Official Summer Newsletter Time

On taking breaks and having looser constraints.

This used to be a sauna! At Artipelag in Stockholm.

Hello friends-

I left for Sweden and Norway this week, a trip that’s part work, part vacation, part annual ritual. Someone asked me before leaving, “are you going to do the newsletter while you’re gone?”

I didn’t have a good answer to that, and just waffled back and forth between no and yes. “No” because I knew I needed a break, “yes” because I actually do think it’s fun to write this newsletter. “No” because I don’t just want to crank newsletters out for the sake of sending out more content, “yes” because I have some assorted things in the pipeline to send out. “No” because it’s nice to just focus on creative endeavors for myself, “yes” because it’s really enjoyable to share creative endeavors!

In fact, I even struggled with whether to write a “taking a summer break!” announcement newsletter. This isn’t a magazine or a newspaper or a media company—it’s a newsletter written by a single person. If it’s going to adhere to any schedule, it’s going to adhere to mine.

Twice a year—around summer and winter—I feel like I start to get repetitive, getting back up on my soapbox about how breaks and vacation are essential.

I stretch as tall as I can and shout even louder on this soap box this time of year, since I think it’s important to remember that in other parts of the world taking a vacation is a bit more of a given. I am currently hanging out with a friend in Sweden who is in the midst of her 5-week summer break, much like many people here. Yet another reminder of how dismal U.S. vacation policy is. No days off is an incredibly terrible business strategy (not to mention approach to life).

A favorite meme.

Of course, if you work for yourself, the question of vacation time is a little different.

When I miss a deadline, there’s no one to get me in trouble, no one to be held accountable to except myself. There’s also no one to give me time off, no one to ask permission for time away. If I want a vacation, I have to set the boundaries.

In many ways, I feel like I need to continually stake that claim publicly. Not just for myself, but for every single person who needs a reminder that taking a break shouldn’t be considered a luxury, but instead, part of running a sustainable business. Part of living a life.

This claim might feel repetitive, but we need repetition in order to solidify things. If you’re a writer, you don’t write one sentence, one time and call it a day. If you’re a visual artist you don’t draw one thing, one time and go on to the utmost success. You come back to the same topics and themes over and over again, continually refining and improving.

It’s the same with the important lessons about society and culture too—we have to repeat these things until they become a part of our vocabulary, so that we can better advocate for making the systemic changes required.

Taking a break is not a luxury. U.S. vacation policy is dismal, and so is our work culture. We cannot produce all the time. People need vacation. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It's going to take more than a single mention of the above, much like it’s going to take more than a single mention that I want universal healthcare so that we could all remove the underlying sense of anxiety that comes with wondering if you’ll go bankrupt if an unexpected health issue arises. But that’s an essay for another time.

Taking a break is essential, but creative breaks when creativity is your profession aren’t always straightforward.

Reading the Swedish newspaper this morning, I came across an interview with the author David Norlin who just came out with the year’s longest Swedish novel. Here’s a little section that stuck out, so I’m translating it for you:

“I don’t feel well when I don’t get to create things, which sometimes means that I get wrapped up in small creative projects like writing songs, painting a series. Now I’m training myself to turn off all the creative impulses that don’t have to do with writing,” he told the journalist. Anyone who has worked on a big creative project may know this feeling—the need to hone your creative focus.

“It sounds like you’re addicted?” the journalist asked.

“Absolutely,” responded Norlin, “It’s like a drug rush. It makes me feel good.”

I don’t know that I need to train myself to turn my creative impulses entirely off, but I do find that at least keeping them at bay for short stints of time makes them all the more rich when you come back to them. But if creating is a core part of your identity, of how you express yourself, how you experience the world—if it simply makes you feel good—it’s hard to keep it at bay for long.

Perhaps it’s more of a question of exploring what the creative impulses look like when the demand of production is off the table.

I lived in France for several years, and August was always the off month. The month where the pace slowed. I love that energy, as it sets you up for la rentrée in such a different way. It offers the pause, the reset. But that doesn’t mean things have to slow to a total halt either. I think we all know that creative process thrives on movement—the question is how much movement and what kind?

I guess what I am saying is, as July comes to a close and I look ahead to August, what am I doing here? Not entirely sure, but maybe August is just the party month at Creative Fuel? A little less formulaic, a little more all over the place.

Will it arrive in your inbox? Who’s to say! Maybe? Yes? Sometimes? I’m just going to say to myself, throw caution to the wind, do what you want! This is the proverbial crayon scribble, the lively dinner party to talk through ideas, the running through the sprinkler.

This is my official proclamation of transitioning into Official Summer Newsletter Time. Like island time, it will be on its own schedule: looser, fewer constraints.

Maybe some of you need a reminder to do the same.

Consider this your official permission slip.

-Anna

painting by Tal R

• My shop is going on summer break at the end of the month! “Anna how are you running a shop while you’re out of the country?” Well my husband is currently in charge of the shipping (thank you Luc!) and I guess this is what we mean when we say “family business.” Get your orders in by July 31st.

• Loved discovering above sunflower painting by Danish artist Tal R this week.

• Madelen Möllard’s paintings.

---

Upcoming Creative Fuel Workshops + Events

• No Create+Engage session in August because we’re taking a little summer break but I’ll be back here next week with some announcements of what’s ahead! If you really want to plan ahead you can sign up for our October session on October 16th. Trust us: you’re going to need this creative energy right before the election.

• The Fall 2024 session of DIVE writing group is now open. Gather together with facilitator

  Kerri Anne
  and other likeminded souls and make fall a season of writing. I know I know, it feels far away, but think of it like an early present to yourself. More info + sign up.

Do you enjoy Creative Fuel? You can support this work by becoming a paid subscriber. You can also order something in my shop, attend one of my workshops or retreats, or buy one of my books. Or simply share this newsletter with a friend!