On impulse I thought I might participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I got 700 words my first night and overall felt good about it. The story was shaping up to focus on living with depression and the power of sewing and knitting to climb out. But then Nov 2, Nov 3, and Nov 4 all passed without writing any words. And then I thought about all of the other half-finished projects I have going, and all of the blog posts I am “almost done with”.
NaNoWriMo is going to be in my future. I simply continue to forget that 2016 was supposed to be a year that I stepped back and focused on fewer creative projects, yet still meaningful.
Good luck to the many NaNoWriMo participants out there. I won’t hold myself to any daily word count, but to write in solidarity with you, I will at least work on blog posts a little bit every day.
May your ideas flow freely and your hands not cramp.
The Fabric Alchemist 
Good for you for acknowledging that you should not take on more when you have so much already. I find I do that same thing. Be it sewing or home projects or life changes. I start too many things only to leave them half finished and sitting idle while I start the next thing. It’s a viscous cycle that I am also working to end.
It seems like it should be counterintuitive to reject creative impulses. One perspective is not all creative projects need to finish. (Just like I’m learning to make peace with the fact that I start more books than I finish.) This could result in wasted materials when sewing or knitting is concerned. We often don’t know what will “stick” until we’ve worked on it a bit. But at the same time, too many projects clutters my creative chi. I saw an editorial recently about “letting go” of creative projects. I think that the pressure I put on myself to finish everything that I start also could keep me from taking up a new project that might have more long term enjoyment and fulfillment. Does that make sense?
That totally makes sense! I’ve struggled with that issue also. I feel bad when projects go half or mostly done but I feel like I cannot finish them no matter how hard I try and trying to force myself to finish those before moving onto other things stifles my creative process.