in the real life conversations I have with people. It’s about learning from each other, offering advice when I can, and knowing where I can point them for support if my knowledge or experience is lacking. I speak candidly with friends, family and acquaintances about the issues I’m passionate about. I approach these conversations wanting to inform and educate, rather than dismissing their point of view or going straight on the offensive.
If you want to help, you want to advocate for a cause, show up and do the work.
Growing up in the church, (which I left aged 12), I quickly realised the ones shouting the loudest about how much they care, how giving and charitable they are, are usually the ones doing the least. Or it’s all performative, all for the sake of showing others they are good. If you want to help, you want to advocate for a cause, show up and do the work. A pretty slideshow made on canva on your social media page is not enough. Saying you support and stand with (insert marginalised group here) on social media and thinking you’ve made a difference - sorry to break it to you, but you’ve done fuck all. Show up in the real world for other people. There is no excuse for apathy. Exclaiming you feel hopeless and you don’t know how to help isn’t a reason either. If you don’t know, ask. You have the entire world in your hand, so, instead of doomscrolling, reach out to advocates, to charities and organisations. Read the information they provide. It’s all out there, you just need to look.
I want to write more, and I will, but to my own timetable. I am, and have been dealing with a complex and changing personal life. I continue to manage bipolar disorder, a never ending balancing act which I’ve got just about right for the past few years. I unequivocally do not want that to change. And I’ve been taking hormones for nearly a year which has given me the wonderful gifts of gender euphoria as I’ve noticed subtle changes to my body, but also the less incredible feeling of hormones making me feel like an adolescent going through puberty again.
We’re all striving to live a happy, contented life in the face of capitalist culture which determines value through our wealth and productivity. Don’t let that oblong of doom paralyse you into inaction and a life of nothing but drudgery. So, continue to write and create regardless of whether that art can be monetised. Speak out and act on causes you care about.