Today is effectively the last day of summer for Katie and I, as she heads back to school tomorrow. It’s been great to be able to work together in the studio every day, bouncing ideas off each other as I write and she makes art. Yet it’s time for her to return to her other passion, teaching. My work and life routines will change to mirror hers; I’ll do more cooking, more immersive writing, and I’ll spend more time working alone. She’ll have to shift her creative life to evenings and weekends, around the demands of her day job.
One of my ongoing projects for the summer has been sorting out what I want to do with this blog. I’ve been seeking the through line, the overarching theme to things. Thinking about the coming shift and the things we’ll need to adjust, I realized that nearly everything I write about here is geared toward being a professional “creative person” and the lifestyle that goes along with that. A number of regular readers are also writers, game designers, artists, crafters, and other sorts of creators. Some engage in creative endeavors for fun, others for a living. There are people who read this blog for other, more specific reasons, of course, but the way I write and the topics I choose all feed into how I manage my life as a professional creative.
Productivity is key when you’re getting paid by the amount of output you create. You need to know how to create more with less in order to pay the bills, and how to maintain a work-life balance so you don’t burn yourself out. A lot of my past life hacking posts boil down to ways I can make a 40-hour work week pay off. So I will continue to write about life hacking and productivity.
Food is a creative outlet, and a financial concern for “starving artists”. Much of my food writing has been around eating well for less money, and cooking simple but creative dishes with basic ingredients. So I will continue to write about food, nutrition, and “grocery store finance”.
Writing and publishing are what I do, so I have some opinions there. I haven’t offer a lot of advice publicly because I’m still muddling through and finding my way, but I have consulted with folks offline. I’m going to begin sharing some of the things I’ve learned about making a modest living stringing words together.
Entertainment is a source of inspiration. I think all creative people can point to artists, writers, actors, and other creators that either lured them into seeking a creative lifestyle, or whose work informs their own. I’ve written about those things in the past, and will continue to do so, but with more focus.
So thanks for following me on this journey to discover what I already knew. Is there anything particular you’d like me to write about, or any aspect of the creative life you have questions about?
Copyright 2012 Berin Kinsman. All Rights Reserved.
