IWGS: Non-writing Hobbies

This post is part of the monthly Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop. If you’d like to join, please click the link below.

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February 6 (optional!) question – Besides writing what other creative outlets do you have?

I sketch sometimes. I’m not very good at it. Out of necessity, I’ve been learning some digital art, mostly just whatever I think I need for a cover.

And I sing. Though I don’t do it as often as I once did, and I definitely don’t perform anymore, I sing.

Most of my non-writing creativity, though, goes into building and tweaking systems so that the household runs smoothly. Yup. Systems. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds now that I’ve typed it out.

Right now I’m using a 3×5 card file system, inspired by the book Sidetracked Home Executives, but tweaked to fit both home and writing. I use principles gleaned from the books Sink Reflections and Confessions of an Organized Housewife, but after about twenty years of running a home, I’ve learned that principles are all a person’s got if they hope to ever get on top of life. The details in all the books I mentioned have often been helpful to jumpstart my thinking, but they’ve always had to be modified. Thus, the non-writing creativity.

This has turned out to be great prep for running a business, by the way. Business is all about systems and organization.

If you want to look deeper into the subject, and don’t mind language that’ll make your eyes cross after a full day of work, I recommend the book An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald Weinberg. I will admit, I have not yet finished it. It was an Interlibrary Loan and I had to return it before I could. But what I have read has helped me in both system creation and has helped me see that yes, there’s a reason so many struggle with staying organized. I’m not an idiot or lazy.

And you? Outside of writing, where does your creativity come out to play?

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