You’re reading Soft Hobbies, a weekly newsletter for artists in all mediums, with a special focus on writers. Here you’ll find resources to nurture your creativity, advice to overcome perfectionism, and inspiration to make time for art. I’m Auzin, a Seattle-based fiction and poetry writer. Feel free to visit my author website or check out my socials.
Greetings to the 960 softies who subscribe to this newsletter! Thank you for being here.
“I think about that advice every time I sit down to write, so thank you.”
This summer, I took an 8-week writing course at Hugo House in Seattle. Near the end of the course, one of my classmates told me that something I said on the first day of class had stuck with her ever since. Joy suffused me when she thanked me for indirectly helping her on her writing journey.
My main goal with this newsletter is to help other writers and creative people get back to making things, especially for the fun of it. So to know that I’m carrying out that mission in real life too, without even trying? That felt really powerful. It felt like the beginnings of understanding my purpose on this earth.
The advice in question was this, somewhat paraphrased: “Whenever I sit down to write, I tell myself I just have to suffer through the first 10 minutes. It usually gets easier after that. But to get into that flow state, I have to experience those 10 minutes of struggling, and it sucks.”
I don’t hide the fact that writing is very difficult for me. My social calendar is full, I have a full-time job, I hobby-hop like a pro, impostor syndrome is an old standby, and procrastination is my bestie. Things happened in my early teen years that stunted my creative development, maybe permanently. Sometimes I like saying I’m a writer more than I like working on my craft.
Despite all this, I’m in a writing-adjacent career field, I’ve published two chapbooks of poetry, have read my work to live audiences, built this newsletter from nothing, been awarded a writing residency, and grown a small international network of writer friends who mean the world to me. This all happened because I sat down at various points and forced myself through the motions of writing until it didn’t feel forced anymore.
You just need to do it
If nobody believes in you, know that I do. Your environment created you, but it doesn’t determine what you decide to do in the future. Set a timer for 10 minute and make peace with that struggle. It will get better!!!
I promise things will get easier. Protect your quiet headspace—know that all the tasks you have to do will still be there for you afterwards because housework and admin tasks are unending, so just give yourself a bit of grace and time.
This week’s soft hobbies:
Went for a trail ride with Ethan! Being around horses makes me so happy.
Hosted two scary movie nights for our friends <3 we watched A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971) and Next of Kin (1982)!
I painted two tiny wooden doors I got from the Renaissance Faire back in August — and a birdhouse!
Softly yours,
Auzin
https://www.tiktok.com/@iamyoshi2.0/video/7436083563700718878?lang=en (great silly ticktock video about this topic.)
Commitment means you do it when you don't feel like it. It is painfully obvious that this can be way easier said than done. Just before I retired, I realized that for most of my life I felt like I was always forcing myself to do things, one thing after the other from the second I opened my eyes in the (way too early) morning- to be a good mom, to be a good wife, to succeed at my job, to love my neighbors and my friends, to care for my community. I rebelled against this constant forcing when I retired. Now I realize that, like many (most?) parts of our identities, it is a doubled edged sword. As I try to figure out what kind of life I will live in my last couple of decades, I want to harness that inner commitment to action in a gentler, quieter way, more focused on health and love and less on success and legacy.
My daughter is next to me when I was reading this and she really liked the green painting!!