What Helped Me Most This Week

I’m trying to do something creative every day. I’m documenting it here. I’ve changed up the format a little bit, so if you don’t always look at the blog, check it out again!

This week, I was terribly inconsistent with posting, and at this point, I don’t think I can blame the new job! I’m working on it. But, the two days I did manage to document what I was doing, I shifted books in the stacks while listening to the Magnus Archives, wrote a micro called “Plant Food,” revised a micro called “Sunday School,” and read a really excellent article about genAI and libraries. Of all of that, the thing that helped my creativity the most this past week was shifting the books and listening to a podcast.

I realize this is a little jargon-y, perhaps, so here’s a quick explanation. Shifting refers to moving books on the shelves, either because you need to consolidate them or you have the room to spread them out. Fortunately, I’m getting to spread our books out, taking them off the very bottom shelves (which kill my back) and moving them higher up so they’re easier to reach. This is happening in our ‘stack’ within the larger collection of stacks at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library—these are floors and floors of super-long shelving units made of metal. We have more space than we realized, so I’m letting the books spread out to fill our whole row, versus cramming them in the first couple of shelves. The downside of this is that it’s very tedious and very dusty (I usually wear a mask when I’m in there for long periods of time). The bonus is, I get to listen to a podcast.

The Magnus Archives is an excellent horror podcast that has actually really helped to inspire Forgotten Holler, my novel-in-progress. I started re-listening to it recently because I’ve been so sick of my novel, and I thought if I went back to some of what inspired it, I might get excited again. I don’t know if that’s working quite yet, but it has generally made me very excited about horror again, and because of that, I’m thinking a bit about the eco-horror elements of my novel and where I might be able to elevate those moments.

I’m a big fan of passive activities that allow me to pay more attention to what I’m listening to than the task—whether that’s a podcast or music. Working in a traditional branch, I wasn’t able to do that because all of those tedious tasks happened with the public around, so I couldn’t have earbuds in (though I certainly knew people who did that, even though they weren’t supposed to). Being in this new job, where a lot of my work happens in private, has given me such a wonderful opportunity to get back into that space of absorbing stories and music while still getting my work done. I always knew that my job affected my creativity, but it’s been sort of unbelievable just how much has changed with what is technically a lateral move within the library. So, I suppose if you’re currently questioning your job, go ahead and embrace that impulse—sometimes a little change can make all the difference.

Want to see some of the micros I’ve been writing? Consider supporting me on Patreon.

So, that’s what actually helped my creativity, and also helped me generally, the most this week.

Love and gratitude, as always.