Ashley Renee Smith posted in our Community Email:
This week’s theme is all about rediscovering your spark: Fuel the Fire.
The start of a new year often comes with excitement, but it can also bring fatigue—especially after the push of resolutions, planning, and getting back into routines. If you’re feeling creatively sluggish, you’re not alone. Sometimes, the answer isn’t to push harder; it’s to reconnect with what lights you up.
What’s the moment, the idea, the line of dialogue, or shot in your head that still gives you a jolt? That’s your ember. Let it remind you why you started. Let it guide you back to the joy in your craft.
This week, we’re not chasing productivity—we’re choosing purpose.
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What do you do to fuel your fire? How do you keep yourself going after the first couple weeks of a new year? Most resolutions end after 3 weeks to 2 months after making them. Burnout IS real. (I had burnout for years after writing 13 novels in 4 years. It was overwhelming on how bad I couldn't think.)
But it's amazingly important to care for ourselves. To not just rush and think, "New Year, watch me make this happen NOW!" It's about pacing, it's about due diligence, and it's about refilling our creative wells when we think we can't.
I've spoken before about The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I found so much that was useful for me. I know many others who have as well. It's a way of reminding ourselves that we have so much to offer, but if we don't people watch, indulge in our curiousities, we burn ourselves out and we reach the levels we want.
There are other books that deal with this issue too- Steven Pressfield's The War of Art, Rick Rubin's The Creative Act, and Phil Cousineau's Stoking the Creative Fires.
Here are some others:
Overwhelmed Writer Rescue by Colleen M. Story: Offers mental fitness techniques for writers and creatives feeling bogged down by deadlines.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert: A joyful exploration of living a creative life, reducing pressure, and embracing ideas.
The Burnout Journal for Artists and Creatives by A. L. Buehrer: A hands-on journal designed to work through creative exhaustion.
Avoiding Burnout: A Guide for Entrepreneurs, Artists, and Business Professionals by Randy C. Reeves II: A general guide for maintaining success.
One thing I do every day I write-- is my Pomodoro timer. Why? Because burnout is real and when you're neurodivergent and you get involved, hyperfocusing on the thing-- you tend to have burnout really badly unless you have external ways of helping you slow down and to be IN THE MOMENT to know when to stop. I've gone and written for 14 hours because I forgot to set my timer. More- I went to stand up and almost fell. So when I tell you the Pomodoro is my bestie when I write- it's not a joke.
It's also a great way to learn how to write and get in the moment without feeling-- blank page means failure. I'll tell you what I do- and you can adapt, create your own- it's whatever works best for yourself.
I open my document and review the last 5 pages written, any notes I may have made, check my outline to make sure I didn't go willy-nilly all over the place. (It happens. Oh it happens and sometimes it's glorious, sometimes not so much!) Once I get back into my headspace of what the story is and what it is to be- I start my timer. My timer is a lot longer than other people- probably because I've been developing my writing habit over-- years. Not months. So mine is set for 50 minutes. Then I give myself a 10 minute break to force myself out of my chair. I do this process for about 2-4 hours, at least 3-4 days a week.
BICHOK- we hear this often- Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard. But what they don't tell you is- BOOCWIO, Butt out of Chair, Walk It Out. You need to stretch- every hour. You need to put your eyes to look away from the screen for a while then back when it is time. What does this do? It eases the case for screen eyes- where you can't focus, your eyes are dry, and OMG, where you need to use the ZOOM feature on your computer. Using regular intervals of rest and writing also allows you something else- time to let your mind absorb what you've written, where it needs to go, and provides permission to think beyond the screen.
How does this keep your fuel burning? Honestly, it allows you to feel the flow of your story. It helps you to go deeper. And when I pomodoro- I do not look back. Not until the last 30 minutes of my writing session so I can make notes and small edits. The idea is to let your brain flow. If you use AI- you can definitely run it through the outline and make sure it identifies the areas you may want to concentrate on. My AI program and I are hand in hand. It keeps me on track so the ADHD aspect doesnt go, "WHAT IF...." when I am at a critical junction. The other thing the AI does- it keeps me honest about breaktime.
How else to fuel your fire-- read scripts, then watch the movies. I recently read Nuremburg and then last night watched the movie itself. Let me tell you- Wow. The script was so good. I loved the entire storyline, but then to see the movie itself- having been edited, cut for time, to increase the emotional bandwidth- it hit something deep within me. I have personal history to WWII. Family on both sides of the conflict. Family that believed it was doing the right thing and family that did the right thing. So, Nuremburg hit in a lot of ways. It also made me realise why I love writing, why I love historical dramas like this. Why it's important to keep things like this alive. It filled that creative well within me.
I am a huge proponent of watching movies. I have a movie subscription to the local theatre and can watch 4 movies a week. The price I pay for the subscription is the cost of two tickets a month. It adds value to my time for creative refilling and for keeping up on the market. If you don't have a regular movie night- whether at home or at the theatre- why not? If you're writing features or teleplays- it's necessary to understand how those scripts are built and why they exist the way they do. The Five act structure for a teleplay is invaluable to learn- even for features, especially for the sagging middle. It helps ramp up the tension necessary to keep yourself going to The End. For teleplays- it gets you to "Next on..."
Days off- they're imperative. I have 3 days a week I do not touch Final Draft or Arc Studio. Why? Because I need a break. I need to NOT write, but let my brain do its thing. It gives me a balance so I can let it mull over concepts that might not be working how I hoped. or figuring out a scene that I am thinking needs to be longer but everything is there already. Sometimes, it's giving yourself away time from the computer that helps you to breathe and your subconscious do the heavy lifting. I went out for karaoke with friends and about an hour in- I realised where I took a wrong turn in the script I was working on- I noted the information on how to fix it- and enjoyed my night out.
The 80/20 rule-- so, businesses use this and for artists- it's just as effective. 20% of your effort, affords 80% results. Where are you overworking? Where are you pushing so hard- you're not moving forward? Sometimes stepping back on the effort- looking at your routines, you can change it up and be more effective doing less. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the moment I let myself write without having bound myself up by techniques, without issues or worries, when I gave only what I needed to get the story down-- did things bloom.
Stage 32 even has an amazing blog article on it- https://www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-stop-creative-burnout-3-somatic-expe...
So tell me- What do you do to fuel your fire? How do you prevent burnout- especially when it's a new year or a new time for focusing?
That's one of the signs the script I'm working on is done, Kat Spencer.
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Kat Spencer I long for this feeling.......
I haven't been content about anything my entire adult life.