On Creativity: Juliet Wilson on Writing, Crafting and Procraftination

Today, I’m happy to share poet and artist Juliet Wilson’s thoughts On Creativity.


Writing, Crafting and Procraftination

One of Juliet's poetry windchimes

I was working on my novel this morning and quite quickly got stuck. The story seemed to have got into a rut of nothing much significant happening. I stared at the computer screen for a while then gave up. Time to do some crafting!

So I sat down and picked up my latest sewing project. Once I'd reminded myself of what I was to do next, I found my mind wandering to my novel. My fingers sewed away while my brain came up with ideas that have now transformed the scene I was struggling with into a vibrant and essential part of the story (well, we can all dream, can't we!).

It was also that same session of crafting that unblocked my ideas for what specifically I was going to write in this guest post!

I love writing and I love crafting and the two can work together in perfect harmony. Crafting gives me a screen break to avoid eye-strain and backache and keeps my fingers busy while my mind is free to wander over plot twists or word choices.

I also like experimenting with bringing the two together. I recently made some poetry wind-chimes that were exhibited in the Forest Café in Edinburgh. I'm currently making poetry collages to sell in my Crafty Green Poet Etsy shop.

The problem is though, with all the crafting I do, am I suffering from procraftination (the act of crafting when you should be writing)? It's easy to recognise that my crafting has a positive effect on my writing, but would I actually write more if I didn't craft?

What do you think, readers? How do you procraftinate? Is it helpful to you or not?

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