Keep calm and carry on
“I’m totally lacking in inspiration,” I wrote to my friend Mo yesterday afternoon. “I don’t feel like taking photographs … I’m thinking of quitting my blog … je n’ai rien à dire.”
My phone was ringing within 10 minutes. It was Mo, calling me all the way from Paris to do a creative-crisis intervention.
Never mind that it was midnight in Paris, and that he had to find a phone booth to place his call. As a fellow artist, he could relate only too well to the anguish of feeling abandoned by one’s muse.
He gave me lots of great advice: Don’t do anything rash. Go for a walk. Get some fresh air. Don’t worry too much about inspiration … just carry on.
I thought of those words today when I saw the now-famous British poster in a colleague’s office.
Then, I saw a slightly different version in another colleague’s cubicle. He had discovered the Keep Calm and Carry On generator and he’d custom-made his own poster.
I followed suit and made one in honor of my friend Craig, who was on rather a talkative streak today. Fortunately Craig has a wonderful sense of humor and laughed out loud when I showed him my creation:
As simple (or as humorous) as the “carry on” sentiment may seem, it really is great advice—for photographers, for writers, for just getting through life.
Merci mille fois, Mo!
Back with more tomorrow.
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Filed under: Friends and family, On being creative, Paris, Photography, Psychology, Writing | 12 Comments
Tags: carry on, creative inspiration, Photography, postaday2011, writing
Do please “keep calm and carry on” I had a very low week a while ago when I hardly managed a post at all, I just read everyone elses blogs for a while. The smiles I found there helped me to pick myself up, brush myself off and go again.
Send my thanks to Mo, we would miss you if you decided to go away.
Aw … you’re too kind! Looking to others’ work for inspiration is also very good advice, and there’s certainly a lot of inspiration to be found among my blogger friends (like yourself — loved your post on haggling!). Thanks for your encouraging words. I assure you that a good brushing-off is already in progress. Have a lovely day, Hallysann … you’ve certainly brightened mine!
Bonjour Heather,
Bonjour Mr. Sunshine!
Mais, oh la la la … je viens de remarquer que j’ai oublié de te remercier ton beau cadeau aussi (la superbe photo de la Tour Eiffel que tu m’as envoyé). Tes photos sont toujours une énorme inspiration.
Prends soin de toi, et nous parlerons très tôt. Salut!
As Nina Simone so heartbreakingly sang, ‘ne me quittez pas’! I think we all have those moments (in fact I think I have more ‘moments’ than inspiration). Taking a break is something we all need to do sometimes. Lord knows, trying to do a post a day must be exhausting! I’ll be blogging a bit less for a few weeks as the summer holidays descend upon me, but I learned last summer that it’s OK for real life to take priority over blogging sometimes – and your reader figures might dip, but they will recover again, because you (yes, YOU) are always worth reading. And your photography is inspirational. We love you Heather!
You are always so kind … and you always make my day. Thank you so much, dancingbeastie — both for your kind words and for the much-needed reality check. I will dearly miss *your* posts, as well, if they come less often this summer. But that will make me treasure your writing and your intelligent wit all the more. Right bak at you with the blogger love!
Bonjour Heather,
” creative-crisis intervention ” ahahahahaha !!!
J’adore cette phrase, cette expression…
Elle m’a fait rire en relisant de façon plus posée ton billet.
MO and his M3 from Paris.
Je dois te faire des cartes de visite qui disent “Mo: Creative-crisis intervention service.” Je connais beaucoup d’écrivains qui ont besoin de tes services.
Thanks Hallysann…
Hello Mo …
You’re welcome
Self-doubt is my (almost) constant companion; and at its worst I spend much more time doubting, and wondering why I doubt, and wondering if I will ever stop doubting; and wondering how to stop doubting; than I do doing the things whose value I doubt. Is there any point to doing what I do? Is having a point really all that important? But doing nothing is not an option because doing nothing is giving up and giving up is the ultimate act of pointlessness. So when I get like this: bereft of inspiration,empty, without hope of replenishment, rather than do nothing I try to do something different – and that’s what I’ve been doing lately and will probably keep doing until the pointlessness of this endeavour drives me back to what I recently abandoned.
I adore your description of how circular self-doubt can be! Sometimes it can be distracting — or destructive, even — and it’s often a waste of time. But in small doses it can actually *help* the creative process by making us analyze our work and strive to improve on what we’re doing. As for your wandering off to try something different for a while: I can hardly wait to see the results of your creative self-analysis!