2.16 The Hummingbird Dilemna

 2.16 The Hummingbird Dilemna

 This may take a while to loop back to writing, but trust me, I'll get there.

A while ago I read an article about the different types of creatives. I've seen the divide between two types of creatives in my family; the Jackhammer and the Hummingbird are almost exactly what my sister and I are like for pursuing hobbies and interests.
She is the sort who delves in deep; she doesn't spread around all the latest gadgets or newest fads, she holds still and true to a couple of pursuits in a focused fashion. I always admired that focus, as it is definitely something I lack in my own pursuits (with a few exceptions, like writing)  and I used to think my 'easily bored' nature was causing a lot of lost enjoyment in creative endeavours.

Since learning to embrace that side of myself, I've found I'm in a lot more control of my creative outlets.

The trouble with darting from hobby to hobby...

Parents can probably relate to this problem; one week Johnny wants to be a cowboy, the next he's obsessed with anything and everything dinosaur related.

Image:The Dark Knight, DC Database

About a year ago, I was sure my new hobby was copic colouring. I was positive I was going to fill colour-in-books full of beautiful works. I bought expensive fantasy themed colour-in books and spent almost $100 on markers, imported from overseas in a set.

I proceeded to enjoy my newfound craft for about two months before I put it all down and never touched it again. This, for all you folk who are horrified by such a waste of money, is probably the cheaper side of the hobbies I've started and abandoned over the years.
I can only imagine how my mother must have felt during my teen years; the sheer amount of money put into hobbies and creative adventures must have made her weep some days.
I recently became obsessed with polymer clay art. Specifically I decided, I wanted to make a cool fixture for a GM screen for table-top games. This includes making the screen from scratch, naturally, and creating a cool cover with the clay.
Polymer clay, as any struggling artist who works with the stuff can tell you, is expensive as F&@%# It's now been about three months. My project got so far as me spraypainting some old cardboard and making a ball with the clay, trying to roll it out, becoming hopelessly lost, realizing I was never actually very good at clay modelling in art class at any point, and then 'benching' it to figure out an easy idea later.

These two projects were both after I learned to 'control' my problem better. When I started realizing that I like dipping my toes into a lot of ponds, fingers in dozens of pies, but I'm not going to swim or eat everything I dabble in.

Before that, I got into sewing.

I was really good at sewing as a kid, my mother showed me how to thread her old machine, gave me lessons and I loved it as a kid. In high-school I took a few terms in the home-ecconomics classes in early years. It's been almost 15 years since high-school and I decided I ought to take it up again. $300 on a good sewing machine (it was on special due to a store closing, honestly I got it at a steal!) And over the last... 3 years, about $600+ on fabric.
I've made a vest, and a T tunic dress. (turns out, if you don't nuture a talent, it tends to vanish... or sometimes, maybe you weren't all that good at it in the first place)

But I also know the signs of creative fatigue...

Early to jump in and early to jump out have their advantages, as about 7 years ago, I was able to console my sister about her jackhammer addiction that was, perhaps, going to hurt more if she didn't pull out. The problem was an MMO. Before that, neither she nor I had ever really gotten into MMOs. Part of it was bad internet and shitty computers on my part, and my sister didn't regard them as 'fun.'
I had found a good computer (ish) and free-to-play. The magical words that made lots of people try MMOs and also taught them that some companies are cold, blackhearted behemoths sucking money from their pockets with a vacuum if you'll let them.

Shaiya Online: A FTP PTW MMORPG

We got into the game, She, being well-off financially, fell into what is now affectionately called the Pay-to-compete/win sargoth pit. In the space of about 2 years, she'd spent about $10k on the game. And it was getting worse.
I, being a hummingbird, had jumped ship four times by the time I heard her lamenting the game. In my wisdom, being knowledgeable in the dark void of throwing money at a creative pursuit and not even following it, I said, 'you can't get the money back, consider if time paid for the fun you had, but if you're not having fun anymore, cut your losses and move on.'
She did, and was immediately happier not burning the cash in the black bowels of 'totally not gambling random chance micro-transaction hell'
For once, being a hummingbird was useful.

Understanding your creative imperative has a huge benefit in writing...

Hummingbird creatives have a tendency to start a lot of stuff we never finish. We have a lot of crap in our drawers of half-done and roughly explored ideas. A lot of projects started and then abandoned down wells lassie won't find them. We are likely to jump genres often and finishing projects is sort of an alien concept.

A lot of writers have a similar collection of thoughts and ideas and half-written stories that never made it past 5k or 10k or 20k. Hummingbirds probably have the most.

Last year, at my first ever NaNoWriMo meetup, I met a writing jackhammer. She had four-abouts stories that she would re-write and re-write every single year, every different way she could until they were perfect and exact and she was done. I stared in morbid horror at such an idea.

Revising something 3-4 times is a pretty big commitment for me.

I recently saw someone tweeting they were on revision number 13.

And I was suddenly glad that I was this scatter-brained, multi-pie-sticking flake.

Because I have the ability to walk away from a project. I can finish a book, however good or bad, and be free of it. I have the ability to do 2-3 revisions and think 'this is good, this is ready for others' and while I agonize and wonder and could run back and re-write every single scene and chapter from the ground up... I can also walk away.

Being a hummingbird means I have to learn to finish what I start. My urge to get through a project and on to the next one is what makes me finish a novel in 6 months. It's what lets me scream my way through NaNo every year; that this state of writing will soon pass, that once the novel is birthed, I can rest the burning creative torches. I don't need the same torches burning for 10 years, I need to burn through one stick of it at a time. Discipline is what I need.

The act of controlling my creative drive, of understanding my tendencies to try and escape mid-project has given me 2 novels and short-story since last year. Without that focus, I'd have nothing to show for all the hours and hours and hours of writing I do all the time.

There's a lesson to be learned from both sides of the creative type that fall into these categories.  Finding a happy middle-ground is what works best for everyone.