Don’t underestimate the importance your environment has on your art. That isn’t just the place where you create, it’s where you live, where you work, anywhere and everywhere you spend your time is your environment and it has an effect. If your environment is inadequate, it will impact your creativity and it’s crucial that, where you can improve it to fit your needs, you do.
To write well, some writers (and artists of all kinds, of course, as so much of this is applicable to different forms of creation) need a very specific kind of environment; they might need certain music, certain views, certain tasks completed beforehand, certain candles lit. To maximise the flow of their creativity, they need to set up their environment in a way that’s the most beneficial for them. It might be that you need something less specific but whatever your needs might be, setting up your environment to your needs is how you ensure you have a productive and worthwhile creative session.
And your environment stretches beyond just the physical, it’s how you are mentally, it’s your relationships, it’s the chore list you’ve got in the back of your mind. Your environment includes absolutely everything around and within you. So whether your checklist of what you need is enormous or incredibly short, the other parts of your environment play their part in your ability to create and so it’s important that each environment that surrounds you is well-maintained.
For me, my specific environment needs aren’t very many, but they are necessary to ensure I can get the most out of the time I’ve given myself to write; I need some sort of background noise, usually YouTube videos (silence and often music just don’t work for me); I need to know precisely (or sometimes imprecisely) what I’ll be dedicating myself to (if I go in and just tell myself that I’m going to write and not focus on a specific project, I’ll get distracted by all the different things I could write and end up not making any progress at all); if there are chores or tasks that can be completed, they absolutely need to be done (I find it very difficult to concentrate if there are things that need doing that I could do, I can’t settle into something unless everything else is finished). Once I’m concentrating, I can concentrate continuously, but getting there isn’t always the simplest thing. You might agree or you might find it much easier to settle down and get to work, needing less criteria met to start writing.
As I said before, however, your environment is more than just the specific location where you write and, earlier this year, part of my environment was severely inadequate, and it was a big one: work. Whilst I’m not yet an author full-time, work is a big part of my life, as it is for a lot of people, and having a work environment that is draining or unhealthy is so detrimental for your creativity. As it takes up so much of your day, if it’s a place that impacts you negatively, it’s something that can be very tough to leave behind, making it difficult to focus on your writing or creating.
For me, I found it tough to be productive away from work because I was drained by putting so many hours into a place that impacted me so harshly. It was as though, subconsciously, I needed to make the most of my freedom away from work and even something I enjoyed, like writing, took more energy than I had to give. Even when I did have the time following a workday or workweek, I found it difficult to concentrate on a manuscript or research because I had this dread about returning to work in the back of my mind, an almost constant countdown to when I’d be forced to endure more hours at a place I had come to despise; a bad environment, whether it’s work, home or something else entirely, it’s consuming and it severely detracts from your creativity.
For a lot of people, tragic though it is, work is a poor environment. From the work itself not being enjoyable, the workplace being difficult with perhaps a troublesome commute, or even the colleagues being people you have terse relationships with, there are lots of reasons that work can be an environment that is challenging. So much of so many of our days is taken up with work, so when it’s a place that troubles you, that’s a lot of your life dedicated to a space that negatively impacts you.
For me, the only solution was to find a new workplace, somewhere that I didn’t dread going to five days a week and one that afforded me the mental capacity to continue working creatively outside of the office. It was something I was able to manage and I am much, much happier now compared to where I was a few months ago, but unfortunately that’s not something that’s possible for everyone. If you are unable to rectify your environment for whatever reason, it’s key that you find your freedoms in your other environments. I can attest entirely to the fact that that isn’t always the easiest thing to do, whether that’s because work is so continuously draining or because multiple environments aren’t spaces that fulfil you the way you need them to. But there will be opportunities to cater your environment to your needs, whether they’re fleeting or not, and it’s about taking advantage of those opportunities and trying to look towards the future, not being stuck in the present.
If it’s your work environment that drains you, you have to take advantage of your time off, carving a space out for you where you try your hardest to relax into the time that is truly yours. Forcing yourself to relax is obviously counterintuitive, but the way I tried to manage it myself was trying to think about it this way: ‘I might be exhausted and dreading work tomorrow, but if I can find an hour or two to work on this particular manuscript, I’ll be an hour or two closer to the day where I can make the transition from having to work in a place that doesn’t fulfil me into the world where I can be an author full time’. An hour or two here and there might not sound like a lot, but it is pushing you forward. You might wish for more time to push yourself closer to your goals (we all would, ultimately), but even small steps get you there, and that’s sometimes the only way to convince yourself to get in front of a computer or notebook or sketchpad even when you’d like nothing more than to melt away in front of the TV.
If you have a home environment that isn’t particularly conducive to creative freedom, again, you have to carve out time that’s yours, find space for you to embrace your creativity. Perhaps that means going to a library or another neutral space that will be better for you. It might be a struggle some days, but if that’s the only way for you to find a more helpful environment, you have to encourage yourself to do it; oftentimes as creatives, you have to be your own motivator because, ultimately, no one else is going to do this work for you.
If there are other things that are affecting your environment, be it chores you have to complete or other responsibilities that keep you from having the environment you require to create well, find a balance. Maybe that means completing a few tasks and rewarding yourself with an hour of writing. Maybe that means taking your parents shopping and telling your friends you can’t hang out Friday night because you’ve got something else on (and that ‘something else’ is writing or drawing or sculpting). Sometimes creating the healthiest environment means saying no to the things you want to do because there are other things you have to do. Make sure you do allow yourself time with your friends and family and other hobbies too because that’s how you make sure you’re a healthy and well-rounded individual (which is part of your mental and personal environment that you also need to maintain) but don’t be afraid to be selfish now and again so you can prioritise yourself and your creativity.
There are absolutely going to be days where you’re more successful than on others. Creating is never a straightforward path, there are ups and downs and sometimes you’ll coast along too in a way that feels unproductive, but that is all part of the creative journey. There will be opportunities to ensure your environment caters to your creativity, and they may be fleeting and you may have to work hard at times to get there, but when you get there, you get to reward yourself by being creative, and, ultimately, that’s what it’s all about.
Robyn x
R. A. Howard 