When is enough really enough?

Hello, Lydia Towsey here – poet/performer/producer/facilitator/co-ordinator/compere/student and…journalist!

That last one’s because of this by the way – the article you’re reading. So, how does it feel to be complicit in the most ridiculous list of self assumed titles, ever to cross an artistic resume?

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I meet someone who introduces themselves with more than two forwards slashes, I’m liable to have one of two responses. Either: ‘goodness me, they must be busy’  or  ‘idiot’. To be honest though, it’s more likely to be the latter.

I tend to think that when someone says they do, or can do everything, they’re usually lying. They’re lying because: a) they’re fishing for more work – ‘What do I do? What do you want?’ or b) they’re insecure about what they really do..’Don’t look at this, look at that, I can do everything!’. At this point words like ‘polymath’ or  ‘multi- talented’ tend to get bandied about.

So, how am I and people like me not ‘polymathic’ idiots? In my opinion, the answer lies in understanding the sector and then the way – it could be argued – work really gets made.

The Sector

We do not live in the age of Byron. Patrons do not loiter round corners, looking for writers to sponsor with their large amounts of money. As a result, to be say ‘a working poet’ now means to diversify. Yes, to write – and gig and publish – but these things, seriously, will not pay the council tax. Every poet I know of, small to major builds their income in a number of non-directly-creating-themselves, ways. From me, to poets like Jacob Sam Le Rose and Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, workshops, producing, directing, mentoring and other types of writing are all vital for the buying of bread.

The Blake Defence

Blake said – ‘you can’t write about life whilst looking through the cracks in the curtains’ (sic). Even if you follow the purist path and assume just that one noble title of ‘writer’ you still have to be getting about looking at stuff, for material to have any content. At this point you can either make like Byron and set about drinking and whoring (which don’t get me wrong, I do a fair amount of ) or – you can also get a proper job. Which is where yet another forward slash, slots into place, in my case a job co-ordinating arts for the local NHS Trust. However the idea of ‘abundance’ explains how work, then gives rise to more work…

The Abundance Principle

Bear with me while I light some incense:  Abundance, is the universe providing. You do something well and the universe notices and asks you to do more. Obviously you say yes to the universe’s kind offers of community and schools based workshops, producing and compering of shows, writings of potential articles and mentoring provision. You say yes to all the universe offers, because this is the one rule of abundance. Embrace everything. Say yes even if you’re not entirely sure you can do it – because it is better for life to be full and unfolding, then impoverished and mean. It’s more creative.

Recently, whilst at a MA lecture (15th forward slash, shimmies into place) I heard someone really nail this. The lecturer, David Almond (Author/Playwright/Screenplay/Libretto/Picture Book Author/Writer/Producer/Director – said:

‘One of the ways to become something, is by a series of courageous acts’

David ‘Abundance’ Almond – is  – the man from Del Monte. He has always said yes. He wears a sunny white, linen jacket and glows with an abundance of quietly confident energy. His latest venture, the screenplay of ‘Skeleg’ airs on Sky 1 this Easter Sunday.

So, doing loads is at worst understandable, but at best actually good. Except of course, it can still all go horribly wrong. If you take on loads and loads of stuff that’s creative but not your actual craft, you can be left drained of the energy to actually write – or -  with loads of energy, but no time to do the business, creatively speaking. And this is the argument for ‘Polymathic Idiot’ – in this case though, the idiot is more about being an idiot to yourself. To avoid disaster, you’ve got to know how you work best.

For a longtime I told myself that managing my work/art balance was all about structure: these days for this, these days for that. But it never worked. Monday would come round and I’d start off writing a funding application but then get distracted by Polar Bears, or furniture or Swiss/German names for places – and I’d be writing poetry. By Friday I’d be feeling all chaotic. Then, I discovered lists – courtesy of my friend the fish (Alison Dunn/IvoryFishbone/The Book Doctor).

Fish asked me to list what I was doing – not in order of neat category – but according to deadline. The result was a mixed run down of: writing poems and completing spreadsheets, writing book reviews and preparing project reports. Doing them all together, as they needed to be done, gave me a varied day that suited my more frenetic personality – and kept my energy up.

But everyone’s different. I know artists who work/work all week then take one full day to write. I know others that work in the day and write in the evening. The permutations are endless. It’s a personal thing. It can also change. Ultimately, I think the main challenge for the polymath is in knowing when enough is enough.

Being active is exciting and stimulating and pramatic and necessary, but there will always be a melt down point. So, though (I think) saying ‘yes’ is a good thing, saying ‘no’ is also important. Enough time needs to be left to do the craft – assuming of course that’s what you mostly want to do. Busy is interesting and interesting is good, but being quite busy/interesting is better.

So may you live in quite interesting times – Less of a curse, more of recipe for sensible forward slashing. Which I mean of course, in the most noble, purist and non-piddling-up-lamposts sense…

Supported by Writing East Midlands

Lydia Towsey is a poet and writer. She coordinates and often comperes the spoken word night WORD. When not doing poety things, she is Creative Arts Coordinator for her local NHS Trust. She is also studying towards an MA in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University.