The Twenty Minute Creative Rule

Learning, exploring, growing, twenty minutes at the time...

Words from an earlier blog in August 2014: 

"After a time of really doubting how I could possibly go further within the experience of worsening symptoms, I had to peek into my bag of tricks again...  staying within my limits even if this seemed very, very tight.  Re-adjusting. Again. Finding new ways..."

It took a very long time to reach that point of acceptance again. I got there. During this time I started working on a bird sculpture. A freedom bird.  20 minutes at the time. It took me five months, but here she is. She is called my "Twenty minute Bird".

"Twenty Minute Bird" 44x30x20cm
 Corina Duyn 2014

The Twenty Minute Creative Rule became my motto ever since.

• For example, my Into the Light book in a box came about in these twenty minute sessions. Mostly only one session a day. 
• These daily blog pages are written twenty minutes at the time. I take a break and come back to it later.
• Sculptures and tapestries (see links below for images) were, and still are being created in the same way. One twenty minute session a day.

I set my clock for 18 minutes, so when the bell goes off, I know I have a few more minutes to finish what I am doing.

Yes, I do curse the bell at times!

And yes, it is hard to walk away from a creative project.

But.

I also know that if I don't stick to my plan, my body will retaliate.

I will be in more pain. I will get more exhausted over time. And I risk a relapse.

I know that by sticking to my time-schedule, I actually can produce more work in the long run.

Just in very small segments of time. But I have results to show for.

If I do not stick to my schedule, I get ill. And thus can not work. And thus am more aware of illness in my life. Aware of restrictions in my life. I can get annoyed or upset, with all the things I can not do, while I lie on the couch thinking about all I want to do.

Better to work with the 'beast' of illness, than to work against it.

AND of course

This twenty minute plan, and the results it can brings, 

is  NOT solely for those experiencing illness

EVERYONE

can find a few of those Twenty Minute slots in their week ...

PS. One of the challenges is to switch of the brain after twenty minutes, especially with a new creative project. For example how I can make the animated figures for my current project, how does filming work, etc.

Meditation helps. And writing down on a piece of paper or in my journal, how I would like my work to progress. This eases the space a new project can take up in my brain.

Further reading and links 

• The mentioned Blog post of August 2014
• Sculptures created twenty minutes at the time 
• Tapestries, created twenty minutes at the time
• Into the Light written and designed, twenty minutes at the time
• This week's "more than one kilo of books" book offer